Cloudflare Co-Founder Michelle Zatlyn: ‘Somebody Should’ Decide What to Delete Online
Michelle Zatlyn says technology companies shouldn't be the ones that decide what should be removed from the Internet.
In the decade since co-founding cybersecurity company Cloudflare, Michelle Zatlyn says Silicon Valley has gone from being that “geeky corner no one really understood” to a powerful force under intense scrutiny.
The next ten years, she says, will be all about policy changes, including the implementing laws that help technology companies like Cloudflare decide when content should be removed from the Internet.
“There is a lot of angst around what is legal and what is not. Some of the laws penned 25 years ago don’t take into account that technology has democratized,” Zatlyn says at Fortune’s annual Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, DC. on Tuesday
Last month, nine-year old Cloudflare held an initial public offering. The company has 2 million customers, including small businesses and nonprofits, that rely on its security products to stop cyber attacks from bringing down their sites..
In August, Cloudflare made the rare decision to terminate service for one of its customers, 8chan, a message board that has been favored by mass shooters to spread their manifestos. The company had previously removed The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, as a customer.
“We don’t think we should be deciding what content should be online,” Zatlyn says, however she adds that, “somebody should.”
She says Cloudflare has focused on being transparent about the decisions it makes and why. The conversations about how to handle this problem are tough, she says, since there isn’t a “silver bullet” — but they’re happening.
Ultimately, Zatlyn says, Cloudflare should be like Switzerland, invoking a comparison to the politically neutral country.
“We’re going to provide service to anyone whether we like it or not,” she says.
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—Old Navy CEO says inclusivity is key to the brand’s growth, now and post spinoff
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