WATCH: The Big-Tech Company Supporting Hate
A recent report from the ADL exposes the role of big-tech company Cloudflare in supporting websites that have been linked to violent extremism.
Watching people die has never been my idea of an emotionally fulfilling way to pass the time; in fact, the notion itself nearly brings me to the point of nausea.
Sadly, far too many people—many of them minors seeking shocking experiences—have voluntarily fallen into the dark world of the website WatchPeopleDie.
The website is exactly as its name implies. As described by the ADL, WatchPeopleDie (WPD) is “a forum where users can post and view real images and videos of violence, including murders, torture, rape, executions, beheadings, suicides, dismemberments, accidents and animal killings.”
WatchPeopleDie also provides a means for circulating white supremacist and antisemitic material, including manifestos left behind by various mass killers.
Researchers have discovered that school shooters Solomon Henderson (from Antioch High School in Nashville) and Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow (Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin) were both radicalized on the website and apparently developed an online relationship with each other.
Peruse the disturbing website for just a few minutes, and it quickly becomes clear that becoming numb to the horror of violence is part of the allure.
“I want to become desensitized so that in the event of witnessing a violent death I can be the calm and collected one who calls for help instead of panicking—and it’s working so far,” a user recently posted on a WPD forum.
As evidence of its desensitizing effect, the person added, “A bit after I became active on here, my grandmother died and I didn’t feel much of anything.”
WatchPeopleDie claims some five million registered users.
Keeping the lights on
WatchPeopleDie and similar websites that cater to violent extremism are able to keep the lights on thanks to Cloudflare, a publicly traded corporation based in San Francisco, according to a recent report from the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) and the Center for Technology and Society (CTS).
Here is how the ADL report describes the role of the high-tech company:
Cloudflare ensures these spaces maintain their online presence through a broad suite of services, including its widely used Content Delivery Network (CDN), which speeds up website load times by routing visitor traffic to the closest global caching server,” the report notes. Cloudflare’s analytics service lets webmasters measure traffic, while its domain registrar manages domain records that function as a phonebook for internet users. Cloudflare also provides a cybersecurity shield that protects sites from digital attacks. Together, these services help keep websites accessible, fast, and secure from disruptions that would otherwise knock them offline.
The report is part of a campaign by the ADL to try to force Cloudflare and other high-tech firms to pull the plug on WatchPeopleDie and similar websites known for fueling school shootings and other acts of terror across America.
“Cloudflare has failed to meaningfully curtail the proliferation of content designed to stoke hate and violence,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director, in a written statement.
“The Company’s claim that it merely serves as a ‘pass-through’ utility is no excuse. By providing the infrastructure that enables hateful messages to reach and influence a wide audience, we believe the Company has failed in its risk oversight responsibility.”
A news release from ADL continues:
Cloudflare’s record demonstrates that it can and does block content when it determines that such content poses an unacceptable risk. However, it appears that these situations have generally occurred only after public crisis points, rather than pursuant to a clear, consistently applied risk framework.
For example, Cloudflare terminated services to:
The Daily Stormer, but only after the site publicly claimed Cloudflare “secretly supported” its ideology;
8chan, but only after the site was linked to three mass shootings in five months, including in El Paso, Texas;
Kiwi Farms, but only after what Cloudflare’s Chief Executive Officer, Matthew Prince, called an “unprecedented emergency and immediate threat to human life.” In each case, the company framed its decision as an exceptional act rather than the application of a consistent policy.
Cloudflare did not respond to my request for comment.
Watch my interview above with Daniel Kelley, senior director for the ADL Center for Technology and Society.
Great work, Phil!