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Comment by nrook | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure you understand what Cloudflare is. They have various protections for websites including ones you do not like.

They don't host attacks. They don't even offer a hosting service for that code to run on really. Those attacks come from botnets, mostly hacked IOT devices and servers across the web.

My position is that Cloudflare's hosting of websites and forums where attackers coordinate and organize (what you refer to as "websites [I] do not like") contributes to an Internet environment in which Cloudflare's own tools are more necessary. I am not saying that the attacks themselves are sent from servers controlled by Cloudflare.

If I understand your position correctly, you’re advocating for a world where Cloudflare is the arbtrar of ethics, morality, and legality on the Internet? I think I’d rather they just continue to provide service for sites I disagree with? Thanks.

They can host all the political dubious sites they want, but when they sell a service that protects from what they’re hosting (booster services where they offer DDoS for sale sites), it starts to look an awful lot like a protection racket.

That’s a nice website you’ve got there. It would be a shame if someone DDoS’d it. Hey btw, I sell DDoS protection services. Gee, isn’t that just so convenient!

Run a website with decent traffic for a few years and watch the script kiddies come out asking for bitcoin in exchange for turning off their botnet.

Not a racket when you see how common it was before Cloudflare.

> They don't even offer a hosting service for that code to run on really.

I may be wrong here, but isn't this what Cloudflare Workers are?

That’s a service to run code in a very brief (not noticeable) time when you go to a link.

It would be pretty bad at DDOS attacking.

Cloudflare provides products that protect against malicious requests. They don't help craft those requests, and they don't flood traffic to websites that aren't using their product. It's not a racket.

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