Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by whitakerch 2505 days ago
I understand the argument by Epik... I'm not sure moderating this content by law is helping anything. Can the FBI not use sites like these to its advantage in some way? I also understand the existence of these sorts of sites leaves a sanctuary for hateful ideas to spread and grow. And that even if we certainly can't stop them, the big popular ones are easier for people to fall into than some dark net site.

However, I certainly don't agree that Cloudflare should be content arbiter unless they've been instructed to chop 8Chan by the Government. And I believe there is great value in the ability for people to see these extremists ideas and not forget their existence. Not forget our past.

3 comments

> And I believe there is great value in the ability for people to see these extremists ideas and not forget their existence. Not forget our past.

If that's your argument... why not just build a museum? Or have an educational program in schools?

Insofar as racially motivated terrorism is a plague, it seems like you're suggesting that we allow a reservoir for the plague so that we don't "forget our past" experiences with that plague. Contrarily, I'm happy to learn about Yersinia pestis in school or at museums, not by allowing an ecosystem for it to exist.

>Can the FBI not use sites like these to its advantage in some way?

Fedposting is definitely a thing on the chans. One of the documents filed by police for the Poway shooting included screencaps from law officer posts.[1]

[1]https://mobile.twitter.com/TheGatorGamer/status/114009748979...

> unless they've been instructed to chop 8Chan by the Government.

Think Deep State. 8chan was used by the QAnon movement for their communications signaling.