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Jason Lefkowitz

CloudFlare’s entire business model since Day One has been “let’s give away free network services until the clients and the servers for half the fucking Internet have to go through us to reach each other, at which point there will be no end to the ways we can leverage that position for profit,” so it probably should not surprise people as much as it has to discover they are Problematic

31 Aug 2022 at 20:55 | Open on octodon.social
7 comments
Jason Lefkowitz

Like, the whole point of CloudFlare is to someday become a toll booth on your daily commute. They’re not giving this stuff away because they love you, they’re giving it away because that’s the only way to build the toll booth

31 Aug 2022 at 20:59 | Open on octodon.social
Jason Lefkowitz

This also explains why CloudFlare is reluctant to turn down any customers at all, even when the customers are actual Nazis. You can only be the Internet’s toll booth if a huge chunk of its traffic flows through you. And the bigger that chunk, the higher a toll you can get away with charging.

So they are naturally going to strenuously resist any suggestion that they should have standards for who they do business with, because the higher those standards become the less their business model works

31 Aug 2022 at 21:08 | Open on octodon.social
Jason Lefkowitz

It’s also why CloudFlare’s current line is “yes we do business with loathsome people, but when we do, we offset it by donating to progressive causes.”

1) CF already burns money, nobody there is going to sweat about burning a little more

2) The money they spend now will be more than made up when they reach the goal of being the internet’s official man in the middle. Which they can’t reach if they turn lots of clients away.

It’s the progressive-politics version of greenwashing. They’re happy to spend a little more today, if by doing so it will shut people up long enough for them to seize the monopoly position they’re gunning for. And then it won’t matter what you think of them, because you’ll have to pay them regardless just to go about your life online

It’s also why CloudFlare’s current line is “yes we do business with loathsome people, but when we do, we offset it by donating to progressive causes.”

1) CF already burns money, nobody there is going to sweat about burning a little more

2) The money they spend now will be more than made up when they reach the goal of being the internet’s official man in the middle. Which they can’t reach if they turn lots of clients away.

31 Aug 2022 at 21:26 | Open on octodon.social
Luci for dyeing

@jalefkowit they’re in for a shock when no one who knows they shield nazis wants to do business with them

31 Aug 2022 at 22:05 | Open on merveilles.town
Luci for dyeing

@jalefkowit also i seem to remember that they’re funded by the CIA

31 Aug 2022 at 22:08 | Open on merveilles.town
Jason Lefkowitz

@zens I don't see them in the In-Q-Tel portfolio, but I would not put it past the CIA to not put all their investments on their web site 😆​

iqt.org/portfolio/

31 Aug 2022 at 22:32 | Open on octodon.social
Emacsen

@jalefkowit

I agree with everything you've said, but the trouble is, for those of us who have legitimate needs for DDOS protection on sites, they are really the only game in town that offers all the features that (at least I) need.

I spent weeks checking others, and no one else offers websocket protection.

1 Sep 2022 at 15:02 | Open on emacsen.net
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