Kiwi Farms is an internet forum founded in 2013 by Joshua Conner Moon, who operates it under the online pseudonym Null and through his company Lolcow LLC.[1][2] The platform functions as a community dedicated to observing, discussing, and archiving the public online activities of individuals exhibiting eccentric, obsessive, or self-destructive behaviors, often categorized as "lolcows"—a portmanteau of "LOL" and "cow" denoting sources of involuntary amusement through irrational or attention-seeking conduct.[3][4] Originating as a successor to the CWCki Forums, which focused on a specific internet personality, it has expanded to cover a broad spectrum of online figures across topics like internet drama, fringe subcultures, and abnormal psychology. The site's content emphasizes empirical documentation of verifiable public actions rather than unsubstantiated speculation, with users compiling timelines, screenshots, and analyses to highlight patterns in targets' behaviors.[3]Kiwi Farms has become notable for its unfiltered critique of phenomena such as online grifting, ideological extremism, and personal meltdowns, attracting a user base skeptical of mainstream narratives and institutional biases in media coverage of internet controversies.[5] This approach has led to significant clashes with activists and platforms, including high-profile deplatforming efforts; in 2022, Cloudflare terminated services amid claims of enabling real-world threats, though site operator Moon contested the vagueness of such accusations and denied facilitating violence.[6][7] Despite repeated hosting disruptions and legal challenges, including defamation suits, the forum has endured via decentralized infrastructure, underscoring tensions between content persistence and corporate moderation policies.[8][9] Critics, often from affected subcultures, frame its activities as coordinated harassment, while proponents argue it exposes deceptions and holds public figures accountable through open scrutiny, with empirical studies noting escalation patterns in user interactions but not uniform intent to harm.[5][10]
History
Founding and Early Focus on CWCki
Joshua Conner Moon, known online as Null, began hosting the CWCki Forums in 2013 after participating in them since late 2012.[11][12] The forums served as a companion to the preexisting CWCki wiki, established around 2008 to archive the online presence and behaviors of Christian Weston Chandler, an autistic Virginia resident famous for self-publishing the Sonichu comic series—a fusion of elements from Sonic the Hedgehog and Pokémon.[13] Chandler's eccentricities, including public romantic solicitations, confrontations with perceived enemies in his fictional "CWCville" universe, and reactions to early trolling efforts dating back to 2007, drew sustained community interest.[14]The early forums emphasized detailed logging of Chandler's activities, such as his creation of hybrid characters like Sonichu and Rosechu, involvement in internet dramas over eBay sales of Sonichu medallions, and responses to hoaxes that elicited dramatic outbursts. Participants developed the concept of "lolcows"—a term for online figures whose predictable, amplified reactions to scrutiny or provocation generate amusement, analogous to extracting "milk" (laughter) from a cow. Chandler exemplified this archetype, with threads dissecting his videos, forum posts, and real-world encounters that often escalated due to his literal interpretations and emotional investments.[15]In 2014, amid a house fire that displaced Chandler, Moon coordinated a fundraiser via the forums, collecting several hundred dollars in donations for his recovery, which highlighted a mix of documentation and occasional aid within the community's norms. Later that November, Moon shuttered a private subforum used for coordinating direct trolling to mitigate excessive interference, signaling an intent to prioritize observation over active disruption. This phase solidified the site's reputation for exhaustive, chronological tracking of Chandler's saga, including his evolution of Sonichu storylines incorporating real-life events like troll invasions of his narrative world.[11]By early 2015, the forums' scope remained narrowly centered on Chandler, with the CWCki serving as the internet's primary repository for his documented history—spanning over 20,000 pages of entries by that point—before Moon's rebranding expanded coverage to analogous figures.[15]
Rebranding to Kiwi Farms and Expansion
