December 20, 2025
Cue the Streisand Effect
Flock and Cyble Inc. Weaponize "Cybercrime" Takedowns to Silence Critics
Alleged takedown drama sparks YC ethics questions and Big Brother fears
TLDR: A watchdog site says Cyble, on behalf of Flock, filed false abuse reports to knock it offline; Cloudflare asked for proof and the site promptly moved hosts. Commenters are livid, questioning Y Combinator’s ethics and warning of creeping “techno-authoritarianism,” while others gleefully post receipts and sequels.
The internet’s messy feud of the week: a watchdog site claims security firm Cyble, acting for camera company Flock, tried to scrub them from the web with what they call bogus “phishing” and “trademark” complaints. Cloudflare’s Trust & Safety chimed in with a polite “show your sources,” and the site simply moved hosts—after the author jokes they paused a Baldur’s Gate 3 run as Gale to do it. The comments? Absolutely on fire. One camp is furious, calling it a textbook “silence the critics” play and warning this smells like tech meets Big Brother. Another camp is dragging investors into it: “This is a Y Combinator company—do they have a code of ethics or what?” Others are piling on with receipts, linking a related thread, “Flock Said It Does Not Use Dark Web Data. Code Analysis Tells a Different Story,” and a dramatic sequel drop: Part 2. The mood is pure popcorn: outrage, receipts, and gamer memes. The spiciest take? America drifting toward “techno-authoritarianism,” with Big Tech allegedly treating public oversight like a cybercrime. The only laugh in all this: the site saying, essentially, “brb, switching servers.” The community verdict: if these claims hold up, the Streisand Effect just got a new high score.
Key Points
- •The article states Cyble Inc. filed abuse reports with Cloudflare to remove haveibeenflocked.com, acting on behalf of Flock.
- •The report accused the site of phishing, trademark infringement, operating a fake web page, and publishing sensitive information allegedly obtained from Flock.
- •Submitter details in the report include the name Thomas Siah and the email response@cyble.com; the reported URL was hxxps://haveibeenflocked[.]com/.
- •Cloudflare’s Trust & Safety (Hedwig) responded on Dec 18, 2025, requesting links to original public sources or consent documentation to verify the information’s status.
- •The site operator appealed the suspension and migrated the site off Cloudflare infrastructure, stating the move was completed and future relocations would be straightforward if needed.