Cloudflare announces the termination of service to 8Chan

Cloudflare is an online infrastructure service that helps websites mitigate DDoS attacks. After a fatal white nationalist shooting incident in El Paso, Texas on the weekend, Cloudflare announced the termination of its service on the anonymous map discussion site 8chan.

“Cloudflare Schriftzug und Wolken-Logo, vergrößert dargestellt unter einer Lupe”by verchmarco is licensed under CC BY 2.0

The owner of 8chan has been told that their service will be revoked and the site may be facing potential DDoS attacks that cause it to be completely shut down. Cloudflare will officially close the service at midnight on Monday, Pacific time. It is unclear whether the owner of 8chan has found a new security service to replace Cloudflare.

Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince wrote in a blog post:

“The mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio are horrific tragedies. In the case of the El Paso shooting, the suspected terrorist gunman appears to have been inspired by the forum website known as 8chan. Based on evidence we’ve seen, it appears that he posted a screed to the site immediately before beginning his terrifying attack on the El Paso Walmart killing 20 people.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Nearly the same thing happened on 8chan before the terror attack in Christchurch, New Zealand. The El Paso shooter specifically referenced the Christchurch incident and appears to have been inspired by the largely unmoderated discussions on 8chan which glorified the previous massacre. In a separate tragedy, the suspected killer in the Poway, California synagogue shooting also posted a hate-filled “open letter” on 8chan. 8chan has repeatedly proven itself to be a cesspool of hate.”

Cloudflare has previously discontinued services for other sites that contain hate speech, the most famous of which is the Daily Stormer, a Holocaust denial, neo-Nazi.

Via: theverge