News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Terminating Service for 8Chan by mikeash on Sunday August 04, 2019 @10:35PM (#20610675)
A utility is typically a natural monopoly providing some sort of essential service. Cloudflare is neither.
Re:Terminating Service for 8Chan by sytelus on Sunday August 04, 2019 @11:03PM (#20610827)
What happens if all other providers refuse you as well on same basis? What if Comcast refuse you to provide any internet service because they don't like your views on net neutrality?
Re:Terminating Service for 8Chan by kelnos on Monday August 05, 2019 @03:29AM (#20612047)
In my personal opinion, the size of "all others" matters.

If you have a monopolistic ISP that refuses to provide service to you because they don't like your content, and they're your only option, then that's a problem.

If you have multiple tens of CDN providers and they all don't want to carry your content, then perhaps you should really take a look at your content and have a hard think about why it isn't wanted.

And regardless, a CDN isn't necessary to host a website. A CDN certainly makes it easier to achieve lower-latency global reach, and is useful in helping you weather certain types of attacks on your infrastructure, but they're by no means required. And there are other ways to achieve those goals.

Re:Terminating Service for 8Chan by mikeash on Monday August 05, 2019 @01:46PM (#20616325)
Exactly, with similarity being a second important thing. For example, maybe you’re lucky enough to have three ISPs to choose from, but they’re all big American companies with nearly identical corporate cultures, and odds are good that if one of them kicks you off, the others will too.

Hosting a site, on the other hand, has a multitude of very different providers to choose from. Even if you manage to get banned from every hosting provider in the US, ship a server to a colo in Kyrgyzstan or whatever, and keep right on going.

Re:Terminating Service for 8Chan by mikeash on Sunday August 04, 2019 @11:06PM (#20610857)
Cloudflare isn’t an ISP so “all other providers” doesn’t make sense, and Comcast isn’t a competitor.
Re:Terminating Service for 8Chan by King-Aaron on Sunday August 04, 2019 @11:04PM (#20610843)
I guess then you'd have to reflect on the kind of content you're promoting if the entire internet hates you for it.
Re:Terminating Service for 8Chan by jquery on Sunday August 04, 2019 @11:49PM (#20611121)
A few key decision makers in key roles in IT infrastructure do not represent the entire internet.
Re:Terminating Service for 8Chan by anigbrowl on Monday August 05, 2019 @02:41AM (#20611812)
If you can't get anyone to host your content that's a big enough sample for me.
Re:Terminating Service for 8Chan by sytelus on Monday August 05, 2019 @06:31AM (#20612880)
You obviously haven't seen group-think in action.
Re:Terminating Service for 8Chan by busymom0 on Sunday August 04, 2019 @10:44PM (#20610734)
Telecom companies like AT&T aren't providing "essential service". Being able to call/text someone is not a "essential service". Yet they are not supposed to ban people because they are merely the carrier.
Re:Terminating Service for 8Chan by 2bitencryption on Sunday August 04, 2019 @11:24PM (#20610958)
> Telecom companies like AT&T aren't providing "essential service".

...according to Title II, yes, they absolutely are.

https://newnetworks.com/titleii/

Re:Terminating Service for 8Chan by snowwrestler on Sunday August 04, 2019 @11:49PM (#20611117)
The FCC just ruled that Internet service is not a Title II service.
Re:Terminating Service for 8Chan by orpheline on Sunday August 04, 2019 @11:52PM (#20611136)
It's not Internet service that's essential: it's phone service - the ability to make emergency phone calls.
Re:Terminating Service for 8Chan by mikeash on Sunday August 04, 2019 @11:03PM (#20610832)
Being able to call people is pretty essential in the modern world. That’s why these laws exist and why governments have put so much effort into making these services available to everyone.

The phone company is required to serve you even if they disagree with you not because of some high-minded ideas about free speech, but because it’s considered really important for people to have phone service.