Nigeria’s seventh-most-visited website, Nairaland, is facing a blackout after Cloudflare, an American content delivery company, took its server offline on Monday, 18th December, following an abuse report filed a week ago.
Nairaland’s founder, Seun Osewa, has confirmed the shutdown, though the specific nature of the reported abuse remains unclear. Osewa initially announced on Monday that Nairaland’s website was undergoing “unscheduled maintenance” by Cloudflare. However, on Tuesday, he clarified that the server was down due to an oversight on his part regarding an abuse report filed on 14th December. Osewa removed the offensive content after the takedown.
Cloudflare, known for providing security and reliability services to millions of websites, prohibits activities such as hate speech, malware, and copyright infringement. The company’s decision to take down Nairaland has raised questions about the handling of similar incidents on other platforms.
Launched in 2005, Nairaland, boasts around 3 million registered users, serving as a forum for a wide range of topics, including news, politics, entertainment, and technology. Despite its popularity, the platform has faced criticism for lax content moderation and a dated design that has remained largely unchanged since its inception.
The takedown has sparked concerns about the rashness of Cloudflare’s decision, prompting comparisons with other global forums like Reddit. The timeline for resolving the incident also remains unclear.
The future of Nairaland is uncertain, but it is apparent that the platform will need to evolve and implement changes upon its return.
