Thanks for replying. I wasn't sure what I was able to do and did not wish to spam. This is the article. It did not actually name him, but when he started to harass the site, and try to have it taken down, I started to document this in further stories. Unfortunately he is unrelenting. Apologies if the language in the title offends anyone. The site has matured since then and has over 10k unique visitors per month.
https://debunkingtamworth.com/2023/10/tamworth-borough-counc...
If you can't get Cloudflare to stand behind you, or a lawyer willing to take your case, a last-ditch attempt might be to reach out to the person who made the claim you published; if they have evidence then you'd be in a much stronger position, since truth is an absolute defense against defamation in the UK.
I wish you luck, I think you're being treated very unfairly here.
I'm unfortunately not that important as a customer for Cloudflare to care. But it is rather chilling that they won't defend free speech.
* Flokinet (long standing host standing for freespeech, very seriously presented)
* Njalla (created by PirateBay founder, will actually troll any copyright trolls, but seems reliable)
* Cockbox (a silly but also likely reliable option)
Also it seems that you'd have been fine using Cloudflare without giving them any identifying details - when I signed up way long ago, they didn't ask for anything...
Some notes:
* Flokinet offers DDOS protection.
* Njalla offers Domain Registry.
* cockbox is colocated through Flokinet.
* Probably don't use cockbox...
In fairness it was not what the blog was set up to do and have since reverted to cause. I was going to take the articles down but after being harassed felt less inclined.
Why put that headline on the post without any evidence to back it up?
I'll be blunt. I believe in the UK (as in NZ) a statement of truth or opinion is not defamatory. One would still have to go through the motions though, to prove it.
Reading the blog post I am left with the feeling you are on thin ice. You don't qualify it as an opinion and it doesn't sound you have evidence to support the claims. Screenshots may not suffice. You would need witnesses and statements or documents to prove it.
You will need these if the person unmasks your address and brings a case to court.
As usual IANAL.
Speaking from my own experience,
Fortunately in UK civil courts are less aggressive than the US courts on laying foundation for evidence. If evidence is challenged you'll have to fight out the merits of the challenge, to be decided on a more likely than not basis. But it isn't like the US where it's so easy for evidence to be precluded on procedural grounds.
OTOH, UK disclosure is way less powerful than US discovery and subponea power. The plus side for the OP is that for the same reason their opponent should have less power to damage them by fishing for private information. Unfortunately, it seems like OP's opponent has managed to buy their way into the best (for them) of all worlds by using US representation to subpoena cloudflare's records. In the UK it's unusual and extremely difficult to force third party disclosure, which means that if OP needs records from someone else to prove their case they may be screwed.