JLens Flags Cloudflare's Failure to Prevent Its Services from Being Used by Websites that Spread Graphic Violence, Extremism, and Foreign Terrorist Content, Citing ADL Report
JLens Plans to Vote WITHHOLD on the Election of Select Cloudflare Board Members at 2026 Annual Meeting
JLens today announced that Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE:NET) ("Cloudflare" or the "Company"), an industry-leading internet infrastructure provider, has a record of providing critical web services to high-threat sites that peddle violent extremism and terrorism, according to research from ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) published today.
The new ADL report found that the Company currently serves as an infrastructure provider to gore forums like WatchPeopleDie, whose users have been tied to at least six violent attacks worldwide that have killed 12 people and injured scores more in just over two years, sites dedicated to violent extremism and white supremacist accelerationism that venerate mass killers and collectively reach thousands of people, and propaganda outlets for ISIS, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization that has killed thousands in global terror attacks.
Across these disparate platforms, antisemitic rhetoric is a recurring theme, ranging from the tropes and memes of extremist subcultures to explicit calls for violence against Jews found in terrorist propaganda. Cloudflare ensures these spaces maintain their online presence through a broad suite of services, including its widely used Content Delivery Network (CDN), which speeds up website load times by routing visitor traffic to the closest global caching server.
"Cloudflare has failed to meaningfully curtail the proliferation of content designed to stoke hate and violence," said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director. "The Company's claim that it merely serves as a ‘pass-through' utility is no excuse. By providing the infrastructure that enables hateful messages to reach and influence a wide audience, we believe the Company has failed in its risk oversight responsibility."
According to the Company's website and public disclosures, Cloudflare operates in more than 190 countries, serves millions of internet properties globally, and is reportedly used by more than 22 percent of all websites worldwide.
Enabling Sources of Hateful, Violent Content
Cloudflare's record demonstrates that it can, and does, block content when it determines that such content presents unacceptable risk. However, it appears that these situations have generally occurred only after public crisis points, rather than pursuant to a clear, consistently applied risk framework.
For example, Cloudflare terminated services to:
- The Daily Stormer, but only after the site publicly claimed Cloudflare "secretly supported" its ideology;
- 8chan, but only after the site was linked to three mass shootings in five months, including in El Paso, Texas;
- Kiwi Farms, but only after what Cloudflare's Chief Executive Officer, Matthew Prince, called an "unprecedented emergency and immediate threat to human life." In each case, the company framed its decision as an exceptional act rather than the application of a consistent policy.
"Cloudflare is actively sustaining the digital infrastructure of gore forums linked to deadly attacks, sites that glorify mass killers and ISIS propaganda networks," said Oren Segal, ADL Senior Vice President of Counter-Extremism and Intelligence. "While industry peers prohibit content that incites violence and terrorism, Cloudflare appears to cloak itself in the fiction of neutrality — calling itself a ‘pass-through' utility seemingly in an effort to avoid accountability for the hate it keeps online. That's not a policy position. It's a choice. We're calling on Cloudflare to abandon its reactive posture and implement proactive moderation — because the threats enabled by its platforms are not hypothetical. They can be lethal."
This report is a product of the ADL Center on Extremism and the ADL Center for Technology and Society.
JLens Plans to Vote WITHHOLD on the Election of Select Board Members
JLens, a Registered Investment Advisor that empowers investors to align their capital with Jewish values, which serves as the Investment Advisor to certain Cloudflare shareholders, plans to vote WITHHOLD on the election of select Cloudflare directors at the Company's 2026 annual meeting based on what it views as a failure of Board oversight. According to JLens, Cloudflare's continued service to high-risk customers, including websites associated with graphic violence, violent extremism, terrorism, and antisemitic hate, raises serious questions regarding whether the Board has implemented adequate controls to protect the Company and its shareholders from legal, regulatory, reputational, and operational risk.
JLens notes that Cloudflare's failure to establish clear, proactive boundaries contrasts with competitors that impose more robust guardrails against extremist and terrorist content. Some Cloudflare competitors, for example, prohibit customers from using their services to "threaten, incite, promote, or actively encourage violence, terrorism, or other serious harm," while others bar "graphic or violent" content and hate speech. In JLens' view, Cloudflare's unwillingness to adopt comparable standards reflects a broader governance failure, particularly given the foreseeability of the risks involved.
"We believe the Cloudflare Board's inaction puts shareholder value at risk. The Company must adopt governance reforms that peers already have in place, including an acceptable-use policy prohibiting service to websites dedicated to graphic violence, violent extremism, or terrorism, independent review of sanctions controls, expanded transparency reporting, and standing Board-level oversight of high-threat-customer exposure. Absent meaningful Board-level action, JLens plans to vote WITHHOLD on the election of select directors at the Company's 2026 annual meeting to register concern regarding the Board's oversight of these risks," said Ari Hoffnung, Managing Director of JLens.
About ADL
ADL is the leading anti-hate organization in the world. Founded in 1913 to protect the Jewish people, ADL works to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and secure justice and fair treatment to all. In the face of rising antisemitism and extremism, we protect, advocate, and educate, through a mix of programs and services using the latest innovations and technology, and seek to create a world without hate. More at www.adl.org.
About JLens
Founded in 2012, JLens is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and Registered Investment Advisor that empowers investors to align their capital with Jewish values and advocates for Jewish communal priorities in the corporate arena. JLens' Jewish Investor Network is composed of 40 Jewish institutions, representing $15 billion in communal capital. In 2022, JLens established an affiliation with ADL (the Anti-Defamation League), the leading anti-hate organization in the world. More at www.jlensnetwork.org.
PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS NOT A PROXY SOLICITATION AND NO PROXY CARDS WILL BE ACCEPTED. The Anti-Defamation League and JLens are not asking for your proxy card and cannot accept your proxy card. Please DO NOT send us your proxy card.
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Media:
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ADL
Jessica Cohen
929-618-6393
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