DDoS protection provider DDoS-Guard has followed Cloudflare in terminating its services for controversial forum Kiwi Farms.
After analyzing the content of the website, notorious for trolling marginalized social groups, DDoS-Guard disallowed the site from using its DDoS protection service.
Kiwi Farms forum administrators activated DDoS-Guard protection for their domain on September 4, 2022, following Cloudflare’s decision to block the forum and revoke the right to use its security services.
Kiwi Farms fight to stay online
The forum managed to come back online for a brief moment recently using a Chinese-administered domain, with protection from Vancouver-based web hosting provider VanwaTech.
The company has a history of helping controversial websites such as 8kun (formally known as 8chan) and the neo-Nazi site, the Daily Stormer. Both sites were blocked by Cloudflare in the past.
Nick Lim, founder and CEO of VanwaTech told TechRadar Pro that the company maintains a firm commitment to its role as a neutral provider of internet services and not an internet censor.
"We don't provide registry, hosting services, or domain registration for Kiwi Farms - they simply use our content delivery network to protect their website from cyber attacks like any other customer," he added.
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When attempting to visit the Kiwi Farms forum, it appears that the site is blocked, with the message: “Sorry, kiwifarms.ru has been blocked by your network administrator.”
Despite the controversy, a wider conversation about a permanent solution for websites of this nature continues, particularly in regards to keeping trolling sites offline.
DDoS-Guard says despite the fact it wasn’t the company’s duty to moderate content on websites that use its services, it didn’t wait for an official notification before terminating Kiwi Farms’ access to its protection service.
“We don’t have to decide whether a website violates the law. We only can restrict access to the customer’s website if it is reasonable. For example, if there’s the official notice from the court,” the company said in a blog post.
“We have received multiple complaints from users saying that it violates the DDoS Guard Acceptable Use Policy.”
DDoS-Guard thanked those that brought the incident to its attention.
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