8chan Is a Megaphone for Gunmen. ‘Shut the Site Down,’ Says Its Creator.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/04/technology/8chan-shooting-manifesto.html
Fredrick Brennan was getting ready for church at his home in the Philippines when the news of a mass shooting in El Paso arrived. His response was immediate and instinctive.
“Whenever I hear about a mass shooting, I say, ‘All right, we have to research if there’s an 8chan connection,’” he said.
Mr. Brennan started the online message board 8chan in 2013, as a spinoff of 4chan, the better-known message board. In its early years, the site was known as an unmoderated free-for-all site populated by anonymous posters, where shocking and offensive humor reigned.
Now, 8chan is known as something else: a megaphone for mass shooters, and a recruiting platform for violent white nationalists. And Mr. Brennan, who stopped working with the site’s current owner last year, is calling for it to be taken offline before it leads to further violence.
“Shut the site down,” Mr. Brennan said in an interview on Sunday. “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.”
Given its repeated involvement in mass shootings, 8chan has become a focal point for those seeking to disrupt the pathways of online extremism.
“8chan is almost like a bulletin board where the worst offenders go to share their terrible ideas,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League. “It’s become a sounding board where people share ideas, and where these kinds of ideologies are amplified and expanded on, and ultimately, people are radicalized as a result.”
Mr. Brennan, who has claimed that he got the idea for 8chan while on psychedelic mushrooms, set out to create what he called a “free speech friendly 4chan alternative.” He was upset that 4chan had become too restrictive, and he envisioned a site where any legal speech would be welcome, no matter how toxic.
Mr. Watkins, who runs 8chan along with his son, Ronald, has remained defiant in the face of criticism, and has resisted calls to moderate or shut down the site. On Sunday, a banner at the top of 8chan’s home page read, “Welcome to 8chan, the Darkest Reaches of the Internet.”
“I’ve tried to understand so many times why he keeps it going, and I just don’t get it,” Mr. Brennan said. “After Christchurch, after the Tree of Life shooting, and now after this shooting, they think this is all really funny.”
But more recently, Mr. Brennan, who has begun attending a Baptist church, has tried to persuade Mr. Watkins to shut down the site. He and Mr. Watkins live near each other in the Philippines, he said, and he often drives past Mr. Watkins’s house on his way to church.
Mr. Brennan said that other websites, like Facebook and Twitter, also play a role in spreading the kinds of violent messages that often originate on 8chan. But he said that those sites have been more proactive about removing dangerous content, making them less appealing venues for a would-be terrorist.
“Shutting it down, having these chan sites pushed underground, it wouldn’t totally stop these kinds of things from happening,” he said. “But it wouldn’t happen every few months.”
In a 2017 interview, Mr. Watkins said of running 8chan, “It doesn’t make money, but it’s a lot of fun.” And Mr. Brennan is hopeful that sustained pressure on Mr. Watkins and his son will get them to change their minds eventually, and take down 8chan for good. “How long are they just going to allow this to go on?” he asked.