[PLUG] ATTENTION REQUIRED | ONE MORE STEP

[Ben Koenig]

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

On Friday, October 15th, 2021 at 7:57 PM, <tgrom.automail at nuegia.net> wrote:

> I just ended up having to write an email to a site's tech contact via
>
> their whois records because their website has been down for the past
>
> two days. Replaced with the message:
>
> Checking your browser before accessing example.tld.
>
> This process is automatic. Your browser will redirect to your requested
>
> content shortly.
>
> Please allow up to 5 seconds…
>
> DDoS protection by Cloudflare
>
> a new change from the usual ATTENTION REQUIRED | ONE MORE STEP
>
> oh so your human? Name every stoplight
>
> Apparently I'm not the only one with this problem, as seen by
>
> https://git.fuwafuwa.moe/you/stop_cloudflare/src/branch/master/PEOPLE.md
>
> They are marketing themselves as some kind of ddos
>
> protection site to prevent downtime, but in actuality when websites use
>
> cloudflare, their website in inaccessible and is effectively down. Down
>
> when it wouldn't be if no cloudflare was used.
>
> webmasters seem to fall for Cloudflare's shady marketing
>
> tactics, making claims like it will ""speed up"" your site or that your
>
> site /needs/ a ""CDN"" when they aren't streaming video or doing
>
> something latency intensive. I'm surprised they continue on with these
>
> dubious at best advertising claims.
>
> Cloudflare's near-monopoly on popular websites has put them in a
>
> position of power; which they use to censor the internet by making
>
> absurd claims that I and many other people are robots and blocking
>
> their access websites. Or saying I have "A VIRUS" on my network without
>
> any evidence. Using that baseless claim as justification. I have
>
> noticed it really seems to just block every browser that isn't google
>
> chrome or mozilla firefox (90% google funded).
>
> Surely there are laws to prevent this kind of thing? If there aren't
>
> like like to discuss potential laws that could be put in place, at
>
> least local at first to stop cloudflare.
>

The question you need to ask is this:

"If I, as a user feel that I have suffered financial damage as a result of the actions taken by <tech company>, who do I contact in order to make seek compensation?"

There is a discussion to be had for the Free Software community involving class action lawsuits. In particular, how to get the ball rolling because these days liebel, defamation, and false advertising are commonplace. There are plenty of things happening that impact me financially in the tech industry but I have no idea who I need to call in order to flex my rights as a US citizen.

I honestly don't know how these extreme conservatives/liberals manage to burn through so many legal claims. Everytime someone says something racist/sexist there's a national shitshow but when Google lies to congress it's all crickets. Maybe this is why Red Hat is trying to bury the FSF under false claims of transphobic behavior - The FSF is so busy defending themselves they never have a chance to actually advocate for the community.
-Ben