Cloudflare—Cloudflare provided services to websites of designated terrorist organizations including ISIS and Hamas
Between 2015 and 2018, investigations found Cloudflare provided cybersecurity services to websites affiliated with designated terrorist organizations. In 2015, Congressional testimony revealed two of the top three ISIS chat forums used Cloudflare. In 2018, HuffPost documented Cloudflare servicing at least 7 US-designated terrorist groups including Al-Shabaab, Taliban, Hamas, and PKK. Cloudflare stated its position was based on legal obligations rather than moral judgment.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content Moderation | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Infrastructure Accountability | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.362 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.64)× agency (negligent ×0.5)
Evidence (2 signals)
HuffPost investigation found Cloudflare provided services to at least 7 US-designated terrorist groups
HuffPost documented that Cloudflare provided cybersecurity services to websites affiliated with at least 7 US State Department-designated terrorist organizations including Al-Shabaab, the Taliban, Hamas, the PKK, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the al-Quds Brigades, and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
Congressional testimony revealed ISIS chat forums used Cloudflare services
In 2015, testimony to the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs revealed that two of the top three online chat forums and nearly forty other websites belonging to ISIS/ISIL were protected by Cloudflare's services.