KF had connectivity issues for a couple days over the holidays, reportedly because a few tier-1s had simultaneously blackholed the routes. There were unsupported rumors that this was due to threats as the parent comment mentions; I have no idea if the initial claims behind the rumors were speculation or entirely in jest or a result of non-public information.

If by "couple days" you mean "many months", sure... The whole thing is thoroughly documented by the man running the site, as well as the handful of psychopaths at the center of the campaign. They actually came very close to doing some very serious damage to the way the Internet works, not only with this harassment campaign to get the KF AS delinked - but also get the IP block revoked. For legal speech.

Groups have used this tactic before to great effect, it's quite versatile and it's destressing that it's a relatively unknown vector to the public at large. I think it's important to understand how decisions are made when so many people readily defer to authority in ascertaining what's right or wrong. Targeted "protest", to the right individuals, can affect anything from website availability to what's considered an illness. Realistically nothing is off the table by directing pressure to the right individuals with a bit of patience and determination. What worries me most is not the lack of resolve by people facing such pressure, but that they seem to sweep it under the rug and in short order people don't realize it played a role in the decision making process at all.

There are a lot of things that makes recent attacks so disconcerting, and unlike anything else. At the top of the list: debanking. Mastercard is heavily involved in these campaigns, and runs a program designed to leverage their position in order to influence the policies and actions of any company touched by their payment processing network (which is basically everyone). This program started out as a proto-ESG-index back before the acronym had pierced the public consciousness, and it has morphed into what it now is: the nuclear option to be used on companies that don't fold to harassment campaigns. Rumor has it that this is what changed Cloudflare's mind about not policing free speech when a storm of coordinated news articles started demanding the deplatforming of KF. It was amazing, literally over night the CEO went from releasing a lengthy statement in defense of free speech - to the next day banning them and lying about the rationale (something about incitement to violence). The other thing making this such a big problem is the specific protected class behind it. You may have noticed that I haven't even hinted what these people are about, and that is because of how eagerly SV will censor any frank discussion of these activists' illegal activities. I've never even heard of one being prosecuted, despite the ample evidence. That is directly related to the Cloudflare/KF deplatforming campaign, because these people were very frustrated by their inability to DDoS the site - and they've repeated the same tactic on any DDoS mitigation service KF paid for.

If anyone needs some backstory - the focal point was this thread on Kiwi Farms about a Twitch streamer named Keffals:

http://kiwifarms.net/threads/keffals-clara-sorrenti-lucas-jo...

(via Tor: http://kiwifarmsaaf4t2h7gc3dfc5ojhmqruw2nit3uejrpiagrxeuxiyx...)

Since then there has been a concerted, sustained effort to knock the site offline by trans activists who don't like having their activities exposed, documented and archived for all to see.

It's working, for two reasons. Firstly, because many of these people have worked in big tech for a long time and have connections, and there is a lot of sympathy to the overall cause by other people who work in tech and have decision-making power about who can connect to what.

Secondly, because they are making personal threats and DDoS attacks, and no-one with any power is stopping them, or even attempting to hold them to account.

Current status regarding Kiwi Farms' disconnection by various Tier 1 ISPs:

http://kiwifarms.net/threads/total-retard-war.141231/

(via Tor: http://kiwifarmsaaf4t2h7gc3dfc5ojhmqruw2nit3uejrpiagrxeuxiyx...)

The main instigator behind all this, other than Keffals, is another transgender named Liz Fong-Jones:

http://kiwifarms.net/threads/liz-fong-jones-elliot-william-f...

(via Tor: http://kiwifarmsaaf4t2h7gc3dfc5ojhmqruw2nit3uejrpiagrxeuxiyx...)

Null, the operator of Kiwi Farms, has an interesting thread on the censorship resistance of various different service providers they have used:

https://kiwifarms.net/threads/nulls-tier-list-for-internet-s...

(via Tor: https://kiwifarmsaaf4t2h7gc3dfc5ojhmqruw2nit3uejrpiagrxeuxiy...)

I fully expect this comment to get flagged and killed; they don't like it being talked about here either.