In February 2015, Joshua "Null" Moon, who had assumed control of the CWCki Forums, rebranded the site as Kiwi Farms to broaden its scope beyond the exclusive documentation of Christian Weston Chandler (also known as Chris Chan).[15] This shift marked a departure from the forum's origins as a niche repository for Chandler-related content, enabling the inclusion of threads on diverse online figures characterized by the community as "lolcows"—individuals exhibiting behaviors deemed exceptionally foolish, depraved, or entertainingly self-destructive.[16] The name "Kiwi Farms" derived from a playful corruption of "CWCki," reflecting Moon's intent to cultivate a larger "farm" of such subjects.[15]Post-rebranding, Kiwi Farms rapidly expanded its forum structure, introducing categories for topics like exceptional individuals, internet dramas, and historical lolcows, which attracted a wider user base interested in archival doxxing, behavioral analysis, and schadenfreude-driven commentary.[17] By mid-2015, the site had grown to host hundreds of active threads, with user participation increasing due to its reputation for unfiltered, evidence-based logging of public online antics, often contrasting with mainstream media's selective coverage of similar figures.[16] This expansion solidified Kiwi Farms as a persistent online observatory for eccentric digital personas, though critics from activist circles later attributed the growth to facilitation of targeted harassment—a characterization disputed by site administrators as biased overreach by deplatforming advocates.[18]
Survival Amid Deplatforming Attempts (2022–2025)
In September 2022, Cloudflare terminated its DDoS protection and other security services for Kiwi Farms on September 3, stating that the forum posed "an imminent and emergency threat to human life" amid escalated harassment targeting specific individuals, including a transgender streamer who reported receiving death threats and fleeing her home.[6][19] This action followed public campaigns urging deplatforming, though Cloudflare emphasized it had never provided hosting and acted unilaterally outside legal processes.[6] Shortly after, Russian-based DDoS mitigation provider DDoS-Guard dropped the site on September 5, citing reputational risks after initially activating protection during downtime, resulting in the main domain becoming intermittently inaccessible and triggering a brief outage.[2][20]Kiwi Farms quickly restored access through alternative domains, including a .ru mirror hosted outside Western infrastructure, and community-driven mirrors, with forum activity rebounding after an initial 20% drop in posts.[21] Supporters responded with a surge in cryptocurrency donations—Ethereum inflows rose 220% and Bitcoin 230% in the weeks following—enabling rapid procurement of new providers resistant to activist pressure, such as non-U.S. or offshore hosts.[22] By October 2022, the site achieved a second recovery, regaining stability on the clearnet without reliance on major U.S. services, demonstrating resilience via decentralized user support and the limitations of coordinated deplatforming against adaptable infrastructure.[23]Through 2023 and 2024, Kiwi Farms maintained operations by fragmenting traffic across Telegram channels, temporary domains, and hardened hosting setups, evading further widespread shutdowns despite ongoing DDoS attacks and advocacy for additional blocks.[24] This period saw no major deplatforming successes comparable to 2022, as alternative providers filled gaps left by Western firms, underscoring the challenges of global enforcement against sites willing to relocate.[23]As of October 2025, the forum operates actively under domains like kiwifarms.st, with recent administrative updates to direct messaging limits on October 15 and a disclosed security breach on October 23 handled through user advisories rather than service interruptions.[25][26][27] In August 2025, Kiwi Farms, operating as Lolcow, LLC, filed alongside 4chan to challenge the UK's Online Safety Act in a U.S. federal court, arguing its extraterritorial requirements violate First Amendment protections and seeking a declaration of unenforceability for U.S.-based platforms.[28] This legal push reflects proactive defense against regulatory threats, contributing to sustained availability amid persistent opposition.[29]
Platform Mechanics and Features
Forum Structure and Navigation
Kiwi Farms operates on a XenForo-based bulletin board system, featuring a hierarchical structure of main categories and subforums accessible via a central index page that lists boards alphabetically or by category. The primary focus is the "Lolcows" category, which contains subforums dedicated to discussions of individuals or groups deemed "exceptional" for their online behaviors, including general Lolcows for broad eccentric cases, Community Watch for ongoing monitoring of online personas and communities, Prime Cuts for high-profile or long-term subjects with extensive documentation, Stinkditch for transgender-specific topics, Lolcow General for miscellaneous observations, Beauty Parlour for feminine-presenting figures, and Gorl Tawk as a women-oriented off-topic space.[30][31]Complementing this are broader categories such as General Discussion for open-ended topics, a suite of off-topic subforums spanning hobbies and interests—including Art & Literature, The Bidness (finance), Food, Games, Health & Fitness, Internet & Technology, Live Talent (e.g., VTubers), Multimedia, Music, Q&A, and Self-Sufficiency—and the Autistic Thunderdome, which aggregates news via Articles & News, hosts philosophical and political discourse in Deep Thoughts, tracks current events in Happenings, and facilitates debates in Mass Debates. This organization prioritizes content segregation, with "Lolcows" threads often featuring detailed archives, media embeds, and user-generated updates on targets' activities.