The mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, has put a spotlight on 4chan, a largely unmoderated site that has been the breeding ground for several tragedies and controversies over the years and appears to have played a role in inspiring Saturday’s attack. Despite the role it may have played in the horrific events in Buffalo, the platform and its owner have not issued any statement. Links to copies of the graphic shooting video and praise for the gunman continue to pop up around the platform. This lack of action reveals a complicated truth about the internet landscape: An online platform that dismisses outside criticism from users and advertisers can host racist hate speech and facilitate user radicalization with few consequences. In a 180-page document that is believed to be authored by the alleged murder suspect, he said he began visiting the online forum site 4chan in 2020, drawing inspiration from racist and hateful threads and weapons forums. He also appears to have hinted at his plans on 4chan, according to an online diary that has been attributed to the suspect. (…) While major platforms like Facebook and Twitter have multi-faceted terms of service agreements for users that lay out prohibited behavior like hate speech, harassment, racist speech, and more, 4chan has bucked the trend of social platforms adopting increasingly robust content moderation policies. Instead, it exists outside of mainstream social media norms. It’s a place where some users discuss everyday news about anime and video games, but it is also a forum where damaging content that would not be allowed on more mainstream social media platforms has flourished. It is where nude photos of female celebrities have previously been leaked and disseminated, where racism and anti-semitism is cheered, and where QAnon, the conspiracy cult, originated. The site lists a series of rules and warns users that “if we reasonably think you haven’t followed these rules, we may (at our own discretion) terminate your access to the site.” But it’s not clear if or how the rules — which prohibit, for example, posting personal information or sharing content that violates US law — are enforced. In some cases, they appear to be ignored; for example, they state that racist posts are only allowed on a certain thread, but rampant racism is easily found throughout the site. Immediately following Saturday’s shooting, some of those same forums on 4chan were used to help disseminate the shooter’s video — which otherwise might only have been viewed by the approximately 20 people who watched the livestream before it was removed by game streaming site Twitch — writings purportedly attributed to him. Days later, they remain online and, in some cases, continue to feature praise of the shooter or support for the conspiracy theories that appear to have motivated him. Links to copies of the graphic video in which the gunman shoots innocent customers and his alleged writings have continued to pop up around the site. Other, similar sites like Gab and Kiwi Farms were also used in the wake of the attack to distribute the video of the shooting and the alleged shooter’s writings, according to online extremism researcher Ben Decker. In an unsigned email Kiwi Farms in response to a CNN request for comment, the site said it considered the video “safe to host” after it originally aired on Twitch. (Twitch says it removed the video from its site within two minutes of the attack starting.) Gab did not respond to a request for comment.
via cnn Following Buffalo shooting, 4chan shows how some platforms are accountable only to themselves