CloudFlare Gives Out TheRalphRetort’s Info, Backs Brianna Wu

by · December 18, 2014

shadycloudcover

When I woke up this morning, I was greeted by a rude email from CloudFlare. In it, they accused me of putting Brianna Wu in danger with the publication of FartToContinue’s article, and informed me that they had given over my webhost information to the third-party who had contacted them. This is a very shady way to do business, even though they admittedly do have the right to do this under the Terms of Service I agreed to. I will be looking at competitors like Incapsula, who’ve I read might be a better choice anyway. This will likely end up being a benefit to the site. Either way, I’m gonna fight these bastards with everything I have. 

I haven’t heard back from my webhost, who have also received a report by now. They’ve been great in the past, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens. I trust them to do the right thing. But, if they don’t, I’ll obviously be looking into new hosts. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that. They haven’t taken down any of my other content, so that’s a good sign.

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I just want to say that this decision by CloudFlare, is a fucking disgrace. That they would give out my webhost info, is an absurd affront to a customer. Even though they claim that’s all they gave out, I’m still disgusted by their behavior in this situation. They have the right to do this, as I said. But it’s still bullshit, and I told their representative the same thing. If you do business with CloudFlare, I would advise rethinking your situation. I know I’m going to.

I would have had this response out earlier, but the fools on the other side came for my Twitter account. They did get Fart’s account temporarily, but it was restored just a few minutes ago. They’re never gonna learn. Finding the real truth about doubtful allegations is not harassment. All the info about Brianna Wu was already public. The hissy fit being thrown by the other side is not genuine. They’re simply trying to silence voices.

It’s not gonna work, because I’m not gonna let it work. I refuse to be silenced. I will always have this site running, as long as I am breathing, and financially able. I’m too stubborn to fold in the face of this aggression. Fart’s article will continue to stay up, barring intervention from my webhost. I’m only going to dig in deeper. Fuck CloudFlare, fuck the SJW censors, and fuck anyone who allies with them. We can have conversations with those who come to the table. But these nuts on Twitter who hate free speech are enemies of speech, and should be treated as such. Never stop fighting these intolerance bastards.

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TheRalph

Founder, Owner, & Editor-in-Chief of TheRalphRetort.com. Political fiend, gamer, & anti-bullshit.

  • Nanowired

    These people(The unmentionables who cry harassment for simply replying to their factually incorrect criticisms) are the unreachable, the unthinking, the indoctrinated. It is in the best interest of everyone involved to fight them by cutting them off their drama supply. Through their attempts to Censor and harass devs and game developers they are giving us PLENTY of ammunition to say, “hey, look. They are censoring you. We are a group of diverse individuals from all walks of life that value equality and value you as creators. Let’s put an end to this madness and work together to change the system so that we can get down to what is important: Making and enjoying games.”

    Edits: Because I was being unclear. Point is, we are getting nowhere by face tanking these clowns.

  • LongLiveGamerGate

    Don’t give them the satisfaction of being too pissed off, they aren’t worth it.

    • http://TheRalphRetort.com/ TheRalphRetort.com

      Fair point lol. I’m gonna be ready to fight. It’s more about just being ready for the fight, than it is about being angry. Although, I was pretty angry when I first read the email.

  • Jaaa… Laaa…

    Well, their logo does look like a turd.

  • Winner

    The fact that the webhost is giving any information without a basis of thorough investigation is pure idiocy. The webhost should be more than happy to look into the incident by both sides. By not doing this, the webhost is now showing us that anyone who is disgruntle deserves to have the user doxxed.

    • http://rumcious.blogspot.com/ rumcious

      Not even disgruntled, it seems *any* reason or having none at all, or acting supposedly on behalf of someone else without their express authorisation is good enough.

  • urwormfood

    Ralph you should have the information of the person who filed the abuse report? All the information that was published is public information including all geotags and photos. These were open and can be seen by anyone who can go to WU’s husbands blog. All Fart did was compile all information in a easy to read document to report on the lies Wu was telling in the media.

