> Internet hate forum I wonder if they'd describe themselves that way.
They call themselves the darkest part of the internet
Somewhat ironic, given that they're a haven for white supremacists. :)
8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
301–310 of 1001 posts
Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#302I realize this may not be the best place to talk about it, but is there some good explanation for what seems to be a totally insatiable thirst for white supremacy in America these days? It seems to me like this is the real story here and, for the most part, it is not being covered in any real sense by either liberal, conservative or independent media.
The vested interest media and political parties have in making it seem like there is an insatiable thirst for white supremacy in America.
It's on average not any worse than it ever was, but showing us how bad its always been right now serves a useful political goal in division and diversion.
Its not a conspiracy, just stupidity and greed. Outrage generates views and votes, no cartel required.
Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We wouldn't tolerate the existence of an Islamist site that glorified and helped perpetrate mass incidents of terror against our society. I certainly would tolerate those sites. Free speech arguments aside, you can't kill the hydra, but you can severely degrade intelligence operations watching that hydra. Best case the bad guys all end up on sites already being surveilled, worst case they slip under the radar. We h…
And a few months later ISIS died because the lack of easily-spread propaganda destroyed its ability to recruit susceptible idiots to its cause to replace all the soldiers that were being killed. IOW, mission accomplished.
ISIS is still very much an active organization, even if they don't control physical territory any longer.
Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#304I've generally been on the free speech side of this debate, as some of my previous comments on HN will show. With 8chan, I legitimately don't know what my opinion is. I've read it before, and I spent a few hours reading it this weekend, and it's beyond clear to me that it absolutely had the potential to radicalize shooters and terrorists. I'm not referring to the simple use of racial or ethnic slurs -- of course this…
I'm not really that well informed of 8chan, but bringing it down, while practical, doesn't seem like the ideal solution. Isn't it just like covering your eyes and pretending the problem isn't there? The problem doesn't sound like it's 8chan, but rather these people and their ideologies. If 8chan was brought down, they'll just find another hub to congregate, but now we don't know where to reach them to talk. I thought…
> Isn't it just like covering your eyes and pretending the problem isn't there?
Not necessarily - more like taking the megaphone away. You're right that some/many will find a hub to congregate in, but if it's discoverable by the current 8chan users, there's no reason to think it won't be discoverable by media outlets/journalists either.
Like most things, obfuscation/suppression isn't going to solve the issue, but by providing spaces that allow for discussions, the views can be legitimised in the eyes of people who otherwise may not believe them. I'm for the most part against suppression of speech or views, but I do believe there is a line, and to me 4/8chan can (and do) regularly cross this line.
Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#305What does free speech have to do with this? Cloudflare and other companies have 1st amendment rights as well. One of them is that they can serve customers as they like, as long as they are not violating the rights of a protected class. Political ideology or party affiliation is not a protected class, nor should it be. Twitter could ban every Republican on its platform tomorrow and it if the government tried to stop t…
I mentioned this above. The relevant XKCD
https://xkcd.com/1357/
Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#306Just like how we pull weeds in gardens all year round; deplatforming will remove majority of these users with undesirable qualities.
Right, all those people who were having fun on 8chan will now see the error of their ways, take up sensitivity training, and post only non-controversial things where ever they land next.
> all those people who were having fun on 8chan will now see the error of their ways
Sorry but I can't empathize with your statement since bigotry, racism, hatred, and white supremacy don't come off as 'fun'
Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#307The problem with 8chan is, it's not a cohesive whole. Each board is individually ran and the global moderators won't get involved unless it's content that's blatantly illegal. Not all boards there are the same. Not all the people there are the same. The problem is the hateful supremicists all congregate there. /pol/ is the board where most of them hang out. Other boards have nothing to do with politics and have compl…
> Each board is individually ran and the global moderators won't get involved unless it's content that's blatantly illegal.
That's true for almost every other board, but /pol/ isn't individually run. It was seized by the site administration, and they make its rules.
Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#308Earlier quoted context omitted.
A private company must act as public infrastructure once it becomes a de facto monopoly.
edit: nah
It might not be true in the general case yet, but it's certainly a sentiment I can get behind. Privately-owned toll roads shouldn't be able to ban political opponents - why should the Internet equivalent be different?
Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#309Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reducing the subjective evaluation of the content of private citizens' speech. [Edit: Why would you down-vote? That's the legitimate interest on the other side of the balance. It's not an opinion on the merit of shutting down 8chan. In this case, the benefit in permitting this speech may be grossly outweighed by the benefit of stopping it, but the benefit in allowing 8chan to continue to exist is non-zero. In its mos…
It is both the right and responsibility of every member of a civil society to make ethical judgments about what kind of society they want to create. Free speech is a means to achieve those ends, and not an end in itself.
It can be an end itself if you find that any limits are prone enough to corruption to not be tolerated.
Take encryption. It is used for some of the most vile evil content that exists on the internet. But I support encryption because I know that any limits on it will soon be corrupted by those in power to use for reasons far less just than ending the aforementioned content. Thus I see enabling encryption as an end to itself regardless of how it is used because I see any society that does differently as inferior.
Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#310Earlier quoted context omitted.
Free speech does not require that we give people a platform. Free speech also means that everyone can decide to turn their backs on people saying these sorts of things, and not let them use the things we have built to spread their message.
I would have agreed not that long ago, but a lot of those platforms became defacto public squares. You do not get to benefit from a public good without burdens that come with it.
What public good are they benefiting from?