Trans rights activist Liz Fong Jones takes on Kiwi Farms, a notorious online forum
Liz Fong Jones, a software developer and transgender activist, has been fighting against Kiwi Farms, an online forum that targets and harasses trans people, for years. She says the forum has posted her personal information, threatened her with violence, and tried to discredit her work.
Kiwi Farms, founded by Joshua Moon in 2013, describes itself as a “community dedicated to discussing eccentric people who voluntarily make fools of themselves” on its homepage. However, the forum has been linked to several cases of cyberbullying, stalking, and doxing (publishing private information online) of trans people and other marginalized groups. It has also been associated with the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, as it republished the manifesto and livestream of the attacker.
Fong Jones says she became a target of Kiwi Farms in 2017, when she donated to Trans Lifeline, a non-profit organization serving trans people in the United States and Canada. She says some users of the forum accused Trans Lifeline of being a scam and posted her home address, her biological parents’ names, and a photocopy of her gender and name change on the forum.
“I was worried for my life, that someone was going to turn up with a gun and shoot into my bedroom,” she told CBC Radio1. “I was minding my own business. I was trying to support a crisis hotline for trans people, and now I was in the crosshairs of these people that I’d never met before and that were posting increasingly unhinged and violent threats against me.”
Fong Jones says she reported the harassment to the police, but they did not take any action. She also contacted Cloudflare, a major tech security firm that provided services to Kiwi Farms at the time, and asked them to stop working with the forum. Cloudflare initially refused, saying it did not want to censor content on the internet.
However, in September 2022, Cloudflare changed its mind and terminated its services to Kiwi Farms, citing its policy against inciting violence. The decision came after Kiwi Farms users posted the home addresses of those seen as enemies and called for them to be shot.
Fong Jones celebrated the news on Twitter, saying “Kiwi Farms is down! We did it!” She also thanked Cloudflare for “finally doing the right thing.”
However, her victory was short-lived. Kiwi Farms soon found another service provider and came back online. The forum continues to operate today, despite being blocked by some internet service providers in New Zealand and Australia.
Fong Jones says she is not giving up on her fight against Kiwi Farms. She says she is working with other activists and lawyers to find legal ways to shut down the forum or hold its users accountable. She also says she is using her platform and skills to raise awareness and support for trans people.
“I think it’s important to speak out because there are so many people who are suffering in silence,” she said. “I want to show them that they are not alone, that there are people who care about them, and that there are ways to fight back.”