Yesterday, YNOT reported on a decision made by Cloudflare to terminate services with Switter.at, the social media site designed to offer a sex worker-friendly alternative to Twitter and other mainstream social media platforms in light of SESTA/FOSTA.
According to Assembly Four, the group which developed Switter, they received an email from Cloudflare’s legal department informing them of the termination.
“Cloudflare has been made aware that your site is in violation of our published Terms of Service,” the email stated. “Pursuant to our published policy, Cloudflare will terminate service to your website. Cloudflare will terminate your service for switter{.}at by disabling our authoritative DNS.”
As reported by Motherboard/VICE, Cloudflare’s general counsel, Doug Kramer, stated the move was “related to our attempts to understand FOSTA,
“We have been traditionally very open about what we do and our roles as an internet infrastructure company, and the steps we take to both comply with the law and our legal obligations – but also provide security and protection, let the internet flourish and support our goals of building a better internet,” Kramer said.
However. Cloudflare continues to wantonly do business with other unseemly entities, a practice that indicates a somewhat uneven regard for the law and/or even-handed business practices.
Our sister site, YNOT Cam, took to Twitter to get a more developed explanation from Takedown Piracy’s Nate Glass.
2. @cloudflare offers *judgement free* protection — which includes stuff like ThePirateBay (largest piracy site in the world), https://t.co/BKssjwSIKb (largest stolen/hacked celeb pics/vids site in the world) and numerous email spam operations.
— YNOT Cam (@YNOT_Cam) April 20, 2018
3. @cloudflare has terminated its services with https://t.co/g00Xoth4iN — because it's ok for people to spam you, steal your work, and post non-consensual erotic images, but a sex work community crosses the line.
— YNOT Cam (@YNOT_Cam) April 20, 2018
Glass added in what Takedown Piracy could do to help manage the situation:
https://twitter.com/tdpnate/status/987344007909916672
In sum, not much. The blatant hypocrisy guiding this move is truly galling, even for the likes of Cloudflare. Thanks, Cloudflare!
Image via Sunny Tait.
