Thread by @TarletonG

Thread, to a reporter, about #Cloudflare dropping 8chan: what effect would it likely have, and in which layers of the Net should accountability live? Short version: Decisions matter even if they don’t have a simple effect, and our ideas about responsibility are changing. 1/16

I think in the short term, both guesses are probably right: CloudFlare’s decision certainly doesn’t end 8chan, it will probably rematerialize in some form elsewhere; AND there will probably be some attrition of users, who either don’t find the new site or don’t want to. 2/16

But I do think we can get too focused on whether a single decision will or will not have a definitive effect, and we overlook the cumulative and the symbolic value of a decision like Cloudflare’s. 3/16

It mattered when Cloudflare removed Daily Stormer, and that Matthew Prince talked about his reasoning and reservations. This decision will matter too. 4/16

We’re having a society-wide debate about what responsibility a site has for facilitating + profiting from online communities that are corrosive to the public; Cloudflare’s decision itself weighs in on that debate. 5/16

It also gives cover to other webhosting companies to make their own decision about 8chan, and other sites like it. It says, as Prince did in, that even with a commitment to wide-ranging speech, this is something else entirely. 6/16

If we as a society support the First Amendment, if we don’t want to state to silence speech on our behalf, then this is EXACTLY how society goes about protecting the public sphere - by having some people say, “this is too corrosive for me to tolerate.” 7/16

If enough people disagree with Cloudflare, 8chan will find a happy home somewhere else. If we as a society are in agreement that this is a step too far, and we don’t want government to summarily make the decision for us, we have to reject 8chan in the ways available to us. 8/16

Now, we had settled on an approach that generally treated Cloudflare and other hosting services as below, as more “infrastructural,” than the social media platforms. That may be shifting. 9/16

ISPs, web hosts, search, cloud computing enjoyed not only the protections of the law, but a broad presumption that, like the telco companies, they should act as the “conduit” for Internet traffic, that they shouldn’t intervene at all. 10/16

But that’s always been a myth: web hosts have ALWAYS reserved the right to kick clients off. It’s just become more visible and politicized in the last few years, as we’ve begun to worry, deeply, about the circulation of hate, misinformation, conspiracy, and extremism. 11/16

So Prince may feel reluctant about having this power, and that’s good, but he has always had it. It’s only that, until very recently, it’s been safer ground to claim to be just an intermediary, to do nothing, to avoid appearing to intervene. 12/16

Our thinking on which layers of the Internet should be accountable seems to be shifting, and it’s right to revisit this. But don’t start with the assumption that web hosts and cloud computing services were once neutral, and are becoming something else. Not the case. 13/16

The unavoidable fact is, every point on the network can be, and has always been, a point where judgments can be made and policies can be imposed; it’s just that the costs + benefits of doing so are changing, in eyes of the law and of the public. 14/16

So, yes, Cloudflare’s decision to drop 8chan is subjective, it is motivated by public and political concerns, and probably a little self-interest. But that doesn’t make it a bad thing. 15/16

Decisions like Cloudflare’s and the debate we have around it, may be all that’s available to us, if we’re committed to free speech AND still have the right to say that some speech is so harmful that it deserves no place. 16/16