An American Internet forum called Kiwi Farms is centred on harassment of online personalities and communities it refers to as “lolcows”, a portmanteau of “lol” and “cows”, referring to those who can be milked for laughter. The platform is infamous for abusing trans-people and neurodivergent individuals, whom they consider as a deviation from societal norms.
Transgender rights advocates have long opposed Kiwi Farms, which the New York Magazine reportedly called “the web’s biggest community of stalkers”. But on August 31, an unexpected ally joined the campaign to shut down the notoriously anti-trans site.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right Georgia Republican who was targeted by police in a “swatting” incident related to the website, joined the clamour of people demanding action against Kiwi Farms.
The leader of the #DropKiwiFarms movement, Clara Sorrenti, tweeted, “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON,” in response to the campaign’s newest potential member.
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What exactly is Kiwi Farms?
According to the website’s self-description, Kiwi Farms is an online forum and image-sharing platform devoted to harassing and teasing those whom the members believe to be “eccentric” and “voluntarily making fools of themselves”. Thread targets are frequently the victims of doxing, as well as other types of organised group trolling, harassment, and stalking, including in-person abuse.
The CWCki forum was first established in 2009 as an imageboard to harass Christine Weston Chandler, commonly known online as “Chris Chan” or “Sonichu”.
But according to KnowYourMeme, the forum changed its name to Kiwi Farms in February 2015, signalling a change in the website’s priorities.
Josh Moon is the founder of Kiwi Farms and former administrator of 8chan- which is another repository for white supremacists, religious extremists and mass murderers, according to Business Insider.
Why is it dangerous for Americans?
Kiwi Farms has been accused of doxxing (archiving controversial materials like manifestos by mass shooters and recordings of their live streams) and swatting (the practice of sending an urgent, false tip to the police about a violent crime in a victim’s home in the hopes that law enforcement will raid it and possibly harm the person inside).
The forum has a sizable collection of private information of their targets that is utilised to harass them repeatedly. Their database also includes social media images of the friends and families of their targets, as well as contact details for their employers. By circulating false allegations of targets being paedophiles or criminals, the information is utilised to try to get their targets fired or socially isolated. Online abuse and stalking have destroyed several lives of victims, including some of them dying by suicide.
While websites like 4chan and 8chan can pose significant hazards to national security, Fredrick Brennan, who has previously collaborated with Kiwi Farms’ founder at 8chan, cautioned that what Moon is doing on a more organised website is worse because “he’s actually targeting specific people.”
How Kiwi Farms is changing the political landscape of America
Experts worry that Kiwi Farms is beginning to target other areas and that other political parties are copying its intimidation strategies against political rivals.
“This kind of Kiwi Farms thing could easily become, say, an FBI agent database. It would not be hard,” cautioned Brennan. According to Brennan, harassment tactics currently being used against transgenders might easily be redirected towards more important objectives and government targets including the FBI.
According to CNBC News, experts warn that if current efforts to shut down the forum are unsuccessful, Kiwi Farms’ target list and methods may change as a culture war can be sparked just before the 2024 election, potentially affecting LGBTQ individuals and posing a threat to national security.
