News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:ISPs Should Not Police Online Speech – No Matter How Awfu... by richbell on Tuesday August 29, 2023 @11:35PM (#37317366)
I would also like to share what I discovered while researching the Kiwi Farms last year, when shit hit the fan.

The claim that Kiwi Farms is dedicated to driving transpeople to suicide was started by the ex-founders of Trans LifeLine, Nina Chaubal and Greta Gustava (at least based on the evidence I've been able to find). Kiwi Farms helped expose that Nina and Greta were embezzling money and that Trans LifeLine almost never picked up the phones, which ultimately resulted in them being ousted by their board of directors[0]. (As an aside, Kiwi Farms has also helped expose zoophiles and get them arrested.)

Around the time Kiwi Farms started looking into Trans LifeLine and documentjng their lack of service, a trans woman, Elizabeth, commited suicide after her calls were unanswered. Nina and Greta exploited Elizabeth's suicide and tried to get Kiwi Farms shut down[1]. Elizabeth's widow publicly stated that Kiwi Farms was not to blame and asked them to stop using her death for their own gain. They refused and blocked Elizabeth's widow [2].

A close friend of theirs, who I'm not sure if I can name, got involved and started using her @google.com email to pressure companies into dropping Kiwi Farms. They are still the main person campaigning against Kiwi Farms to this day.

[0] https://archive.ph/m1sfd

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20190412085911/https://www.faceb... (this link is finicky and doesn't load reliably)

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/asktransgender/comments/5d5qgb/tran...

Re:ISPs Should Not Police Online Speech – No Matter How Awfu... by habinero on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @02:34AM (#37318431)
^ Kiwifarmer astroturfing. None of this is true.

Trans people are their favorite victims and have been for years.

The reasons for this are partially right wing culture wars, partially homophobia, but mostly because trans people are easy targets.

They're often extremely vulnerable to being doxxed, since er they may not be out to everyone. They tend to be young, emotionally vulnerable, and without a safety net.

Kiwis pick targets who can't fight back because they think it's funny.

Re:ISPs Should Not Police Online Speech – No Matter How Awfu... by chonkerz on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @02:57AM (#37318575)
kiwifarms admin admitted to this too. he says that he seeks out mentally vulnerable people to harass because they make funny reactions when tormented. he calls them "lolcows". the first victim of the site was a severely autistic person. kiwifarms was originally called "CWCki Forums" after the first victim's initials
Re:ISPs Should Not Police Online Speech – No Matter How Awfu... by Akronymus on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @03:56AM (#37318933)
> kiwifarms admin admitted to this too.

I have a hard time finding that, could you link me to it/a screenshot of it?

Re:ISPs Should Not Police Online Speech – No Matter How Awfu... by chonkerz on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:46PM (#37328848)
It's on the kiwifarms homepage

>Lolcows are people with eccentric behavior who can be "milked" for entertainment.

the "milking" is harassment

Re:ISPs Should Not Police Online Speech – No Matter How Awfu... by Akronymus on Friday September 01, 2023 @07:01AM (#37349165)
I took the milking as collecting info/discussing it, rather than harassment, as that is more in line with their stated policy of no contanct.
Re:ISPs Should Not Police Online Speech – No Matter How Awfu... by TazeTSchnitzel on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @03:17AM (#37318685)
> The claim that Kiwi Farms is dedicated to driving transpeople to suicide was started by [specific people]

Nice strawman. There are a huge number of different people who have independently arrived at the conclusion that KF exists to bully queer and autistic people, often to suicide, because it's a consistent pattern; the idea that this concept can be attributed to just one or a handful of people is wilfully misleading. Anyone who's been online long enough in the right circles will eventually know of multiple people who have been targets of the site, and it's obvious what those targets have in common.

Re:ISPs Should Not Police Online Speech – No Matter How Awfu... by richbell on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @06:42AM (#37319985)
> There are a huge number of different people who have independently arrived at the conclusion that KF exists to bully queer and autistic people, often to suicide, because it's a consistent pattern

It's a convenient thing to accuse them of considering that it's already "widely accepted". The same person involved in this was also behind #DropKiwiFarms. They've been trying to blame Kiwi Farms for numerous suicides since 2016, and the "victim count" changes every time the story is told.

Re:ISPs Should Not Police Online Speech – No Matter How Awfu... by chonkerz on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:16PM (#37328364)
"we have victims on both sides" is not the W you think it is