I find myself increasingly frustrated with the state of the internet, where consolidation is on the rise, and there's a growing desire to limit rights related to issues like "hate speech," "terrorism," and "child abuse."
To illustrate this point, I'd like to share the story of Kiwi Farms, as I've been a long-time member:
Back in the early 2000s, the internet was a much more innocent place, where people primarily used it as a platform for blogging. It attracted individuals with various obscure and deviant sexual fetishes, obsessions with cartoons, self-delusions, and more. As a result, people began congregating on gossip sites to discuss those who were socially inept or quirky in their own ways. One of the most infamous figures in this context is Chris Chan, a 40-year-old autistic man. His life, criminal behavior, stalking of women, and purported "lesbianism" in an attempt to engage with LGBTQ+ women have garnered more attention to chronicle his history than even George Washington or Abraham Lincoln.
Kiwi Farms emerged from this environment as a forum dedicated to discussing such unconventional individuals. However, a significant turning point occurred when a thread was created about a transgender woman who streamed video games and faced numerous issues. Further investigation revealed that she was running a grooming Discord server, encouraging young children to send explicit images as "transgender progress pics." Additionally, it came to light that she was involved in an international syndicate that sold homemade hormones to minors.
Naturally, she did not take kindly to this exposure. She resorted to faking swatting incidents and claimed harassment from members of the forum. She reached out to various people, including a former Google server developer who was also transgender but had a history of sexual assault, referring to them as "consent accidents." Consequently, the website was removed from the internet, payment processors froze their services, and accounts were seized. You might argue that companies can choose whom they serve, but on the internet, there's a unique challenge. The entire infrastructure is controlled by a few companies that communicate with each other. Many of these companies employ individuals on Twitter who have large followings and happen to be those same transgender women. These individuals dislike having their criminal behavior documented. Can you see where this is headed?
Now, there is an impending lawsuit against one of these companies, a case that could redefine the neutrality of the internet. Unfortunately, very few are discussing it because it revolves around a site that exposed some unsavory individuals, individuals who are now shielded due to their gender or political affiliations by those in power.
This is the same reason why i got banned out of alternatehistoryforum; i pointed out the keffals affair and what she was doing, when the site was dicussed as being a nazi hive of stalkers and bullies who drive people to suicide.