Terms of Use Violation

Wordfence is used by millions of free and paid customers around the world to secure their WordPress websites. We serve a broad range of customers across the globe, from diverse cultures, with diverse backgrounds, and who have diverse political views. As an organization, Defiant, the company that makes Wordfence, believes that everyone has the right to being secure and feeling secure.

Our Terms of Use specifically include language that prevents the use of our product to harass another person or entity. The language reads as follows:

“You agree not to use the Service in any way that would interfere with or disrupt the operation of the Service or the networks or servers connected to the Service in any manner; to impersonate any person or entity or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity (including the Company); to upload, post, or otherwise transmit any content that infringes the proprietary rights of any third party, or is otherwise unlawful or offensive; or to harass or otherwise harm any other person or entity. Any unauthorized use of the Service may result in termination of all rights to use the Service and may be subject to legal action.”

It has come to our attention that one of our customers is using Wordfence for improper purposes, including to facilitate harassment and harm to others.

As a result, we have determined that this website is violating our Terms of Use. Per our Terms of Use, free and paid services to this website will be terminated. The customer has been notified of this.

Wordfence is open source software, like WordPress, Linux, Apache, Nginx, and other open-source products that power the web. We do not have the ability to physically remove our software from websites, or prevent someone from installing our software on any website, or to prevent users from modifying our source code. However, both the free and paid versions of Wordfence have certain functions that rely on our servers providing an API to the customer. It is access to this API that is terminated when someone is in violation of our Terms of Use.

Because we cannot physically remove our software from a customer website, you may continue to see messages on a site about being blocked by Wordfence. However, a site that is in violation of our Terms of Use will no longer receive any Wordfence Premium capabilities, such as real-time firewall rules, our IP blocklist, or our real-time malware signatures. All free Wordfence API capability that utilizes our server resources, such as the ability to run a security scan, will also no longer be available to the site.

Regards,

Mark Maunder – Wordfence Founder & CEO