Some really important context for anyone who’s not familiar with JW’s practice of disfellowshipping:

Within the church, dissent or even asking questions has often been punished by labeling members as apostates and ostracizing—or “disfellowshipping”— them. As a result, Doe and others choose to speak anonymously to avoid retaliation that could cost them family, friend, and professional relationships.

Watch Tower knows all of this, of course. That’s precisely the point. They’re not sending DMCA subpoenas to Google and Cloudflare because they have a genuine interest in protecting their copyrights — they’re using the subpoena process as a surveillance tool with a built-in punishment mechanism waiting at the other end.

This is one of the most powerful tools they have to keep people too afraid to even question beliefs.

To add an extra layer, deliberately “working against God” (which is what they label any criticism) is actually treated with even more severity. It gets the additional label of “apostasy”. Some disfellowshipped people, while ostracized, are at least looked upon with some sympathy and occasionally still get some (limited) communication with the community. Apostates, on the other hand, are treated with utter disdain and hatred and have no real path to ever reconnecting with the community again.

For anyone who’s not been in this situation, I cannot overstate how terrifying this prospect is. JWs are very isolationist, so many people in the religion have no network at all outside of the religion. Meaning that the above ostracization is so much worse than losing a family member or two. It often means losing every relationship in your life all at once. I have watched this process absolutely destroy people’s lives, sending them spiraling into depression, hopeless, and guilt.