But why not apply that same slepticism to Sorrenti's story?
Because hers wasn't the only story. Even if she made it all up, if she didn't exist, these evil little tools would still exist.
I'm guessing that none of us here knew Kiwi Farms existed before this thread. I just searched Reddit for more information and there is a recent Technology thread regarding Cloudflare's decision to block Kiwi Farms.
Someone asked: "I am a kiwi, that is to say, a New Zaelander. Can anyone give a tl;dr on what **** is kiwifarms is?"
This response seems to explain the situation well and introduced me to a couple new terms:
"It's a site dedicated to "lolcows" which are people on the internet who people watch and make fun of due to their huge egos, or being terminally online. There used to be usergroups / LiveJournal groups way back in the day that did this. But kiwifarms has grown a lot from those days as it's branched out to more and more lolcows and different types of lolcown (furry, tumblr/Twitter users, trans ppl, international lolcows like Drakenlord.. etc.)
Keffals (who started this) is considered an Lolcow as she's constantly seeking attention on Twitter thus it caught kiwifarms' attention. And it's just been a feedback loop. She makes some drama, kiwi farms discusses and throws more fuel to the fire and she reacts back, leading to more drama (or milk, Like a cow).
Tldr: it's a internet forum specializing on weird people on the web and making fun of them. A relic of the old days."
Kiwi Farms appears to be a group of middle school bullies who pick on the weirdest kid in class. A very recent comment (not yet deleted by moderator) with insight into the group said:
"I lurked that site for years as I followed the Ethan Ralph drama. Maybe other boards were aggressive, but the people who posted in his and adjacent boards were like me: amazed at how crazy dude was and viewed it as a zoo. They had a very strict no violence, organizing rule in regards to the idiots they watched. Again though was just a lurker."
The group apparently splintered off from 4chan when the main focus of Kiwi Farm's attention was Chris Chan. I am familiar with that name. Chris Chan was arrested last year for sexually assaulting her elderly mother. It was a troll from KiwiFarms who recorded a phone call with Chris, where she made these lurid admissions that served as the main evidence in her arrest. Chris is transgender but the jail classified her as male.
I can't find the comment now but one claimed that Keffals would give "underage kids" directions on how to make homemade hormones in order to start transitioning. This is likely based on trolls contacting Keffals and posing as confused kids.
Regarding the recent activity, someone commented:
"I was there to watch it all happen. KF does have a bad rep for the stalking and harassing, I intentionally went there to try to get them to stalk and harass me. Come to find out, someone was already working on something against me."
Another commented: "There's some crazy lore surrounding that site and I'm glad it's down. Allegedly sites like that can be used by state sponsored contractors (that lack oversight) to wage information/narrative warfare against US citizens and are responsible for much death and suffering. 4chan the same. I got hit by some people that seemed like professional trolls and I don't recommend the experience to anyone. I will not troll anymore because of it and I used troll pretty light hearted for laughs. Heck Im not even for absolute free speech anymore, they can make anything into a weapon these days."
Someone else commented: "Many of the things KiwiFarms get blamed for are completely unproven."
That comment was removed by the moderator and only visible because someone else had already responded:
"Oh look a kiwifarms troll."
