There is an image circulating on social media that purportedly shows Cloudfare announcing on Twitter that they are terminating their service for 4Chan and other “far-right communities”. The image shows that the apparent tweet was made on the 8th of January.
The Cloudfare image is going viral at a time when social media platforms and internet services are purging Donald Trump and his supporters from their platforms. Cloudfare is an American web infrastructure and web security company.
4Chan is an image based bulletin board platform where users do not need to log in or create an account for posting. Due to its anonymous nature and is absolutist position on free speech, it is a website that attracts all kinds of people and is a hotbed for discussions that normally cannot occur on other social media platforms.
Over time, it has acquired a lot of notoriety as critics have accused it of fueling right-wing radicalism in western countries. Thus, under current circumstances, it has been claimed that Cloudfare was terminating its services for 4Chan.
However, a quick check of Cloudfare’s Twitter account reveals that the claim is likely a hoax. The latest tweet from the company is from the 7th of January. There are no recent tweets announcing that it is terminating its services for 4Chan.
Austin Walker, a host at Vice Games, had tweeted a screenshot of the same claim before proceeding to say that he was not sure if it was true. Then, he proceeded to confirm that it was not.
Top Google search results for related search terms only contain Cloudfare’s decision to terminate its services for 8Chan. Given the current climate, it could very well be that discussions to remove 4Chan are being held. However, as of this moment, everything points towards the fact that it was a hoax.
