Terminating Service for 8Chan • Hacker News Board

Re: Terminating Service for 8Chan

#71

Post by cambalache » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 2:14 AM UTC

Who is going to deplatform Facebook and Twitter? After all plenty of shooters have used them too. Before the usual: " But 8chan is a cesspool of bla bla" Probably it is, but, either the users are doing something ilegal in the site and you close it if the owners refuse to comply with a legal request, or they are not doing anything illegal so they have to be left alone.

For the "Free Speech is freedom from government prohibition and this is a private company" brigade. I dont want to live in a world where colored people is being prohibited to enter a night venue, or gay people cannot order a simple cake, or YES, dudes who think their race is more superior being able to blabber their nonsense online as long as it is nothing illegal. After all similar sentiments are expressed (veiled or openly) from many powerful spheres and nobody does nothing.

Re: Terminating Service for 8Chan

#72

Post by losvedir » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 2:14 AM UTC

Does this start to open CloudFlare up to legal issues for all the sites they host? I was under the impression they were more of an infrastructure/utility type service, and weren't liable for what took place, the same way gun manufacturers aren't liable for shootings or gas stations for car crashes.

But if now they're manually deciding who goes on their network and who doesn't, it seems like they're more responsible for everything else that's on it that they allow.

They're a private company and I support them choosing to do business with whoever they want, but I thought there was some sort of legal distinction if they were totally agnostic to what travels over their wires. Is that not the case?

Re: Terminating Service for 8Chan

#73

Post by cududa » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 2:14 AM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #51

selectodude wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but now they can be DDoS’d.

Punishable as a federal crime (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or 18 U.S.C. §1030).

Yeah a prosecutor is definitely going to try that case lol

Re: Terminating Service for 8Chan

#74

Post by manigandham » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 2:15 AM UTC

This decision is yet another distraction. It's attempting to treat an ephemeral symptom in a rapidly evolving landscape of digital identity and communications. Things are only getting faster, easier, more connected, more distributed, and more encrypted. There is no going back.

Until we collectively acknowledge that it's real humans behind these actions and create modern ways to identify and prevent them, a DDoS/CDN company turning off their service is about the most inconsequential change of all. Making some internet comments go away solves nothing.

Re: Terminating Service for 8Chan

#75

Post by acdha » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 2:15 AM UTC

taneq wrote: post #35

whatshisface wrote: post #2

Another way to view this would be, "Cloudflare ends support for mass shooting early warning system."

“Trying to destroy an ant nest with a leaf blower”, like when Reddit shut down some of their more cesspooly subs.

There was a study on that which suggests that pithy quips might not be the best source of advice:

http://comp.social.gatech.edu/papers/cscw18-chand-hate.pdf

Re: Terminating Service for 8Chan

#76

Post by mehrdadn » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 2:15 AM UTC

Why is CloudFlare having to deal with this rather than their ISP?

Re: Terminating Service for 8Chan

#77

Post by betacat » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 2:15 AM UTC

doctorpangloss wrote: post #18

krackers wrote: post #3

I thought they had just stated they weren't going to end suport: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20607945

Yes, but Cloudflare needs talented engineers, and talented engineers don’t sign up to serve clients like 8chan. Software doesn’t run on one person’s contrarian politics.

It's unfortunately easy to find sociopathic engineers.

Re: Terminating Service for 8Chan

#78

Post by s_Hogg » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 2:16 AM UTC

Seems to me like a lot of the arguments against why this shouldn't happen or isn't effective basically amount to some sort of whatabouttery. Well done Cloudflare, I hope their next host takes the same attitude or can be induced to.

Re: Terminating Service for 8Chan

#79

Post by Iv » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 2:16 AM UTC

Tor's onion service will always there to provide hosting to the less popular ideas. The censorship-resistant network is there. Make sure to give it some love.

Last time I checked, people were discussing how to murder, exchanging nazi manifestos and conspiracy theories. I was looking for anarchist discussions but I actually ended up having these on reddit.

Don't get fooled by the current positioning of IT firms, it only depends on a fistful of people who will transmit their power to their biological offspring, no matter how fucked up they are.

Re: Terminating Service for 8Chan

#80

Post by briantakita » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 2:17 AM UTC

cromwellian wrote: post #36

jrockway wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the NSA reads all of our internet traffic but they don't pick up on this?

Did you read the killer's message? It amounted to "Tomorrows the day!" With no actionable information otherwise.

Perhaps the authorities will closely monitor people who make obscure & dramatic claims online. There's probably an effective scoring system & NLP in place anyways. We think "social credit" only applies to China...