[32]Navigation relies on standard forum elements: a top navigation bar with links to Home, Forums, Search, Members, and Help; a sidebar or dropdown for quick access to recent activity, new posts, and private messages; and inline breadcrumbs (e.g., Home > Lolcows > Community Watch) for contextual pathing within threads and subforums. Users can employ a global search bar for keyword queries across posts, threads, or users, while features like post reactions, notifications for replies or mentions, and customizable userscripts enhance tracking and traversal, such as trays for reaction summaries or enhanced menu options.[33][34] Registration is required for full participation, with guest access limited to read-only viewing of public threads.[3]
Core Concepts and Thread Mechanics
Kiwi Farms' discussions center on individuals termed lolcows, a portmanteau denoting persons whose eccentric, foolish, or reactive behaviors can be "milked" for amusement, akin to extracting laughs from predictable outbursts or self-sabotaging actions.[35] This concept originated in online communities observing figures who escalate conflicts when confronted with criticism, providing ongoing content through meltdowns, fabrications, or delusions.[36] Threads typically require targets to demonstrate sustained "milkability," meaning they generate verifiable, entertaining updates rather than isolated incidents.[37]Associated terminology includes exceptionals, shorthand for "exceptional individuals" perceived as detached from social norms, often exhibiting obsessive fixations or impaired reality-testing online.[38]Spergs or e-spergs (electronic spergs) describe users or targets prone to "sperging," informal slang for autistic-like rants, hyperfocus on trivial details, or emotional dysregulation in digital spaces.[39] These labels emphasize behavioral patterns over clinical diagnoses, with forum etiquette discouraging armchair psychology in favor of evidence-based observations.[40]Thread mechanics involve staff-vetted creation for qualifying subjects, ensuring threads focus on public actions without promoting off-site interference.[37] Once established, users contribute chronologically: primary posts archive screenshots, chat logs, or media capturing inconsistencies, scams, or antics, while replies analyze patterns or predict reactions.[41] Automated highlighting elevates posts based on reaction volume, not sentiment, surfacing key updates like a target's response to exposure.[42] Moderation enforces on-topic adherence, prohibiting chit-chat or unrelated drama to maintain archival utility. Longevity stems from persistent documentation, with threads spanning years as subjects evolve or recur.[43]
Community Composition and Governance
User Demographics and Participation
Kiwi Farms operates as an anonymous forum where users participate under pseudonyms, with registration requiring minimal verification such as email confirmation, fostering broad but uneven engagement. A 2024 analysis of forum threads revealed 54,066 unique users who posted at least once across the examined dataset, highlighting a substantial participant base despite deplatforming pressures.[44] Participation is highly skewed toward a core of dedicated posters: superusers accounting for over 1,000 posts comprised 2.7% of active participants in targeted discussion threads but generated 54% of total content, while the top 18% of users (those exceeding 100 posts) produced 90% of activity.[44] This concentration underscores a "power law" dynamic common in online communities, where a minority drives sustained discourse.[44]Newcomer involvement is notable, with 71% of users in analyzed targeted threads making their debut post there, suggesting the forum attracts transient participants drawn to specific ongoing narratives rather than long-term loyalty.[44] Traffic data as of October 2025 indicates around 286,000 monthly visits to mirrored domains, reflecting resilience in user draw amid access disruptions, though unique active users remain opaque due to anonymity and cross-domain migration.[45]Demographic details are scarce and inferred indirectly, as the platform enforces pseudonymity without collecting or disclosing personal identifiers like age or gender. Audience interests from web analytics align with niche online subcultures, including video games, animation and comics, computer security, and reference materials, pointing to a user profile skewed toward tech-savvy individuals engaged in internet ephemera.[46] English predominates as the lingua franca, with primary traffic from English-speaking regions, though global mirrors enable broader access; no verified breakdowns by gender, age, or ethnicity exist in public datasets, and self-reported internal polls (e.g., on age) yield anecdotal rather than representative insights. This opacity contrasts with mainstream portrayals emphasizing ideological homogeneity, yet quantitative studies prioritize behavioral patterns over identity metrics.[44]
