[atoav]

Your assumption seems to be that the actions of a few (which come with harsh consequences for others) are totally unrelated to the site at hand.

I am not sure if anybody who visted 8chan before will be convinced by that hypothesis. Other than violence in fiction and games, the discourses that take place over there at times do impact people’s lifes in a significant and negative way.

And it really doesn’t matter if it is on the internet or not, if your newspaper would house radical islamists discussing how to blow up the next building, you’d be shut down within a day (and rightfully so). Why should society treat right wing extremism any different?

[dandellion]

So if part of a community engages in criminal activities the whole community should be shut down, with no consideration that part of them might not be doing anything wrong? Do you know who has the same reasoning? "They're all a bunch of X, we should Y the whole place." You're doing the same, just from the other side.

[atoav]

No, if part of the community engages in criminal activity and said criminal activity is discussed and encouraged in said community, then the public has an incentive to do something about it.

Maybe the terrorist also had a membership in the local gym, but as long as they don’t discuss shooting people at that gym the other gym members will not have to fear a shutdown by the public.

The problem is not that a terrorist is member of some group, but that the group is complicit in the actions that follow the communicagions within it, just like I would be complicit as an individual if I convinced my neighbour to hang himself.

If there is a direct legal link would remain to be seen in both cases, but arguing that the culpit’s actions are completely unrelated to the communications about said actions within a group is a bold claim that needs evidence to be backed up (which you certainly seem to have).

Edit: I know that there are parts of the 8chan community which are completely unrelated to that incident and these will see their plattform changed by the fallout of the actions of the few. That is how it is. If you don’t want your plattform to get that kind of press, make sure it is not used by terrorists to plan their actions.

[ladyattis]

Have you see the garbage that's left on 8chan? Go browse /pol/ or /leftypol/ and tell me if these are forums you'd want on your own site. As someone who's been a moderator on web forums before I've tended to use a light touch when dealing with bad actors and trolls but even they wouldn't cross lines that the denizens of 8chan regularly cross and find more ways to be vile in such a manner that is beyond breaking moral codes but also breaking legal ones. Doxing, posting child porn, advocating for genocide, stalking, and etc are all regularly occurring on 8chan since its inception. Basically, 8chan is what you get when you don't use the ban hammer. It's why 4chan oddly is marginally more well behaved because Poole/moot before selling 4chan started laying more ground rules like no-doxing (that happened due to the nonsense around 2014 with Gamergate). So, the fact Watkins refuses to manage his site just shows negligence on his part. If Poole/moot can do it then so can Watkins, otherwise he can just sell the site or shut it down. He deserves no other options in my opinion.

[jakeogh]

Ya. They pretend not to wonder; what's the most effective way to attack a public forum?

[Fjolsvith]

I am totally blown away how the left has developed a "Moral Majority" complex.