  • http://encyclopediadramatica.se/ Encyclopedia Dramatica

    This is a form letter, they give out your host to everyone who writes them asking for it. This has nothing to do with them supporting Brianna Wu or not supporting you, it is simply their policy. I can show you dozens of reports against us with the same format and ending lines but I think one will be fine.

    • Mr.TopKek

      Is this anything 8chan should worry about?

      • hurin

        Only if they get spammed with so much illegal content, they can’t remove it in a timely fashion.

      • http://encyclopediadramatica.se/ Encyclopedia Dramatica

        They should be protecting themselves by putting a small VPS from a different host in between their real host and cloudflare. That way CF won’t give out their real host and if the VPS host shuts them down they can just rent a new one from somewhere else and have the site back up in minutes.

    • hurin

      So George clicked on ‘Offended’ and got offended. I wonder what he thought was going to happen,

    • http://TheRalphRetort.com/ TheRalphRetort.com

      It’s not a form letter (Edit: ok, looks like it is lol), and they pretty clearly take the Wu position:

      “The article linked has a ton of personal information (photographs of her house, her car, etc) that’s putting her at great personal risk. An incensed mob is out to harass her right now, some of which sent death and rape threats to her.
      The article in question is putting her in clear and immediate danger.”

      *Edit: it does appear that the language was from the report and not CloudFlare itself.

      • http://encyclopediadramatica.se/ Encyclopedia Dramatica

        That was the other person’s comments from the report form, not cloudflare’s.

      • http://TheRalphRetort.com/ TheRalphRetort.com

        It’s possible this information is from the report, but that’s not really specified. *Edit, ok it does say it’s from the report.

        • http://encyclopediadramatica.se/ Encyclopedia Dramatica

          Yeah everything in between “Logs or evidence of abuse” and “We have provided…” is from the reporting party. They could definitely make it more clear though,

    • chrimony .

      This is a form letter, they give out your host to everyone who writes them asking for it.

      Appears to be the case: https://twitter.com/xxdesmus/status/326436676341727232

      “Same abuse report would go to host if you weren’t using CloudFlare/ We’re not here to filter abuse reports for you.”

      That’s from the “Trust & Safety anti-abuse engineer at @CloudFlare.”

    • Scrufflecat

      It’s still a really shitty business practice.

    • http://rumcious.blogspot.com/ rumcious

      They shouldn’t be doing that in relation to anonymous third-party requests regardless because it makes CloudFlare liable for not taking due care with personal data. The only legitimate requests they are legally obligated to respond to are DMCA, Court Orders (or other LEO communications), or requests accompanied by an Affidavit, all of which is stated in their ToS. If they are truly this lax with their enforcement of privacy protection it’s best to move somewhere else.

      • http://encyclopediadramatica.se/ Encyclopedia Dramatica

        They are not a proxy though, they are a CDN. Them giving out your host would be no different than pinging the server if you weren’t using cloudflare. At least this way they don’t get your IP.

        • http://rumcious.blogspot.com/ rumcious

          Legal Council would be able to give a definitive answer but because CF are a “Service Provider” they fall under the auspices of various data protection legislation that obligates them to ‘due care’ (for want of a better way of putting it). And keep in mind, the request *was not* from the supposed harassed party, but from someone else who, based in the info above, appears not to have provided any ‘official’ documentation to confirm they were authorised to act on behalf of someone else as one would expect for an email that has such serious repercussions like taking a website offline (that constitutes real and actual harassment and harm [oh the irony]).

          This may all seem like it’s splitting hairs (and I’m not specifically disagreeing with you as a result) but the *principle* holds true no matter what the data request is for, or how much data is being requested. It’s a condition of their Safe Harbour status as a Service Provider. And the fact that *any* information was giving out based on the above, is very troubling.

    • Anon

      Please cover up the unintentional dox already. You should black out the guy’s name and email ID at least.

      • http://encyclopediadramatica.se/ Encyclopedia Dramatica

        Can’t delete the image without deleting the whole thread. Try uploading an image and editing the post to change or remove the image. It can’t be done. Maybe Ralph can. Anyway if he is going to go through the underhanded tactic of trying to contact a host instead of voicing his concerns to us directly, I don’t feel too bad for him.