Moderation Policies and Internal Norms
Kiwi Farms maintains minimal formal moderation policies, characterized by flexible guidelines rather than rigid rules, enforced discretionarily to sustain ongoing discussion. The site's official posting guidelines explicitly state that it has "no hard rules" but applies a collection of principles on a per-case basis, allowing administrators broad latitude to adapt to circumstances without litigating specifics.[47] This approach prioritizes continuity over proactive censorship, with interventions focused on preventing disruptions that could lead to deplatforming or legal challenges.A foundational guideline prohibits users from contacting individuals featured in discussion threads—termed "lolcows" for those exhibiting exceptional or erratic public behavior—to avoid escalation, provocation, or attribution of off-site actions to the forum. This "no contact" policy underscores the site's emphasis on archival observation of verifiable public actions, such as social media posts or streams, rather than interactive engagement. Violations can result in warnings, thread locks, or bans, as determined by volunteer janitors or owner Joshua Moon, who retains ultimate authority.[48][49]Additional norms include bans on infighting, spamming, or low-effort posts lacking substantive critique, promoting a culture of targeted, evidence-based commentary over personal vendettas or off-topic derails. Users are expected to handle disputes maturely, avoiding direct attacks on peers, and to contribute only when adding value, such as sourcing claims or analyzing patterns in subjects' behaviors. Illegal content, including child exploitation material, direct threats, or promotion of violence, is strictly forbidden to comply with hosting provider terms and U.S. law, though edgy humor and speculation on public figures remain permitted absent provable harm.[50][43]Moderation relies on community self-policing supplemented by staff oversight, with subforum-specific rules (e.g., no self-promotion in critique sections) posted at thread headers to guide participation. This light-touch regime reflects an internal ethos valuing unfiltered scrutiny of perceived online anomalies, while acknowledging risks from adversarial external narratives that conflate forum discourse with user actions elsewhere. Enforcement data is not publicly quantified, but anecdotal reports indicate bans for guideline breaches occur sporadically, often tied to high-visibility threads.[47]
Notable Engagements and Outcomes
Exposures of Online Scams and Deceptions
Kiwi Farms users have documented numerous instances of online deception, particularly focusing on fraudulent fundraising and misrepresented services that exploit donors or public sympathy. These efforts often involve archival analysis of targets' online activity, cross-verification of claims against public records, and community-driven testing of assertions, leading to revelations of inconsistencies or outright fabrications.[51]A prominent example involves Trans Lifeline, a peer-support hotline for transgender individuals. Forum participants conducted a systematic calling campaign, placing over 1,400 calls across U.S. and Canadian lines over 90 days in 2016, and recorded an answer rate below 7%, with many calls going unanswered or routed to voicemail despite the organization's claims of 24/7 availability. [52] This investigation highlighted operational shortcomings, as the hotline's volunteer-staffed model failed to meet demand, prompting criticism of its efficacy as a crisis resource despite receiving significant donations.[53]Further scrutiny by Kiwi Farms users uncovered financial irregularities at Trans Lifeline, including allegations that co-founders Greta Gustava Martela and Kjel Anderson (also known as Nina Chaubal and Niraj Chaubal) diverted over $350,000 in funds for personal expenses, such as travel and unrelated projects, between 2014 and 2017.[54] These claims, supported by analysis of tax filings and internal communications, contributed to an internal board review in early 2018, resulting in the founders' removal and repayment demands. The episode underscored patterns of mismanagement in activist-led nonprofits, where forum documentation exposed discrepancies between fundraising appeals and actual fund usage.The forum's e-begging threads similarly target individuals soliciting donations via social media for fabricated hardships, such as chronic illnesses or emergencies without verifiable evidence. Users compile timelines revealing contradictions—like targets posting luxury purchases alongside pleas or recycling similar stories across platforms—which has deterred potential donors and amplified public skepticism in documented cases.[51] For instance, threads dissect OnlyFans creators and influencers claiming destitution while evidencing undisclosed income, contributing to broader awareness of "sob story" grifts prevalent on platforms like Twitter and GoFundMe.[55] These exposures rely on open-source verification rather than illegal intrusions, emphasizing empirical inconsistencies over narrative acceptance.
