Stalking and Harassment or Archiving and Discussion? The Kiwi Farms Question and Analyzing the First Amendment Online
One of the more interesting and divisive corners of the internet is the area which looks at individuals hailing from across the internet who are deemed interesting. These people and the content relating to them that they put out (or whatever draws attention to them) is then dissected in online forum spaces where anyone can join in on the conversation; this information and subsequent discussions are very frequently archived in case any of this discussed media is deleted by the uploader themselves or the platform hosting the content. They are commonly referred to as “lolcows” by those familiar with this area of the internet.
Lolcow is a portmanteau of “LOL” and “cow,” referring to the online slang term for laughing and that one can milk a cow, thus meaning that lolcows are people who can be milked for laughs. Lolcows are people who exhibit strange, eccentric, or foolish behavior online that others take notice of and then follow these personalities to see what they do next. People commonly looked at as lolcows in this area are well-known figures on the internet (such as YouTubers, video game streaming personalities, and social media stars), specific groups and organizations (typically due to their conduct or internal affairs), untreated mentally ill people (usually schizophrenics or people suffering from other similar/related conditions, among others) who post writings/videos online that are full of odd and delusional beliefs, conspiracy theories, apparent nonsense, and other generally bizarre things, while other individuals are notable, interesting, or amusing for one reason or another.
Perhaps the most notable (if still rather obscure) place where this is done is the Kiwi Farms forums.
Origins
Kiwi Farms is far from the only (let alone first) gathering ground for people on the internet to come and discuss people of interest. Earlier places where this was done were the websites Something Awful (founded in 1999, is a comedy forum that was originally made to talk about weird, terrible things that existed and have fun with them), 4chan (founded in 2003, is an imageboard forum that discusses a vast number of topics in different boards such as sports, guns, literature, anime, manga, video games, politics, and many others is most well-known for its user base often having dark, offensive senses of humor), and Encyclopedia Dramatica (founded in 2004, is a satirical encyclopedia-styled Wiki covering countless subjects written in a style intentionally meant to offend most people) were some of the earliest known examples.
Kiwi Farms itself has an interesting history. Prior to being Kiwi Farms, it was known as the CWCki (pronounced quick-ey) Forums founded back in late 2008, a message board loosely affiliated with the CWCki due to many CWCki contributors and members frequenting the board. The CWCki itself is a Wiki that was created (at the same time as the Forums) as an extension of the Encyclopedia Dramatica (ED) page dedicated to a particularly famous individual. The ED page was created in late 2007 meant to document and catalog everything about an autistic young man in his twenties named Christian Weston Chandler (otherwise known as Chris Chan or CWC), who was initially discovered because of his strange behavior in public that attracted many people’s attention and from a webcomic called Sonichu he created starring himself as the self-insert protagonist and his “original” character, Sonichu, an amalgamation of Sonic the Hedgehog and Pikachu from Pokémon. Due to the shockingly large amount of information on Chris Chan that was being discovered and released (primarily by Chris himself) online at the time, an entire website dedicated purely to Chris was required and so the CWCki in its earliest form was born. (Additionally, the name of the Forums was based off of CWCville, the fictional city Chris created within Sonichu that is named after his own initials and loosely based off the city closest to his home, Charlottesville, VA.)
Christian Weston Chandler is among the earliest known lolcows of the internet and the first major one with by far the largest following of online gawkers for many years to come, making him arguably the original lolcow. Chandler himself is an immeasurably deep rabbit hole of a story full of countless unexpected and morbidly fascinating twists and turns (who is also perhaps the single most documented person in all of history thanks to thousands of articles about him and various things on CWCki) so I can hardly discuss him here and do him justice, so if you have any interest in diving into his rabbit hole, I advise you to search out videos discussing Chris on YouTube, explore the CWCki (starting at the very bottom where they have many places they advise you to check out), or check out this very well-made article that explores Chris and his online following.
Returning back to the Farms, after years of discussing Chris Chan’s many antics and adventures, the then-CWCki Forums began to branch out and discuss lolcows other than Chris. Many of these individuals took notice and began responding to the Forums in videos. Due to speech impediments, accents, or simple mispronunciations, many would botch the name of the CWCki Forums. In February 2015, the Forums was reorganizing and rebranding itself to solidify its identity as a place that discussed all lolcows. Of the names chosen, Kiwi Farms was the most popular amongst users when asked to vote in a poll due to how many mispronounced CWCki Forums and how they would pronounce it in a way that made it sound like “Kiwi Farms,” which the users found to be very amusing and strangely fitting.
