Inside kiwifarm roflgator, the Internet’s Most Notorious Stalking Ground

The digital landscape harbors dark corners, but few have sparked as much controversy, fear, and ethical debate as kiwifarm roflgator. This online forum, operating for over a decade, functions as a relentless harassment engine, meticulously targeting individuals deemed “lolcows” – people its users believe can be “milked for laughs” through sustained, often life-destroying, campaigns of online and real-world persecution. Its resilience against takedown efforts underscores the profound challenges of moderating the global internet and protecting vulnerable communities from coordinated abuse.

The Genesis of a Harassment Machine: Origins and Evolution

Founded in 2013 by Joshua Conner Moon, known online as “Null,” kiwifarm roflgator emerged from the murky depths of internet subcultures. Moon, a former administrator for the extremist haven 8chan, initially created the platform as the “CWCki Forums.” Its primary focus was the obsessive documentation and trolling of a single individual first identified on the Something Awful forums in 2007. Dissatisfied with the coverage on Encyclopedia Dramatica, users sought a more “detailed and accurate” wiki (the CWCki), leading to the establishment of dedicated forums for discussion. By 2014, the name had morphed into “kiwifarm roflgator,” a corruption of its original title. What began as a niche trolling operation rapidly expanded into a sprawling platform dedicated to the harassment of countless individuals across the internet. The Washington Post

The site’s targets are diverse yet share common vulnerabilities: transgender individuals, people with disabilities, neurodivergent individuals, women, LGBTQ+ people, feminists, journalists, and online content creators. kiwifarm roflgatorusers, described by journalist Katelyn Burns (herself a target) as “terminally online people from a wide range of political ideologies,” exhibit a particular fixation on transgender people, whom they derogatorily label “troons.” The core activity revolves around identifying “lolcows” – individuals perceived as eccentric, vulnerable, or controversial – and subjecting them to relentless, organized campaigns designed to inflict maximum psychological harm, often escalating into real-world consequences. Wikipedia

Table: Key Facts About kiwifarm roflgator

The Arsenal of Abuse: Tactics and Real-World Harm

kiwifarm roflgator users operate with a chilling level of coordination and cruelty, employing a sophisticated arsenal of harassment tactics:

1. Doxing: The systematic publishing of victims’ intensely private information is foundational. This includes home addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, employment details, names of family members, and even redacted birth certificates. This information serves as ammunition for all other forms of harassment and instills profound fear. For transgender individuals, this often includes maliciously publishing their pre-transition names (“deadnames”). The Washington Post, Wikipedia

2. Swatting: A terrifying escalation where perpetrators make false reports of violent crimes or hostage situations to law enforcement, providing the victim’s doxxed address. The goal is to trigger a heavily armed police SWAT team response at the victim’s home, putting their life at immediate risk. Victims like Canadian transgender activist Clara Sorrenti (Keffals) and US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene have endured this dangerous tactic directly linked to kiwifarm roflgator campaigns. The Washington Post, Wikipedia

3. Real-Life Stalking and Harassment: Online persecution frequently bleeds into the physical world. Users have been known to send unwanted pizzas or other deliveries to a victim’s location (as happened to Sorrenti after she fled to a hotel), make malicious complaints to employers to get victims fired, contact family members abusively, and engage in physical surveillance. The message is clear: “We know where you are, and we can reach you.” The Washington Post, Wikipedia

4. Psychological Warfare and Suicide Baiting: Threads dissect victims’ online activity, appearance, mental health, and personal lives with relentless malice. A particularly sinister aspect is the practice of mass-reporting victims’ social media posts expressing suicidal ideation to platforms, aiming to get the posts removed and reduce the chance of intervention or support. Disturbingly, the site has maintained a suicide counter, celebrating deaths they contributed to. Wikipedia, The Washington Post

Victims in the Crosshairs: Notable Campaigns and Tragic Outcomes

The human cost of kiwifarm roflgator’ operations is staggering and measured in shattered lives and tragic deaths:

• Clara Sorrenti (Keffals): Perhaps the most visible recent target, Sorrenti, a prominent transgender Twitch streamer and activist, became the subject of an intense campaign. Her personal information, including addresses and phone numbers, along with sexually explicit photos, were published. She was swatted and arrested for over ten hours based on fake violent threats sent in her name. After her hotel location was identified from a photo of her cat (via the bedsheets), users bombarded it with pizza deliveries under her deadname. Fearing for her life, Sorrenti fled Canada. Her #Dropkiwifarm roflgator campaign was instrumental in pressuring Cloudflare to cut services. The Washington Post, Wikipedia

• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: In a stark demonstration that no one is immune, the far-right congresswoman was swatted twice by someone claiming to be a kiwifarm roflgator moderator. This incident ironically led her to publicly demand the site’s shutdown, highlighting its pervasive threat. Wikipedia

• The Fatal Toll: At least three suicides are directly linked to kiwifarm roflgator’ unrelenting harassment:

  • Chloe Sagal: A video game developer targeted after a crowdfunding campaign for medical needs (misreported as being for gender-affirming surgery) was flagged. Sagal died by self-immolation in 2018 after years of abuse. Wikipedia

  • Julie Terryberry: A Canadian woman who died by suicide in 2016 following sustained targeting. Wikipedia

  • Near (Rei Nishimoto): A non-binary software developer whose suicide in 2021 prompted domain registrar DreamHost to terminate services for kiwifarm roflgator. Wikipedia

• Pxie: A political streamer who filed a federal lawsuit alleging a video of her engaged in sexual acts was published on kiwifarm roflgator without consent, leading to widespread distribution on porn sites, intense harassment, and suicidal feelings. Wikipedia