Documentation of Public Figures and Events
Kiwi Farms features dedicated forum sections where users compile and archive public statements, online activities, and behavioral patterns of politicians, celebrities, and other public figures who engage prominently in digital spaces. These threads emphasize chronological documentation, including embedded screenshots, video captures, and links to original posts, to track consistencies or discrepancies over time. For example, in political contexts, users log candidate announcements, policy shifts, and event-related developments, such as in the forum's ongoing thread for the 2024 U.S. Presidential and state elections, initiated in mid-2024 to monitor real-time updates and public discourse. This practice extends to celebrities, with threads analyzing transformations in public personas, from career milestones to personal controversies, often highlighting archived media that predates platform deletions.Notable instances include documentation of influencers and semi-public entities involved in high-profile online events. In the case of the Schofield family's YouTube channel, which amassed over 100,000 subscribers by 2019 through videos depicting family hardships allegedly tied to the mother's schizophrenia, forum users assembled montages and timelines of footage spanning years, revealing patterns suggestive of staged exploitation for views rather than genuine illness.[56] This compilation contributed to broader scrutiny, prompting YouTube to delist content and sparking investigations into child welfare concerns, as the archived evidence contradicted the family's narrative of uncontrollable symptoms. Similarly, threads on crypto-related events, such as the 2021 Save the Kids token launch promoted by esports influencers with celebrity ties, detailed transaction logs, promotional claims, and subsequent value collapses, preserving records of investor-facing promises amid allegations of rug-pull tactics.[57]For military-related public claims, users scrutinize and document instances of stolen valor among individuals seeking public recognition or benefits, cross-referencing self-reported service histories against official records, as seen in discussions of high-profile cases like author Chris Kyle's disputed accounts.[58] These efforts prioritize verifiable public data, such as declassified documents or social media admissions, to counter unverified assertions. While mainstream outlets often frame such forums through a lens of controversy, the raw archival function has, in select cases, surfaced discrepancies overlooked by initial reporting, underscoring a role in countering narrative control by figures with institutional backing.[59]
Controversies Involving Targets
Doxxing and Swatting Incidents
Kiwi Farms users have systematically doxxed targets by aggregating and publicly posting personal identifiers, including real names, home addresses, phone numbers, email accounts, family details, and employment information, often sourced from social media, data breaches, or hacking attempts.[60][61] This practice, central to the forum's thread structure, enables coordinated harassment by encouraging participants to verify and expand the data through real-world actions like contacting associates or monitoring locations.[62]A prominent example involves transgender streamer Clara Sorrenti, known as Keffals, whose forum thread included her deadname, sexually explicit material, family addresses, and hacked Uber account details exposing further personal data.[60] On August 5, 2022, users escalated to swatting by impersonating Sorrenti via email to report a fabricated mass shooting threat outside London City Hall, prompting her arrest and detention by Ontario police until cleared.[60][63] Additional swatting followed, including death threats sent to police using her deadname, forcing Sorrenti to flee her home; stalkers then tracked her to a hotel via a photo of her cat on social media, confirming the location with repeated pizza deliveries ordered in her deadname.[64][60]These tactics extended internationally, with users identifying Sorrenti's European hotel from livestream hints and continuing doxxing of her associates to isolate her socially and professionally.[60] Cloudflare cited a 48-hour surge in such aggressive doxxing and swatting against Sorrenti as creating an "immediate threat to human life," leading to the firm's decision to withdraw services on September 3, 2022.[62] While forum rules nominally prohibit direct calls to violence, the moderation has tolerated information-sharing that facilitates swatting, with users celebrating escalations in threads.[65] Similar doxxing patterns appear in other threads, though verified swatting links remain concentrated on high-profile cases like Sorrenti's, where the exposed data directly enabled the false emergency reports.[60][61]
