12 votes

Cloudflare is providing services to at least seven designated foreign terrorist organizations and militant groups

8 comments

  1. [6]
    cfabbro
    Link
    This is the kind of crap that honestly make me question my support of the EFF. They do so much good regarding online privacy, net neutrality, right to repair, etc... but their absolutism regarding...

    This is the kind of crap that honestly make me question my support of the EFF. They do so much good regarding online privacy, net neutrality, right to repair, etc... but their absolutism regarding the first amendment and free speech is honestly too much for me at times. I don't care if foreign terrorist organizations "also provide humanitarian assistance to their constituents" on top of their other unsavory and often lethal activities. The Yakuza, various Drug Cartels and Mafia organizations often do that in order to generate goodwill and attempt to shield themselves too, but those "good" actions don't absolve them of the crimes they also regularly commit, and IMO nor should they insulate those that provide material support to them like Cloudflare is.

    8 votes
    1. [4]
      Devin
      Link Parent
      The war on a word. If these are criminals, pursue them. Prosecute them for their crimes. Don't jail the mailman for delivering letters. The US post office is probably the world's largest drug...

      The war on a word. If these are criminals, pursue them. Prosecute them for their crimes. Don't jail the mailman for delivering letters.

      The US post office is probably the world's largest drug trafficker if you want to think of it in those terms.

      15 votes
      1. [2]
        cfabbro
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        Those are not comparable situations at all. Your local mailman and even the US post office have no reasonable way to determine the contents of every packages they deliver. Whereas Cloudflare is...

        Those are not comparable situations at all. Your local mailman and even the US post office have no reasonable way to determine the contents of every packages they deliver. Whereas Cloudflare is absolutely capable of determining who they are providing services for, especially in these cases where it has been explicitly pointed out to them by investigative journalists going back years now, meaning they are deliberately making a choice to continue to support them... and Mr. Prince has even directly admitted that is the case.

        7 votes
        1. Devin
          Link Parent
          Sounds simple. Breaking the law.

          Sounds simple. Breaking the law.

          2 votes
      2. Thewayukian
        Link Parent
        That reminds me of that Scrooge McDuck story where we learn that every magic item used by Magica De Spell was made by Scrooge because ''she has to find it somewhere, I can at least make a profit...

        That reminds me of that Scrooge McDuck story where we learn that every magic item used by Magica De Spell was made by Scrooge because ''she has to find it somewhere, I can at least make a profit of it''

        2 votes
    2. Akir
      Link Parent
      Please don't take this comment as an endorsement for any group mentioned. The world is full of violence and injustice; an "ends justify the means" mindset may not be correct (or even moral in some...

      Please don't take this comment as an endorsement for any group mentioned.

      The world is full of violence and injustice; an "ends justify the means" mindset may not be correct (or even moral in some cases), but it's incredibly common.

      As much as we don't like to admit it, drug cartels, mafias, and gangs all exist because they fill some sort of societal need that governments refuse to fulfill or acknowledge. People aren't born gang members; they are built to become them. Gangs show up when a city's police are negligent or tyranical. Cartels show up when governments demonize drug usage (because, like it or not, drug prohabition does not work).

      "Terrorist organization" is just a politically charged alternative to the term "gang". And although they are typically the most damaging ones, that doesn't mean that they are completely unwanted by the people around them. You can't grow as large as ISIS did without popular support.

      In a perfect world (or heck, even in just a slightly better one) people could achieve all of their goals with pacifism. But our current reality is not so kind. Sometimes, violence is the only way to make progress. When I was in school I learned that the path towards racial equality in this country came about because Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was able to rally up popular support. It's only now that I've seen things from other perspectives that I realize how much blood was spilled for the cause. When it comes down to it, every soldier believes themselves to be freedom fighters.

      4 votes
  2. Kiloku
    Link
    No one's asking Cloudflare to be arbiter of anything. The arbiter is the law to which Cloudflare is subjected. They just have to follow that law.

    “We try to be neutral and not insert ourselves too much as the arbiter of what’s allowed to be online,”

    No one's asking Cloudflare to be arbiter of anything. The arbiter is the law to which Cloudflare is subjected. They just have to follow that law.

    6 votes
  3. Eva
    Link
    Remember that time when Cloudflare banned the white supremacist guy and everyone lost their shit? Feel like we're gonna see retribution now. RIP.

    Remember that time when Cloudflare banned the white supremacist guy and everyone lost their shit?

    Feel like we're gonna see retribution now. RIP.

    4 votes