By The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Web-hosting provider DDoS-Guard said Monday that it had stopped providing its services to Kiwi Farms, becoming the second provider in two days to abandon the stalking and harassment site and leaving it inaccessible on the public internet.
DDoS-Guard said it doesn’t have to decide whether sites violate laws, and it normally only restricts access to a site in cases such as receiving a court order to do so. The company said it acted this time, however, after receiving “multiple” complaints.
“Having analyzed the content of the site, we decided on the termination of DDoS protection services” for a version of the Kiwi Farms site with a Russian .ru domain name, the company said. The .ru site had been running intermittently after Cloudfare cut off services.
Kiwi Farms was previously cut off from services by Cloudfare. Both firms acted after Canadian transgender Twitch streamer Clara Sorrenti launched an online campaign against the site.
Cloudfare CEO Matthew Prince said he was troubled by the decision, but that escalating targeted threats on the site created an “immediate threat to human life” that his company had never seen.
The site was created and operated by Joshua Conner Moon, 29, and became a forum for harassment of social media figures, especially transgender people, feminists and people of color.
Sorrenti, who goes by “Keffals” online, fled her home in Canada last month, only to have online stalkers find her in Northern Ireland and step up their harassment.
On Monday, Sorrenti tweeted that she would have a final update on the campaign against Kiwi Farms.
“We won,” she said.
It was unclear whether Wiki Farms would try to find another service provider or whether its users might begin gathering on a new forum.