The Resilience of Hate: Infrastructure and the Fight for Takedown

kiwifarm roflgator’ most alarming feature is its ability to persistently evade permanent deplatforming, demonstrating the fragmented nature of internet infrastructure:

1. Cloudflare: The Critical Blow (Temporarily): For years, Cloudflare provided essential security and content delivery services, shielding Kiwi Farms from DDoS attacks and speeding up access. The #DropKiwiFarms campaign, spearheaded by Sorrenti and amplified by activists like Liz Fong-Jones (a transgender engineer and prior target), relentlessly pressured Cloudflare. Initially resistant, citing concerns about setting dangerous precedents, Cloudflare finally terminated services on September 3, 2022. Their public statement cited “an imminent and emergency threat to human life,” specifically noting escalated rhetoric and targeted threats in the preceding 48 hours. This action briefly knocked the site offline. The Washington Post, Wikipedia

2. The Whack-a-Mole Survival Strategy: kiwifarm roflgator disappearance was short-lived. Within days, it resurfaced using Russian-based service provider DDoS-Guard. When DDoS-Guard quickly dropped them (rendering the Russian domain useless), the site migrated to VanwaTech, a Vancouver, Washington-based provider infamous for hosting extremist sites like 8chan and The Daily Stormer. VanwaTech’s services brought it back online. The Washington Post, Wikipedia

3. Moon’s Countermeasures: Founder Joshua Moon significantly bolstered the site’s resilience by incorporating as his own Internet Service Provider (1776 Solutions LLC, formerly Final Solutions LLC). This gave him direct control over hardware, network resources, and IP addresses, making Kiwi Farms a “peer” on the internet. This status grants him direct receipt of abuse reports and a presumption of good faith, making dislodgement far more complex. The Washington Post

4. The Underground Takedown Squad: Fong-Jones, alongside a former Kiwi Farms member known only as “Clay” (disillusioned by the suicides) and a transgender IT worker, Katherine Lorelei, formed an unlikely but dedicated group. They spent countless hours tracking Kiwi Farms’ infrastructure across obscure providers (“s— hosts”) and leveraging Tier 1 ISP acceptable-use policies. Their significant victory was convincing Zayo, a major Tier 1 ISP based in Colorado, to drop Kiwi Farms after proving violations of its anti-harassment policies. This group exemplifies the immense, often dangerous, personal effort required to combat such platforms when systemic solutions fail. The Washington Post

Table: Kiwi Farms’ Infrastructure Whack-a-Mole

The Unresolved Debate: Free Speech, Harm, and the Limits of the Web

Kiwi Farms sits at the volatile intersection of fundamental internet debates:

• “Free Speech” vs. Targeted Harassment: Proponents, including some entities willing to host the site and organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), argue that denying infrastructure constitutes dangerous censorship. The EFF warned that pressuring Tier 1 ISPs to drop sites sets a “dangerous step” towards censorship, arguing the precedent could be used against platforms like Reddit or Planned Parenthood. The Washington Post

• The Power Imbalance Argument: Critics powerfully counter that this framing ignores the asymmetrical power dynamics inherent in coordinated harassment campaigns. As Alejandra Caraballo of Harvard Law argued, the threats and silencing effect on victims constitute their own form of censorship. Platforms like Kiwi Farms exist primarily to inflict harm, not foster debate. The Washington Post

• Cloudflare’s Dilemma: Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince embodies the uneasy middle ground. While acknowledging the “vile content” and acting against Kiwi Farms, The Daily Stormer, and 8chan, he expresses deep unease. “Deciding what isn’t allowed is the job of governments and regulators, not ISPs and network providers,” he stated, highlighting the lack of clear legal frameworks and the burden this places on private companies. The Washington Post

• The Practical Reality: The relentless efforts of activists like Fong-Jones, Lorelei, and Clay demonstrate that persuasion and infrastructure expertise can disrupt but not eliminate sites like Kiwi Farms. Its persistence on platforms like VanwaTech, or via new domains and mirrors (copies hosted elsewhere), proves the immense difficulty of a permanent takedown in a globally distributed network. As Fong-Jones noted, the narratives that Kiwi Farms is either “dead forever” or “permanently up” are both false; its existence is a constant struggle. The Washington Post

The Enduring Shadow: A Symptom of a Broader Sickness

Kiwi Farms is more than just a website; it’s a stark manifestation of the internet’s capacity for coordinated cruelty and the systemic challenges in mitigating harm. Its longevity stems from:

1. Technical Agility: Exploiting the decentralized nature of the internet, hopping between providers, utilizing obscure hosts, and leveraging the founder’s control over core infrastructure.

2. Ideological Niche: Filling a space for individuals seeking community through the shared persecution of vulnerable “others,” particularly transgender people.

3. Regulatory Vacuum: The lack of consistent international laws and effective mechanisms for holding platforms accountable for facilitating real-world harm.

4. The Free Speech Shield: The deliberate conflation of targeted harassment with protected speech, creating ambiguity exploited by the site and its enablers.

While the efforts of survivors, activists, and ethical infrastructure providers have inflicted blows and raised awareness, kiwifarm roflgator, in some form, continues to operate. Its story is a grim reminder that combating online hate requires more than isolated takedowns; it demands sustained pressure on service providers, clearer legal standards that prioritize human safety, and a broader societal rejection of the dehumanization that fuels such platforms. The victims of kiwifarm roflgator – those driven into hiding, those stripped of their privacy, and those lost to suicide – underscore the urgent, human stakes in this seemingly endless digital battle. The fight to banish this “hell on Earth,” as one former member described it, remains profoundly unfinished.