Activity
Kiwis (the name for members of the Kiwi Farms) talk about all manner of topics as most forums do, but of course their biggest focus is discussing people they believe can be considered lolcows. Some of them are so big and notable that entire sections of the Farms are dedicated to that individual instead of just one or a handful of threads. In these threads that discuss one individual or group at a time, the original poster (OP) makes a large introductory post detailing the person they’ve found and want to talk about with as much background information they can mention to paint a detailed picture of the individual/group in question so people can better understand why they might be entertaining or fascinating. From there, people joke about the person, ask questions, chime in with their own thoughts, or dig through information and post more to add to the knowledge about them. Archiving is a very common practice on Kiwi Farms, which is usually done by saving and uploading pictures, videos, and writing material the lolcow has created up onto the primary thread just in case their content gets removed for one reason or another.
On occasion, some Kiwis will do what is known as “doxing.” Doxing is the practice of releasing an individuals’ personal information publicly to the internet. Personal information can include real names (if they are only known by an online handle or username), home addresses, work addresses, phone numbers, family information, and personal photos. Doxing is usually seen as someone hacking you to gather your information, but the truth of the matter is that most doxing (especially those done on the Farms) only includes information you can already find publicly online across various sources or through online detective work. (At worst, most doxing that happens on the Farms is usually just someone finding out what a person’s name is, and that’s about it in most cases.) Additionally, some lolcows (whether intentionally or unintentionally for one reason or another) will at times dox themselves. Chris Chan for instance was very well-known for frequently stating his address, phone number, email address, and other personal information about himself for no real reason and without anyone even trying to find out about that.
However, some people on the Kiwi Farms get doxed far more intensely than just a simple name reveal. Some people get nearly all of their information released and then it’s more or less open season. People who are doxed on the Farms to this degree are few and far between and they are generally those that Kiwis find to be extremely detestable, normally due to evidence of illegal or extremely amoral behavior such as pedophilia, bestiality, child abuse, and others. Discussed individuals who perform terrible actions like those mentioned are usually referred to as “horrorcows” instead of lolcows due to their disgusting, disturbing behavior that is horrific instead of simply funny or odd. One of the most infamous horrorcows to ever grace Kiwi Farms was Nickalaus Boyd Stoutzenberger, better known by his online name of Nick Bate, and he was a self-professed pedophile that for years spoke openly about his interest in children until it was later discovered he had assaulted his own half-sister; Bate would then eventually be convicted and sentenced to an effective life sentence (apparently in part thanks to the thorough research and documentation of Bate on his Farms thread and his ED page that the prosecution used in the case), which drew massive site-wide celebration from the Farms.
Doxing is a very polarizing issue on Kiwi Farms, as some believe doxing is acceptable as long as the target is someone who has it coming for being a terrible person and information that’s released is already available publicly. Some believe doxing is acceptable under any circumstances and for whatever reason. Others on the Farms believe doxing is never an acceptable action and only makes people just as bad as the lolcows who do it (as a number of them are infamous for doxing routinely or doing so in the past). However, doxing isn’t something that the forum will stop since they are an incredibly hands-off style of forum and for the most part allow users to do as they please.
Legal Ambiguity, The First Amendment, Notoriety, and Acts of Kindness
Critics of the Kiwi Farms would jump and say the website is a completely illegal affair and much of their activity is also illegal. They would say that what users do there is bullying, harassment, and stalking. Many also point at doxing as being illegal. However, a lot of this comes either from misunderstanding or ignorance. This is because some countries have more strict control over freedoms of speech than other countries and some areas of the globe and the United States have different laws, legal precedent, and perceptions of online activity.
The First Amendment is an incredibly important aspect of American civil liberties, and what many consider to be the most important one. For the people at Kiwi Farms, the First Amendment is deeply tied into their behavior and activity since they are a forum of people gathering to talk and discuss topics, and sometimes the things they talk about or the things they say are things that really irk people in a bad way. In a nutshell, the First Amendment protects an American’s freedom of speech, but it’s not as simple as that as there are other parts the First Amendment covers and there are exemptions to the First Amendment. It also protects an American to follow and practice any religion they want, freedom of speech in regards to the press (journalism), the right for groups to peacefully assemble, and the right for people to petition the government to deal with a problem. Many Americans believe that the First Amendment completely covers all of their speech all the time, which isn’t true at all since it only protects you from your local government and the federal government while private entities are free to do as they please in regards to the First Amendment. Additionally, there are times when your speech isn’t protected by either the local and/or federal government. These instances include:
- Obscenity (primarily cursing, but can also include graphic and/or pornographic material)
- Fighting words (saying things that are trying to provoke someone to start a fight)
- Child pornography
- Perjury (intentionally saying something that’s untrue in a court of law after swearing an oath/affirmation to tell the truth)
- Blackmail
- Inciting violence
- Legitimate, valid threats against someone’s well-being
- Solicitation to commit crimes (contacting someone to try and have them commit a crime)
- Treason
When it comes to the Kiwi Farms, Kiwis will use their freedom of speech to often make fun of people, track a person’s activity and post about it, and if someone thinks it’s appropriate or needed, they will even dox the thread’s cow (be they horror or lol, but again, usually just horror). Their critics deny this as valid free speech protected under the First Amendment and instead say it is criminal cyberbullying, harassment, stalking, defamation, and that doxing is highly illegal. Because of this, and due to how much certain people despise being talked about on the website, a number of individuals have attempted to sue the Farms over the years, but all of these lawsuits have been shot down in the courts. It’s interesting to find out why this is, but it’s all for good reasons.
