The controversial website 8chan, allegedly used by the El Paso shooter to post a hate-filled screed before killing 20 people at a Walmart over the weekend, was taken offline Monday.
The internet infrastructure company Cloudfare that hosted 8chan
FFS, the word is Cloudflare. And the website has not been “taken down”, it is just that their hosting provider has said, “no thanks”. “Taken down” implies that the owners of the site shut it down, and that has not happened. The owners of the site can and likely will find a new hosting provider. Journamalism!
Oh, don’t worry, I’m sure there is a Russian hosting site that is willing to put it back online for free, just like they did with Wikileaks after they got booted by their hosing service after the CIA/NSA leaks.
This is too good of an opportunity to sow division and hatred in “Amerika” for them to pass up.
Cloudflare isn’t even a hosting provider. It’s a middleman that protects sites from bad things like DDOS attacks, while helping to speed sites up with automatic caching.
Ok, I’ve never used cloudflare’s services. Would you describe them as a “scaling provider”? Regardless, the 8chan website is still up, but with less volume capacity.
This appears to be a game of wack-a-mole that can’t be won.
A law defining internet hosting companies to be inherently liable for anonymous content on their network might just solve this particular problem.
Say, Elon Musk? Perhaps you could offer a solution with your new star flight experiments?
Or, as Der Doofus would say, “You don’t like being here? Go back to your OWN planet!”
If you’re looking for articles that are expertly proofread and copyedited, you won’t find them here. It’s just not a priority and unfortunately probably never will be.
Yeah, but when you hit those motherfucking moles it feels good.
But I’m a little hesitant to go after hosting companies with legal means. It might not even stand Constitutional scrutiny. However, a pattern of this kind should mean that other companies that use the service can be pressured to change their hosts, and maybe the hosts will take notice.
8chan will find another host nor is there any point in trying to squelch it. The solution is gun control, serious gun control.
Let’s all review the 1st amendment, shall we? As the saying goes, “I abhor what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” But no commercial provider is required to retain any of their customers, and it looks like cloudflare just said “fuck this shit”.
8Chan has moved to @bitmitigate
took them less time than I expected.
No, but as I told Josh once i just want headlines and exposition got right. And I consider correctly spelling the name of one of the principals to be part of the exposition.
The first amendment and laws applied to liable have coexisted in this country for a very long time.
I didn’t say just prosecute them because they say bad things.
We’ll look at that. 8Chan is already back up with an “embrace infamy” tag line right on the front of their home page.
I see no reason for hesitation. They knew what they were hosting when they had Stormfront. They knew what was going on with 8Chan.
IMO, when they allow someone to use their tools to do something illegal anonymously, they should assume the liability.
(The emphasis is for the free-speech absolutists)
Exactly. I much prefer this current action to trying to outright ban any speech. Denying it a platform is perfectly acceptable, and pressuring companies is valid, without ripping up the constitution.
Good point, ignoreland.
So 8Chan already has a new host. Who is that? Who else shares that host? Perhaps they can be pressured to leave the 8Chan enabler. I would not be happy viewing any content provided by that host, so if the info on who to avoid was made public, I’m right there.
What was done illegally? A bunch of idiots trading fantasies of how to commit crimes is hardly illegal. Abhorrent and distasteful, sure. But not illegal.
If it was, Hollywood script writers should all be in prison - - how many bank robberies have they dreamed up, just for one example.
Maybe after the civil suit we’ll know. In regards to this incident my half-baked idea would likely not make a difference.
I’m looking forward and thinking of ways to provide tools for policing some of the more screwed corners of the internet in this country. One way to prevent people from saying godawful shitty things that lead to doing godawful shitty things is not allow them to say them anonymously.
Hollywood scriptwriters don’t do their jobs anonymously.