No, your server, shops and restaurants are private spaces. The Internet, the park and the street are public spaces. The questionable cause you speak of is the right to express views in public spaces.

DDoS is the internet equivalent of a mob censoring public speech. Proxies like cloudflare are the equivalent of the police protecting the right to speak, no matter the view.

Remember that these principles, which date to the Enlightenment, work for all views and have benefited the civil rights, antiwar, suffragist, environment and other movements immeasurably.

You do realize that "the internet" is a giant web of mostly private servers right? And therefor not a public space. It's not a park or a street.

But even if it was. You must get a permit just like in real life. Which a private entity doesn't have to grant you. Because you know... personal freedom.

Streets are a giant network of mostly private destinations. The streets themselves are public, and the public has a right to access. Cloudflare is operating on the streets level, not the destination level.

Cloudflare got taken over by the government? That’s surely a surprise to everyone and big news...

We have regulations about ISP filtering (you know, net neutrality?) but they certainly don’t apply to Cloudflare!

Cloudflare is not bound by regulations, but that's not the issue. DDoS is a relatively new phenomenon and so no regulations exist.

The question is, should the Internet be a free and open public forum or not? Should we permit mobs to knock legal servers off the Internet?

That would seem to run counter to the idea of an open internet embodied in net neutrality, upon which certain laws have been developed and passed over the years. It would be a mistake to merely look at the current laws on the books without grasping the underlying general principles.

What? How can you be so wrong in such few words?

Please don't do this here. Rather, if you have a substantive point, give us the information, so we can all learn. Conversely, if you don't have a substantive point it's best to abstain.

This is blatantly wrong. Streets are a giant network of publically owned land which is why they are public. Seriously. What are you even talking about?

Servers aren't necessarily the most expensive part of Internet - it's the last mile. Last mile isn't privately owned in Europe.

Not to mention access to Internet is considered a basic right in some countries.

So grand parent makes compelling case, just not in US laws.