Kiwi Farms

Kiwi Farms
Type of site
Forum
Available inEnglish, except the 'Internationale Clique' subforum for non-English discussions
OwnerJoshua 'Null' Moon
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional, required for certain features
LaunchedFebruary 4, 2013; 13 years ago (2013-02-04)
Current statusActive

Kiwi Farms, formerly known as CWCki Forums, is an American internet forum for discussion about and harassment of online people and communities perceived as eccentric.

The site has been part of many controversies like hosting the video of the Christchurch mosque shootings and for being linked to three suicides.

History

The site launched with the name CWCki Forums in 2013, as a place to troll and harass Christine Weston Chandler, known as “Chris Chan”, a webcomic artist first noticed in 2007 on the Something Awful forums. The name was based off her initials.

The site's new name, Kiwi Farms, was coined in 2014. It now hosts threads targeting many individuals, including minorities, women, LGBT people, neurodivergent people, people considered by Kiwi Farms users to be mentally ill or sexually deviant, feminists, journalists, internet celebrities and video game or comics hobbyists. Targets are referred to as "lolcows", a reference to them being "milked" for laughs.

In 2022, Cloudflare removed it from their DDoS protection due to an online campaign started by one of the site's victims. The site came back online after it switched to other DDoS protection providers, though various internet service providers blocked access to it. After switching to another internet service provider, it has been able to come back online.

References

  1. ↑ Moon, Joshua. "Ad discussion". Kiwi Farms. Archived from the original on April 18, 2019. Retrieved April 18, 2019.
  2. ↑ Menn, Joseph; Lorenz, Taylor (September 3, 2022). "Under pressure, security firm Cloudflare drops KiwiFarms website where stalkers organize". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on September 4, 2022. Retrieved September 3, 2022.
  3. ↑ "Situation eskaliert: Hassplattform Kiwi Farms vom Netz genommen". Der Standard. September 4, 2022. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
  4. 1 2 "Decoding Kiwi Farms, the blocked Internet bully that continues to be a nuisance". Le Monde. September 5, 2022. Archived from the original on September 5, 2022. Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  5. ↑ Baj, Lavender (July 13, 2021). "Kiwi Farms Has 14 Days To Find A New Domain Host After Being Booted Off DreamHost". Kotaku Australia. Archived from the original on October 1, 2021. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
  6. ↑ Wodinsky, Shashona (June 29, 2021). "The Worst Site on the Web Gets DDoS'd After Being Connected to Prominent Developer's Suicide". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on June 29, 2021. Retrieved June 29, 2021.
  7. ↑ Wesolowski, Sébastien (May 27, 2020). "Vaches à lol: dans l'Internet qui harcèle pour s'amuser" [Lolcows: Inside the Internet which harasses for fun]. Vice (in French). Archived from the original on October 1, 2021. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  8. ↑ Kotaku Staff (June 28, 2021). "The Brilliant SNES Emulator Author Known As Near Has Died". Kotaku. Archived from the original on June 27, 2021. Retrieved June 28, 2021.
  9. ↑ Colombo, Charlotte (August 3, 2021). "Kiwi Farms, the forum that has been linked to 3 suicides, was made to troll Chris Chan years before she was arrested on an incest charge". Insider. Archived from the original on October 1, 2021. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
  10. ↑ Hutton, Christopher (August 31, 2022). "Webhost says it won't take down website behind Marjorie Taylor Greene 'swatting'". The Washington Examiner. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
  11. ↑ "Citing imminent danger Cloudflare drops hate site Kiwi Farms". The Associated Press. September 4, 2022. Archived from the original on September 5, 2022. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
  12. ↑
  13. ↑ Asarch, Steven. "The online history of creator Chris Chan, who was charged with incest after leaked audio was posted online about mom". Insider. Archived from the original on March 8, 2023. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
  14. 1 2 Pless, Margaret (July 19, 2016). "Kiwi Farms, the Web's Biggest Community of Stalkers". Intelligencer. New York Magazine. Archived from the original on May 11, 2019. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  15. ↑ Rosenberg, Scott (August 25, 2022). "Campaign pushes Cloudflare to drop trans hate site". Axios. Archived from the original on August 25, 2022. Retrieved August 25, 2022.
  16. ↑ "Social media's 'LOLCow' obsession is curated cruelty". Mashable via Yahoo Life. 2024-11-19. Retrieved 2025-11-02.
  17. ↑ "Cloudflare reverses decision and drops trans trolling website Kiwi Farms | Internet | The Guardian". amp.theguardian.com. Retrieved 2023-05-26.
  18. ↑ "No Easy Way Out: The Effectiveness of Deplatforming an Extremist Forum to Suppress Hate and Harassment". arXiv. 2023-04-14.