For one, cyberbullying is not a federal crime, but it can be a state crime. The problem there is that cyberbullying in a legal sense is defined as intimidation or assault that prevents or makes people fearful of going to school. This generally is only applied to minors, but it could be applied to a collegiate level for adults. However, that has a caveat too as cyberbullying is only really covered for when the alleged cyberbully is someone that is a student, parent of a student, or staff member that works at said person’s school. A random stranger can’t really be a true cyberbully, especially if they aren’t even near that person’s area. In some places though, cyberbullying laws are simply online expansions of anti-harassment laws.
That being said, why isn’t the Kiwi Farms guilty of harassment? For one, a website cannot be guilty of harassment because it’s a website. Individual users have to be guilty of harassment. Furthermore, harassment is when someone intimidates another person and causes them distress through acts of contact such as sending letters, sending emails, making phone calls, or visiting places that person goes to or works at. Simply commenting on an online thread talking about someone isn’t harassment and the website as a whole discourages directly interacting and communicating with people that have threads about them; generally most Kiwis agree and abide by that recommendation. Generally the only time people on the Farms directly interact with a person of interest is if that person makes an account on the forum and they begin commenting in their own thread. Additionally, since the website focuses on discussion, people are free to never have to come to the website if they don’t want to, they can leave anytime they want, and they can ignore the Kiwi Farms.
Similarly, the Kiwi Farms doesn’t engage in stalking either, since again, a website cannot be guilty of stalking. This is a much more grey area though since some courts (depending on the nation and local area) could potentially find the activity of some users to constitute cyberstalking, but that’s unlikely and generally the “cyberstalking” that occurs on the Kiwi Farms is completely harmless and limited in scope. They follow a person online to see what content they upload to the internet next or see what they do on social media or other online sites, which said activity is then reported about in the person’s thread and commented on by other people. If that is considering stalking, then the idea of being a subscriber or follower of someone on social media would constitute stalking as well simply due to people publicly broadcasting what they’re doing for the entire planet to see.
Defamation also isn’t applicable as, yet again, an internet website cannot commit defamation and so individuals have to do it. Additionally, to commit defamation, you have to say untrue things that damages a person’s reputation. Almost no one on the Kiwi Farms intentionally makes up something and claims it to be true, and even if they did, that kind of behavior is greatly shunned on the site. Threads about people often post/repost an individual’s very own content and words that they themselves usually put out there, and you also don’t have users pulling a Hulk Hogan sex tape situation where the media was obtained through illegal means. Posting your opinion about a person (no matter how mean it is) also isn’t defamation since opinions are not facts. Jokes are not facts either. This doesn’t mean it’s impossible for defamation to happen on the site though. An individual can indeed commit defamation on the Kiwi Farms, but you cannot blame an entire website for the actions of a lone individual.
Lastly, doxing is something of a messy topic, since it’s a very ethically divisive one and there are instances where doxing is indeed illegal; this illegality is typically only limited to posting information that was illegally obtained or posting information that is used in a campaign to harass or attack someone. Doxing that occurs on the Kiwi Farms, as previously mentioned, consists solely of information that’s already publicly accessible on the internet. Many state and federal websites include personal information about a person and phone books have been listing peoples’ names, addresses, and phone numbers since their inception, so no matter whether or not you’re for or against doxing in any circumstances, the way it’s typically done is not considered an illegal action. Even if it is illegally obtained, then that person alone is responsible for doing a bad thing and should be held accountable for their actions without a whole website getting crucified for what one idiot says or does.
Regardless of one’s opinion on the legality of the Kiwi Farms or its users’ actions, the fact the website is still up to this day in spite of numerous failed attempted legal challenges against them at the very least says something interesting about the issue of the First Amendment and free speech in a global, online space and creates an ambiguous situation for those who are against Kiwi Farms (especially depending on where they’re from in the world).
