8chan was never shy about their goal for a "dark" web experience.
Anonymous message board 8chan has been known to harbor users with extreme views.
Via Wikipedia:
The site has been linked to harmful internet subcultures and activism, as well as to multiple mass shootings in the United States and New Zealand. The site is also known for its presence of child pornography, and as a result is removed from Google Search.
Today, after several outages, 8chan was cut off by their web service provider.
CONFIRMED: @voxility has just cut off their services to https://t.co/PAZtAtjv2G and Bitmitigate, which just saved 8Chan. Crazy. https://t.co/PfTz9BZlb3
— Sleeping Giants (@slpng_giants) August 5, 2019
The shutdown comes after the Associated Press Reports the El Paso shooting may have been preceded by an online screed.
About 20 minutes before the shooting started at an El Paso Walmart, a rambling screed was posted to an online message board saying the massacre was in response to an “invasion” of Hispanics coming across the southern border....
Investigators increasingly believe these are the words of 21-year-old suspect Patrick Crusius
The CEO of Cloudflare, the site's previous provider issued a statement on their blog.
The mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio are horrific tragedies. In the case of the El Paso shooting, the suspected terrorist gunman appears to have been inspired by the forum website known as 8chan. Based on evidence we've seen, it appears that he posted a screed to the site immediately before beginning his terrifying attack on the El Paso Walmart killing 20 people.
ICYMI: If you're still wondering if 8Chan is a domestic (or international) terror threat, here's them discussing how to make chemical weapons / bombs. Captured yesterday, I've redacted the ingredients: pic.twitter.com/uTuzEwiedh
— (@th3j35t3r) August 5, 2019
The New York Times reports Fredrick Brennan, the creator of 8chan is on board with a shutdown.
“Shut the site down,” Mr. Brennan said in an interview. “It’s not doing the world any good. It’s a complete negative to everybody except the users that are there. And you know what? It’s a negative to them, too. They just don’t realize it.”
There is a debate on the efficacy of the shutdown.
Counterpoint: https://t.co/W3Ubmhox5S
— Jane Coaston (@cjane87) August 5, 2019
Some 8chan users are already returning to 4chan.
There's currently a 4chan thread where users are complaining about 8chan "refuges" flooding their boardshttps://t.co/9BZzPj0mtu pic.twitter.com/gpTa3QE5ej
— Ryan Broderick (@broderick) August 5, 2019
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