A charity dedicated to providing support to victims of revenge porn and image abuse has accused one of the world’s largest content delivery networks of protecting sites that host images of child abuse.

Cloudflare is a US-based web infrastructure and website security company that provides content delivery network services, DDoS mitigation, internet security and distributed domain name server services.

Campaigners from Battling Against Demeaning & Abusive Selfie Sharing (BADASS), say Cloudflare makes it easier for its clients to evade detection by “hiding” the locations of the sites sharing the illicit content.

“Because these sites frequently change hosting providers, and because their hosting information is hidden behind Cloudflare’s proxy servers, we are limited in helping victims remove their nude images,” the charity said.

The charity believes it is the company’s responsibility to reveal the real IP of its clients when they sharing such content so that law enforcement can take them to task. However, Cloudflare has countered this accusation insisting that it is powerless because it does not host the guilty sites.

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BADASS claims it made Cloudflare aware that three of its clients’ websites were showing indecent images, including ones of child abuse over a year ago. The three websites reportedly state any take down notice would be ignored, one of which allegedly lets users search a catalogue of abusive images.

Frustrated by the lack of response from Cloudflare, the charity mounted a Twitter campaign to get the company to take notice. Cloudflare’s director of trust and safety eventually responded and asked the charity to send a detailed report of its complaints.

Charity advocate Emily Wilson told the BBC: “We hope that, by making noise, we will finally receive a response from Cloudflare. We’re hopeful that they will end their relationship with these sites that profit off the exploitation of non-consenting women and and girls.

“All of our efforts have made no difference, and we are now publicising our efforts to get some public pressure.”

Cloudflare has previously come under fire over claims it makes the take down of illegal content harder. Earlier this month, during a spat with the Motion Picture Association over piracy, a Cloudflare representative said: “Cloudflare does not host the referenced websites, cannot block websites, and is not in the business of hiding companies that host illegal content – all facts well known to the industry groups based on our ongoing work with them.”

In the past, Cloudflare has opted to terminate its services to controversial clients such as neo-Nazis site The Daily Stormer and 8chan. Within a few minutes of the withdrawal of its DDoS (denial of service attack) protection from 8chan, a forum celebrating mass shootings and used to spread shooters’ “manifestos”, the site became unavailable.