This archive report was first published on 5 August 2019.
Published on August 5, 2019, the El Paso shooting has reignited calls for 8chan's shutdown, with its creator, Jim Watkins, facing intense scrutiny.
Mr. Watkins has been criticized for allowing the site to become a hub for violent ideologies, with many accusing him of being insensitive to the harm caused by 8chan's users.
‘I’ve tried to understand so many times why he keeps it going, and I just don’t get it,’ said Brian Brennan, a critic of 8chan. ‘After Christchurch, after the Tree of Life shooting, and now after this shooting, they think this is all really funny.’
Mr. Watkins did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Cloudflare, a company that provides website protection services, including to 8chan, has been under pressure to cut ties with the site. In 2017, Cloudflare shut down the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi hate site, after the Charlottesville rally.
However, Cloudflare's CEO, Matthew Prince, has expressed reservations about revoking 8chan's protections, citing concerns about jeopardizing law enforcement investigations.
‘If we kicked 8chan off our network, the crowds would cheer, and we’d suddenly not be in the middle of this horrible tragedy,’ Mr. Prince said. ‘But law enforcement would have less visibility into what’s going on.’
Another company, Tucows, which controls 8chan's domain name registration, has no plans to disable the site's web address.