Additionally, Kiwi Farms has been involved in a few very notable events across its history. One figure the forum talked about, Chloe Sagal, would become a topic of conversation. The video game developer of indie game Homesick requested $35,000 on fundraising site Indiegogo to pay for a surgery to remove shrapnel from her body from a car accident, but the fundraiser would be cancelled by Indiegogo when they found out she was actually planning on using the funds to pay for gender reassignment surgery. Five years later, she would commit suicide in 2018 by self-immolation in what appeared to be a political statement of some sort, but Segal’s friends would say it was due to her inability to get help and being constantly harassed by Kiwis for five years. However, Segal suffered greatly from mental illness and it was reported that she harassed people online herself and at times issued death threats to people on places like Twitter, so these claims of harassment against her are to be taken with a grain of salt when she herself did the things her friends claim were done to her.
Another notable involvement Kiwi Farms had was when a Tumblr user in 2017 claimed to be the author of the infamously terrible Harry Potter fanfiction piece known as My Immortal and that she’d written it to try and find her missing brother; this woman also said Macmillan Press was publishing her memoir about the fanfiction’s creation and her life story as an abused Native American girl in New York. A thread was created on Kiwi Farms questioning the validity of her claims and one of the posters in the thread claimed to be the woman’s “lost” brother, and this poster claimed that she made up everything about herself. She wasn’t the author of My Immortal, she wasn’t Native American, she wasn’t abused, and she lied about her family life. The Tumblr user would then respond to the criticism from Kiwi Farms online and admit that she had lied about her life story and forged documents to validate her lies, but she still maintained she authored the fanfiction. Macmillan Press immediately afterward cancelled the publishing deal.
Its most recent claim to fame is that the livestream and manifesto of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooter was uploaded to the website in a thread discussing the event. This drew the attention of New Zealand police who requested Joshua Moon (the owner and administrator of Kiwi Farms) to voluntarily hand over all data related to the thread’s postings and its posters information (including their IP addresses and email addresses). Moon vehemently denied this request as a violation of free speech and privacy. New Zealand media was in an uproar over the matter, resulting in the government blocking IP access to the site within New Zealand, to which Moon didn’t care in the slightest. (The New Zealand members can just use a VPN to access the site.)
Even though many would like to paint Kiwi Farms as a haven for all the scum and villainy of the internet, a den for cyberbullies and harassers, and a cyberstalker’s dream come true, that’s not the case. While it is full of a lot of people who are rather blunt and crass (which could be a good or bad thing depending on your tastes), the people using the site are still people and have a heart. In 2014, Chris Chan (the man who inspired the creation of the Kiwi Farms and originally was its namesake) suffered a devastating loss when he accidentally burned his childhood home down that he and his mother lived in. Joshua Moon felt terrible for Chris, as he himself suffered the trauma of a house fire when he was a boy, so he helped organize Kiwis to raise nearly $1,000 in supplies, money, and a nice letter to be sent to Chris and his mother to help support them and lift up Chris’s spirits while they lived with someone until the house could be repaired.
Closing Thoughts
I find Kiwi Farms to be an interesting location on the internet. It feels like a zeitgeist of the internet in the 21st century. While there are a few people on the site who aren’t good people, most people there are good people that would be wonderful to be around in real life. They have a passion that is relatively harmless and I myself find interesting, as I too find many of the people they examine incredibly fascinating as someone who first found out about Chris Chan back in early 2015 when I was 15 and would gradually stumble upon many other people like him over the years.
I can’t necessarily condemn or praise Kiwi Farms one way or another since it’s not my place. I’m just someone who occasionally goes there to read about interesting people and read responses and developments in thread. Nor can I really judge for the reason that it’s just a website full of people. It’s like attempting to judge an entire city from a different culture. It’s a website that is usually apathetic to what its users do more often than not and actively encourages its beliefs that you shouldn’t directly pester anyone, you should never make a thread talking about minors, and that they close up the threads talking about someone if that person has completely changed their behavior either through outside intervention to help them become a better person or if they themselves have made the change. If you’re a subject of the Kiwi Farms and you make positive changes in your life that either gets you help or you change to no longer become a public figure on the internet, the Farms has zero issue with you going away and ending the conversation on you. They will lock your thread and end the conversation on you. But if you return doing your same old tricks that get you attention like in the first place, all bets are off and you can expect to either have your old thread unlocked for new responses or a new thread will take the place of the original.
If you all found this post interesting, please comment down below and tell me all your thoughts on the matter.