Cloudflare terminating 8chan's service tonight

[Admiral X]

To his credit, I'm not sure that Admiral is saying "Cloudflare MUST host 8chan!" His claim seems to vacillate between "Cloudflare is being hypocritical and has shown itself to not be real believer in the principles of the First Amendment!" at it's strongest and "This is kind of a dick move to people who paid for a service" at it's weakest.

Pretty much.

But why anyone in this day and age would be surprised that a business would take principled stands on anything is beyond me. Cloudflare exists to make money. Being associated with 8chan is not conducive to that goal at the moment. Of course 8chan gets kicked to the curb. The glory of the market at work. And even the Leftists will cheer! (for now, anyway)

The thing is, when they had the stance that they were neutral, that gave them a good rep from free speech advocates like myself, and also afforded them some protection because in addition to 8chan and the Daily Stormer, they were also hosting several piracy sites like The Pirate Bay. So by deciding to drop they have shown that they are picking and choosing, and by continuing to host those piracy sites, they've shown they're supporting them rather than being strictly neutral. So basically they cut off their nose to spite their face. Which is the only real positive to come out of this. That and maybe a lack of business from anyone new since they basically admitted that they weren't going to respect the privacy of any of their clients in their statement about 8chan. So the adage about getting woke and going broke may prove true in the long run, which I can only hope.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

That sounds weird. Tell me where this analogy breaks down.

You have two friends or people you associate with. One talks about how they agree with the mass shooters and applaud their efforts and talks with their own friends about the attack setups with regard to proficiency and effectiveness (w/ever I don't know, I don't do this kind of stuff). The other talks about pirating software or selling drugs or something, some decidedly victimless crime against the law (not meth or heroin, but marijuana or maybe shrooms). So you feel obligated to hang out with either both or neither of these people due to a principle of anybody being able to express themselves?

[PerrySimm]

Is 8chan the Tons-O-Suds laundromat, where everyone brings over their dirty laundry, or is it the shady biker bar at the edge of town, where 'everyone knows' terrible folks hang out though no one can quite prove it? And which case would justify the local roads department showing up with a bulldozer and demolishing the driveway?

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

And which case would justify the local roads department showing up with a bulldozer and demolishing the driveway?

The roads are handled by the city government, and I don't think either case would warrant that, that being the case.

[clearspira]

To his credit, I'm not sure that Admiral is saying "Cloudflare MUST host 8chan!" His claim seems to vacillate between "Cloudflare is being hypocritical and has shown itself to not be real believer in the principles of the First Amendment!" at it's strongest and "This is kind of a dick move to people who paid for a service" at it's weakest.

Pretty much.

But why anyone in this day and age would be surprised that a business would take principled stands on anything is beyond me. Cloudflare exists to make money. Being associated with 8chan is not conducive to that goal at the moment. Of course 8chan gets kicked to the curb. The glory of the market at work. And even the Leftists will cheer! (for now, anyway)

The thing is, when they had the stance that they were neutral, that gave them a good rep from free speech advocates like myself, and also afforded them some protection because in addition to 8chan and the Daily Stormer, they were also hosting several piracy sites like The Pirate Bay. So by deciding to drop they have shown that they are picking and choosing, and by continuing to host those piracy sites, they've shown they're supporting them rather than being strictly neutral. So basically they cut off their nose to spite their face. Which is the only real positive to come out of this. That and maybe a lack of business from anyone new since they basically admitted that they weren't going to respect the privacy of any of their clients in their statement about 8chan. So the adage about getting woke and going broke may prove true in the long run, which I can only hope.

They haven't cut their nose off at all. "Free speech advocates" like you have very little power or influence. Why do you think corporations aren't interested in preserving it anymore?

[Admiral X]

Sure they have. They're currently getting sued for those pirate websites they decided were still worth supporting, and a judge recently refused to allow the dollar amount to be limited. Oh, and they've burned a bridge with any new potential client that was thinking of using them. Only 6 years ago they made a name for themselves as being free speech advocates themselves. "A website is speech, not a bomb," they said. Of course, given that the FBI recently outed themselves as agent provocateurs on 8chan, I wonder if they might have been involved in this change of tune.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

But why anyone in this day and age would expect that a business would take principled stands on anything is beyond me. Businesses do not have principles - they're not supposed to. Cloudflare exists to make money. Being associated with 8chan is not conducive to that goal at the moment. Of course 8chan gets kicked to the curb. The glory of the market at work. And even the Leftists will cheer! (for now, anyway)

Plenty of people said that Nike only endorsed Kaepernick to make money. I really doubt they wanted to alienate reactionary fans though.

[LittleRaven]

Plenty of people said that Nike only endorsed Kaepernick to make money. I really doubt they wanted to alienate reactionary fans though.

Of course Nike only wants to make money. Even if, by some strange alignment, Nike leadership really became genuinely woke and decided to use their power, influence and money to make the world a better place....they would promptly be sued into oblivion by their own shareholders and replaced.

Of course, companies aren't omniscient, so sometimes they mess up. Gillette didn't produce "We Believe: The Best Men Can Be" because they really give a crap about toxic masculinity. They did it because they wanted to increase their market share with millennial men, and they figured this was the best way to do that. (Narrator: It wasn't.) I'm sure Nike's marketing folks ran the numbers and decided that backing Kaepernick enhanced the brand more than it hurt it. (I honestly don't know if they were right, but Nike has a fantastic marketing team, so betting against them is never smart.)

Corporations are people, but only in so far as legal fictions are required. They have no core beliefs, no principles, no souls - and they certainly don't give a rat's behind about free speech.

[Admiral X]

Wokeness doesn't care about making money. Gillette has already lost money over their Super Bowl ad and the CEO has said she's proud of the fact. Marvel comics has really taken a nosedive in sales, but all they can do is screech autisticly at the fans they alienated, but persist in ruining that brand because they can only continue to follow their ideology. If a business was really trying to court the "woke" crowd, the joke would be on them, because that crowd isn't going to buy their shit, they'll just feel better about their ideology being adopted by a company.

[Madner Kami]

Not wanting to make an extra topic about it, but I felt I should quote two things I saw today.
A)

My least liked 90s reboot is: The blaming video games for gun-violence media offensives.

B)

I can't verify the McCarthy-quote right now, so take it with a grain of salt. But that is not the main thing there anyways. What is the main thing is:
Video games are not the problem. Music is not the problem. TV is not the problem. Books are not the problem. I'd take a hard guess and say: 8Chan is not the problem either, because the twats that used to radicalize themselves there, will find other forums. I'll take another hard guess and say: Something in US-society is the problem.