Cloudflare, swearing it is not a joke, have launched a censored DNS product that out the gate blocks LGBTQ support and aid sites as well as sex education resources.
(They have unblocked some of these now in response to complaints, but many remain inaccessible via their filter)
(They have unblocked some of these now in response to complaints, but many remain inaccessible via their filter)
Organizations that I've tested and found to be blocked: Stonewall, LGBT Foundation, Outright, Mermaids, Broken Rainbow, Transgender Law Center, Lambda Legal andn a dozen or so sex ed sites
But it really isn't about individual orgs, it's about blocking an entire category of resources as "adult content" purely to perpetuate the idea that anything not cis/het/dyadic is harmful.
@Cloudflare perpetuating censorship that literally kills thousands every year.
@Cloudflare perpetuating censorship that literally kills thousands every year.
You would think that an organization like @Cloudflare that spent weeks and agonizing over a decision to block literal nazis from it's platform (and then minutes deciding to throw sex workers under the bus) would be more considerate when getting into the censorship game.
They are also seem to be blocking intersex resource sites and groups like PFLAG and HRC
Did literally anyone at Cloudflare review this before they launched it?
Did literally anyone at Cloudflare review this before they launched it?
An example of a site that is not blocked, Stormfront
Cloudflare are painting this as a "mistake" but it is evident that this is a systemic issue - if they had *anyone* remotely invested in not blocking resources for marginalized communities review this the issues would have been immediately obvious.
This isn't even a novel issue. Censors have been blocking resources for queer youth for as long as there have been internet filter lists. It's a known issue. Cloudflare have spent years blogging about the dangers of censorship and overblocking. They branded themselves with it.
To have them turn around and offer a product which overblocks practically every major queer resource site, sex education site and health information sites shouldn't be treated as a minor stumble. It's a revealing of a systemic failure.
Every queer person who is remotely involved in any kind of support work knows people who were saved by online resources and they know people who no longer with us because they were stuck in places that censor that kind of content.
That's why I'm so angry about this.
That's why I'm so angry about this.
Cloudflare were very quick to unfilter the first few sites, but there is a very long tail - and will likely always be one because it is clear they didn't actually think about this prior to launch - they didn't even co-launch with an error reporting form.
Just to make the point that this is targeted against queer people and not at broad categories: Grindr and Her (dating apps focused on LGBT) are filtered, Tinder, Bumble and OkCupid are not filtered.
They didn't block "dating apps" as a category they only blocked "lgbt dating apps" because the filtering is politicized and about enforcing a perceived normality, not about protecting children.
If @Cloudflare had even an inkling of quality assurance they would have caught these issues in the *design* of the system - these biases can't be patched away - the product is defective, unethical and harmful -by design-.
Another category with heavy bias: News
Cloudflare filters lgbt focused news sites like Advocate and PinkNews.
This list will be endless.
Cloudflare filters lgbt focused news sites like Advocate and PinkNews.
This list will be endless.
An update: some of the sites I mentioned about have been unfiltered, but there are still a ridiculous amounts of sites related to LGBT advocacy, news, health & support that remain blocked - this can't be fixed by whitelisting every complaint.
There is now an article about this on @TheRegister and a new statement from @Cloudflare
theregister.co.uk/2020/04/01/clo…
theregister.co.uk/2020/04/01/clo…
