8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
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Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#2 > Internet hate forum
I wonder if they'd describe themselves that way.
Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#3> Internet hate forum I wonder if they'd describe themselves that way.
4chan used the "internet hate machine" meme for quite some time.
Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#4I'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 was extremely common there, but I don't think this is the part of the site that encouraged actual violence. Rather, among the many ideological threads that were more or less constantly ongoing on 8chan, one of them just straight-up encouraged mass shootings. "The fire rises" is a common phrase I saw there celebrating the frequency of shootings. For instance, here's a quote I saw this weekend (I screenshotted a bunch of stuff like this in anticipation of the site going down):
"holy fucking shit, a third mass shooting toda [referencing an incident near Douglas Park in Chicago], white guy shot 7 people, no one dead yet but the meter is still running!!! shooter still active!!!
its absolutely fucking happening !!! the FIRE RISES!!!"
This was attached to a picture of Trump with the text "it's happening" superimposed.
While 8chan overall was absolutely all over the place, this thread of support for shootings and terrorism was seemingly always present in the background.
Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#5I'm of the opinion that if we suppress it, it doesn't go away. When it comes back, it's much harder to control.
I also firmly believe that everyone has biases and inclinations that are morally wrong. The sooner we learn how to deal with the "good guys" unfair biases, the sooner we can figure out how to deal with the "bad guys" too.
Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#6I guess you could say that free speech has limits that are acceptable.
You know you can't yell fire in a crowded room and not get litigation and charges brought against you.
So, maybe 8chan just ran past the fine line of hate speech vs encouraging acts of hate. I.e you can be racist but you cannot encourage acts of extremism.
If 8Chan was a breeding ground for Islamic Extremists would people be okay with still existing?
Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#7Voxility GmbH? Did they really move 8chan to Germany, a country with very restricted speech?
Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#8I'm still waiting for a new platform to take the world by storm: The freedom of Gab, with sane content filtering options to make it look as tame as reddit so by default users don't see all the fringe crap, but lets them if they really want, right to the legal edge.
Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#9When will the same rules apply to other big companies. FB has never been taken down, and they have been streamig some questionable things. I know its a bit, but look at them. Im just struggeling with the feeling. I have only visisted 8chan a while a go to get a taste whats going on and its like all the other "free" boards, no moderators and it becomes a mess.
Re: 8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
#10I'm of the opinion that if we suppress it, it doesn't go away. When it comes back, it's much harder to control. I also firmly believe that everyone has biases and inclinations that are morally wrong. The sooner we learn how to deal with the "good guys" unfair biases, the sooner we can figure out how to deal with the "bad guys" too.
The already radicalised don't go away, but de-platforming does help.
Sure, there are some alternatives that are harder to restrict and monitor, like if all the radicals move to private Telegram groups or the dark web or something.
However all the vulnerable people at risk of being radicalised are less likely to be radicalised if they're using a similar forum to 8chan but without all the white supremacist and other hateful memes and "jokes", that obviously have radicalised a lot of people. Even if most people just scroll past them.