Associations with Suicides and Violence
Kiwi Farms has been associated with several suicides among individuals who were subjects of active discussion threads on the forum, though direct causation remains unestablished and debated. In August 2016, Julie Terryberry, a 19-year-old known online as "Autistic Horse Girl," died by suicide; critics attributed her death to prolonged harassment in a Kiwi Farms thread that documented her personal life, including relationships and mental health struggles, while forum defenders noted her pre-existing suicidal ideation linked to a breakup and coercion into adult content by an older partner.[66][67] Similar claims have been made regarding two other cases in 2021: the suicides of developer "Byuu" (David J. Gannon) and programmer "Near," both of whom had threads exposing alleged scams or personal controversies, with media outlets and activists asserting the forum's scrutiny contributed to their distress.[17] However, analyses from forum participants and independent commentators, including streamer Destiny, argue these individuals exhibited severe mental health issues and self-destructive behaviors predating or independent of Kiwi Farms exposure, emphasizing multifactorial causes over simplistic blame on online discussion.[68]Regarding violence, associations primarily involve escalations from online harassment to real-world threats rather than confirmed physical attacks by forum users. Kiwi Farms threads have facilitated doxxing, which in turn enabled swatting incidents—false emergency calls prompting armed police responses—against targets like transgender streamer Clara Sorrenti (Keffals) in August 2022, who faced multiple such events amid a high-profile thread.[69] No verified cases exist of forum members committing physical violence against targets; administrators, including founder Joshua Moon ("Null"), have stated there have been no violent incidents directly stemming from the site.[70] Cloudflare's 2022 decision to block the site cited an "immediate threat to human life" based on patterns of escalating abuse, though this was influenced by activist campaigns highlighting perceived risks to vulnerable groups like transgender individuals, sources often critiqued for amplifying unproven causal links amid broader institutional biases favoring narratives of systemic online harm.[71][6] In contrast, some targets have engaged in violent or threatening behavior post-exposure, such as self-admitted crimes documented in threads, underscoring the forum's role in archival scrutiny rather than incitement.[10]
High-Profile Targets and Responses
One of the earliest and most extensively documented targets on Kiwi Farms was Christine Weston Chandler, known online as Chris Chan, whose eccentric behaviors and self-published webcomic Sonichu drew initial attention on precursor forums like the CWCki starting around 2007.[72] The site's origins trace to 2013, when administrator Joshua Moon (Null) migrated the CWCki community to Kiwi Farms to continue archiving and discussing Chandler's public online activities, including fabricated personas, romantic solicitations, and interactions with trolls.[17] This documentation persisted for years, culminating in Chandler's arrest on August 1, 2021, for incestuous relations with her elderly mother, an event preceded by leaked audio recordings and admissions shared publicly online, which forum users had compiled and analyzed.[17] Chandler's responses included erratic online posts denying or reframing the allegations, but no direct legal action against the forum; instead, the case highlighted how prolonged public exposure of verifiable behaviors could intersect with law enforcement scrutiny, independent of forum causation.[12]In 2022, Twitch streamer Clara Sorrenti, known as Keffals, emerged as a high-profile target amid her activism on transgender issues, with Kiwi Farms users creating threads critiquing her public statements, fundraising appeals, and alleged inconsistencies in her narratives, such as claims of doxxing during site outages.[73] Sorrenti reported experiencing swatting incidents, including a July 2022 home raid by London, Ontario police after false bomb threats traced to anonymous sources, forcing her temporary relocation and international travel.[60] In response, she mobilized a campaign pressuring infrastructure providers, including DDoS protection services, to terminate support for Kiwi Farms, framing the forum as a harassment hub responsible for her safety threats; this effort gained traction with advocacy from transgender communities and contributed to Cloudflare's announcement on September 3, 2022, citing "imminent physical violence" against Sorrenti as grounds for withdrawal.