Unpacking the Stack and Addressing Complaints about Content

Cloudflare has been reflecting on its approach to handling problematic content online after terminating services for the Daily Stormer website in 2017. The company engaged with various groups, including human rights organizations and tech companies, to understand different perspectives on addressing troubling content at different levels of the internet stack. It found that the world is moving away from viewing the internet as a neutral platform for expression and accessing information, with many governments and constituents wanting it cleaned up of problematic content through any technical means necessary. Cloudflare believes there are ways forward to address risks online while maintaining the internet's promise as a forum for communication, commerce, and free expression. It sees a fundamental split between services that substantively touch content (content curators) and those that do not (infrastructure services). The company supports different expectations for these two types of services and believes in providing infrastructure services in a content-neutral way. Cloudflare is working on operationalizing its view by considering how different laws apply to it on a service-by-service, and function-by-function basis.