    • Guest

      Part of it is a form letter, the center paragraph is clearly self righteous rage, this was a decision someone made, not an automatic response. Either they have a rogue employee and they’re not trustworthy or the decision came from the top and they’re not trustworthy.

      • http://encyclopediadramatica.se/ Encyclopedia Dramatica

        Everything in between “Logs or evidence of abuse” and “We have provided…” is from the report form, not from Cloudflare or their employees. It is just telling him what was written in the report.

    • TheScienceEnthusiast1130

      Is there any alternative to Cloudflare?

  • Mark

    If push comes to shove you can always create your own webserver to host your site. Although I highly doubt that will be necessary.

  • ghostlife

    That’s remarkably scummy.

  • Pope Ratzo

    It’s funny what you think deserves to be private and what doesn’t.

    “I’m gonna fight these bastards with everything I have.”

    Pocket lint?

    • http://TheRalphRetort.com/ TheRalphRetort.com

      Suck it, SJW scum.

      • realgamer07

        LOL!!! you better never change ralph!!!!

  • Fyrex

    SJW’s are truly nothing but a bunch of hate-mongers.

  • pixel

    fight the power Ralph

  • http://rumcious.blogspot.com/ rumcious

    Wait a minute… their ToS/Privacy explicitly states they don’t just hand over data unless it’s to law enforcement and when ordered to. What they hell are they doing just handing it over for ‘abuse’ reports. And to what appear to be third-parties!

  • ghostlife

    Site was down for me when I checked this morning… related?

    • http://TheRalphRetort.com/ TheRalphRetort.com

      Yes, I got reported to my host’s host and my site was taken offline. Still not back yet, cause I can’t login. But I’ll figure it out. Thanks for sticking with it.

      • A Real Libertarian

        Hey Ralph, did you get my email?

  • Mark Samenfink

    Just goes to show, once again, that they are willing to perform acts out of malice, while we hold our hand back on such acts, because they pretend to be good while being evil, and we are painted as evil while being good. Glad to see you back Ralph

  • Gregg Braddoch

    Glad to see you back Ralph, was very upset, I didn’t get to read the latest on Gamergate this morning, thanks to all this Cloudflare nonsense (Minus the 5-10 articles claiming that gamergate is being investigated by the FBI).

    Apparently the FBI sending a letter saying “we can neither confirm nor deny” such an investigation means “the FBI said they were investigating”. I nearly choked on my breakfast when I saw those headlines, and theRalphRetort was down – then I read the articles, and realized it was more BS.

    • A Real Libertarian

      The FBI is investigating.

      Remember how they found two Antis sending themselves death threats?

      Plus the whole “Phil Fish is racketeering” mess?

      • Gregg Braddoch

        Well yes, the FBI is investigating Anita’s claims, etc. However, they are not necessarily investigating “gamergate” as the article tries to paint the situation.

        • A Real Libertarian

          That’s Propaganda 101.

          Don’t fake something when all you can have to do is break something off to make it sound like good news for you.

  • chris perez

    How exactly is posting collected information that is available to anyone who has internet access a threat in any way? If you don’t want people seeing your place of residence, inside or outside don’t post pictures of it. If you don’t want lots of attention from people, don’t be an overly dramatic and inflammatory asshole to others on the internet. They are just desperate to silence our most vocal critics like Ralph and as always, they keep failing. Watch out Ralph, I think big blue has her eyes on you.

    • GamerGate Developer

      that animal abuser can eat a donkey dick

    • http://rumcious.blogspot.com/ rumcious

      That blocklist (that what that half exposed link is referring to right?) is a tricky one because it doesn’t directly interfere with Twitter itself (which *is* against their ToS). Because Twitter have such an open API things like that are more or less enevitable when explained as being ‘content filters’. If you were to appear on the blocklist and it comes up in an Interview or some such, use it as a reason to start a conversation about gamergate in a broader context.

  • Anon

    TheRalph, please censorcover up the guy’s e-mail in ED’s post. ED cannot do it themselves!

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