8chan owner called to testify before congress

[AriG]

Apparently, it is becoming a liability to own web forums. More ratcheting down after our most recent “problem, reaction, solution “ events.

https://apple.news/AbDZA2FomSMG2RfBHvGqDKQ

[edina]

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[Bill Ryan]

Apparently, it is becoming a liability to own web forums. More ratcheting down after our most recent “problem, reaction, solution “ events.

https://apple.news/AbDZA2FomSMG2RfBHvGqDKQ

It may be worth posting the whole article.


https://time.com/5645945/8chan-testify-congress-el-paso-shooting

8chan Owner Called to Testify Before Congress After El Paso Shooting

https://t1.huanqiucdn.cn/efdc57a98cf550267a73c61f52cf7430.jpg
Crosses with names of victims are placed near the Walmart center on Aug. 5, where Saturday's massive shooting took place, in El Paso, TX.

Congress Tuesday called on the owner of online forum 8chan to testify after the infamous site was linked to a mass shooting (https://time.com/5644314/8chan-shootings/) in El Paso, Texas that killed 22 people.

The House Homeland Security Committee demanded site owner Jim Watkins explain how the anonymous messaging board will tackle “the proliferation of extremist content, including white supremacist content.”

Twenty people have been killed and 26 were wounded in a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas on Saturday. A 21-year-old man is in custody and El Paso police said they are investigating a manifesto that indicates it could be a hate crime.

In a letter to Watkins signed by Rep. Bennie Thompson and Rep. Mike Rogers, the House committee said the El Paso shooting was “at least the third act of supremacist violence linked to your website this year.”

“Americans deserve to know what, if anything, you, as the owner and operator, are doing to address the proliferation of extremist content on 8chan,” it said.

The Homeland Security Committee posted a photo of the letter on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/HomelandDems/status/1158846043859148801/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1158846043859148801&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftime.com%2F5645945%2F8chan-testify-congress-el-paso-shooting%2F

http://projectavalon.net/8chan_Congress_letter.gif

The notorious messaging forum remained offline Tuesday after two tech companies cut ties. On Monday, cybersecurity firm CloudFlare (https://time.com/5643983/8chan-forum-security-service-cloudflare/) stopped providing service, after which 8chan signed up (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-shooting-tech/8chan-owner-called-before-u-s-congress-as-latest-host-drops-site-idUSKCN1UX012?il=0) with Seattle-based Epik, Reuters reported. But Epik’s own infrastructure provider, Voxility, responded by dropping 8chan.

Fredrick Brennan, 8chan’s creator, has called for the site to be shut and told Reuters he regretted making it.

The messaging board’s current owner, Watkins is an American Web entrepreneur living in the Philippines. He responded (https://twitter.com/infinitechan/status/1158900722425110529) to the letter from Congress on Twitter, offering to talk over the phone. “Rest assured I am not an extremist. My telephone should work worldwide,” he said.

Social media sites have come under increased scrutiny for their role in spreading harmful content online. In April, Australia passed legislation (https://time.com/5564851/australia-social-media-law-violence/) to hold social media accountable for what is shared on the platforms, while the U.K. has proposed making social media executives personally responsible (https://time.com/5565843/united-kingdom-social-media-regulations/) for content posted to their sites.

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

It's just too bad these broad measures do not apply to the forever immune Twitter, and Instagram where the shooter initially posted, as Jim Watkins stated.

That said, 8Chan is/was in dire need of putting its house in order. A forum of totally free speech yes, and it's vital we ALL have access to that sort of platform, but 8Chan degraded over time, turning into a rubbish dump of horror and filth. In places it was like trying to navigate through a toxic hell-scape! On the one hand you had hateful or just insane people trolling random crap, at the other, really nasty extremist stuff, which part me could not help but feel slightly suspicious about... Because I wondered, how much of that was totally disingenuous - pure shilling to disrupt the platform, even to threaten its closure? Maybe that's exactly what happened here.