[19][74] Critics of Sorrenti's campaign, including independent commentators, argued it exemplified selective deplatforming driven by ideological alignment rather than uniform application to contentious online speech, noting her prior collaborations with figures like Chandler in anti-Kiwi Farms rhetoric.[75][76]Other notable targets have included public figures like podcaster Destiny (Steven Bonnell), whose Kiwi Farms activity was highlighted by Sorrenti in 2022 as inconsistent with his public stances on online conduct, prompting debates over forum participation norms.[77] Responses from targets often escalate to coordinated advocacy for service denials, as seen in broader 2022 pushes involving U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene unexpectedly aligning with activists to call for the site's shutdown, despite ideological divergences, underscoring the forum's polarizing documentation of verifiable public actions over narrative-driven interpretations.[78] These cases illustrate a pattern where targets leverage media amplification and provider pressures to counter forum scrutiny, frequently prioritizing removal over engaging with archived evidence of their online footprints.[20]
External Challenges and Responses
Deplatforming Efforts by Tech Providers
Cloudflare terminated its DDoS protection and other security services for Kiwi Farms on September 3, 2022, citing "imminent and emergency risks to human life" amid credible threats against individuals targeted by forum discussions, particularly following swatting incidents involving Canadian activist Clara Sorrenti (known as Keffals).[6][19] The decision came after sustained pressure from online campaigns, including the #DropKiwiFarms hashtag initiated by Sorrenti, which urged infrastructure providers to withhold services due to alleged facilitation of harassment.[79]In the ensuing days, DDoS-Guard, a Russian-based DDoS mitigation provider, ended its services for a Kiwi Farms mirror site on September 5, 2022, stating it had analyzed the content and opted for termination.[2][80] Hosting provider VanwaTech briefly assumed services around September 6, 2022, but the site's infrastructure faced cascading refusals from multiple providers amid similar advocacy-driven scrutiny.[81] These actions rendered Kiwi Farms intermittently inaccessible, exacerbating vulnerabilities to cyberattacks and contributing to extended downtime.[82]Deplatforming extended to financial services, with traditional payment processors severing ties, prompting a sharp rise in cryptocurrency inflows: Ethereum donations increased 220% and Bitcoin 230% in the months following the September 2022 events, as supporters routed funds through intermediaries to sustain operations.[22] Cloudflare subsequently defended its general policy of providing neutral infrastructure, expressing regret over prior deplatformings of other controversial sites that led to calls for broader censorship, including against human rights organizations.[83]Despite these coordinated efforts by tech providers, Kiwi Farms reemerged via alternative hosting arrangements and privacy-focused domain services, demonstrating resilience against full eradication.[23]
Legal Actions and Free Speech Defenses
In September 2020, author Russell Greer filed a lawsuit against Kiwi Farms owner Joshua Moon in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, alleging contributory copyright infringement after users posted Greer's copyrighted book and song on the forum without permission.[84] Greer had sent a DMCA takedown notice to Moon, who instead publicly shared the notice on Kiwi Farms for discussion and mockery, leading to further unauthorized distributions.[85] The district court ruled in favor of Greer, finding Moon contributorily liable for failing to implement adequate measures to prevent infringement despite knowledge of it, and awarded damages; this was affirmed by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals on October 16, 2023.[86] Moon and Kiwi Farms petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for certiorari on February 29, 2024, arguing the ruling imposed overly broad secondary liability on online platforms for user-generated content, potentially chilling speech by requiring proactive monitoring.[87]In October 2023, an Australian Federal Court ordered Marsello Pty Ltd, an Australian firm that provided domain and payment services facilitating access to Kiwi Farms, to pay over AUD 600,000 (approximately USD 400,000) in damages and costs in a defamation case brought by an individual targeted on the forum.