When is Free Speech really Hate-Speech
After a several week long social media campaign, Internet security company Cloudflare has effectively blocked infamous internet forum kiwifarms, a site dedicated to targeted harassment and stalking. Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said he was initially reluctant to do so, fearing increased action from the users and stating that the site would likely find new infrastructure or its users would simply move to different platforms, but was forced to as posts on the site became increasingly extreme.
This raises questions about how hate-speech, harassment and extremism are fostered online by sites branding themselves as ‘pro Free-speech’, what risks they pose and whether deplatforming them is an effective solution, or simply entrenches these communities further.