[9] The ruling held Marsello liable for republishing defamatory content by enabling the site's operations, despite not hosting it directly, under Australia's strict defamation laws that do not require proof of intent or harm for liability.[9] This case highlighted jurisdictional challenges for offshore platforms, as the court enforced penalties on a local enabler rather than Kiwi Farms itself, which operates from the United States.On August 27, 2025, Kiwi Farms joined 4chan in filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, seeking a declaratory judgment that the UK's Online Safety Act 2023 is unenforceable against U.S.-based sites.[88] The suit contends that Ofcom's demands for age verification and content moderation—issued to both forums in July 2025—constitute extraterritorial overreach, violating the First Amendment by compelling speech restrictions on American operators and users without valid U.S.-UK mutual legal assistance.[89] Moon has framed such regulatory pressures as attempts to censor discussion of public online behaviors, asserting Kiwi Farms hosts factual documentation and criticism rather than unprotected threats or incitement.[90]Throughout these challenges, Moon has defended Kiwi Farms' operations as protected under U.S. free speech principles, emphasizing that the forum aggregates publicly available information about individuals' online actions for community scrutiny, without directing illegal conduct.[91] In responses to deplatforming attempts, such as Cloudflare's service termination on September 4, 2022, following harassment allegations tied to a specific target, Moon argued that providers' unilateral decisions undermine neutrality and enable viewpoint discrimination, drawing parallels to broader internet infrastructure precedents.[6] He has maintained that user posts, even if mocking or critical, fall short of legal thresholds for harassment absent direct threats, positioning legal defenses as safeguards against biased enforcement favoring certain ideological targets.[28]
International Regulatory Pressures
In Australia, the eSafety Commissioner initially assessed Kiwi Farms under the Online Safety Act 2021 but determined in September 2022 that its jurisdictional powers were insufficient to issue a formal removal notice, as the site lacked a substantial Australian connection and was not hosted domestically.[92] This limitation prompted calls from Australian lawmakers, including Greens Senator David Shoebridge, for expanded regulatory authority to address foreign-hosted forums facilitating targeted harassment.[92] Subsequent civil actions, such as a 2023 Federal Court ruling ordering an Australian facilitator of Kiwi Farms access to pay over AUD 445,000 in defamation damages to a targeted individual, highlighted indirect pressures but did not result in a nationwide block.[9]The United Kingdom's Online Safety Act 2023 imposed broader obligations on user-to-user services, including extraterritorial requirements for non-UK platforms to mitigate harms like child exploitation and illegal content.[93] Ofcom, the enforcing regulator, issued an advisory letter to Kiwi Farms on March 26, 2025, followed by formal notices in April 2025 demanding compliance reports on safety measures, with potential fines up to £18 million for non-compliance.[89][94] These actions targeted Kiwi Farms' perceived failure to implement age verification and content moderation, escalating tensions over the Act's global reach.[28]In response, Kiwi Farms, alongside 4chan, filed a federal lawsuit against Ofcom on August 27, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging violations of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments through unconstitutional extraterritorial enforcement and due process infringements.[93][90] The suit seeks permanent injunctions barring Ofcom from applying the Online Safety Act to U.S.-based entities, framing the notices as an overreach that effectively censors American speech without reciprocal legal protections.[95] As of October 2025, the case remains pending, underscoring conflicts between national safety mandates and cross-border free expression principles.[96]No equivalent regulatory actions have been documented from European Union bodies under the Digital Services Act, though similar extraterritorial compliance demands could emerge as enforcement intensifies.[29] Kiwi Farms' operator, Joshua Moon, has publicly criticized such international efforts as attempts to impose foreign censorship on U.S. platforms, relocating infrastructure to evade blocks while maintaining operations.[97]