The founder of 8chan, the message board known for its ardent support for freedom of speech, has argued that the site should be shut down after the El Paso shooter posted his manifesto on the site.
Fredrick Brennan, who founded the free speech site in 2013, called for the website to end in an interview with the New York Times Sunday.
“Shut the site down,” Brennan. “It’s not doing the world any good. It’s a complete negative to everybody except the users that are there. And you know what? It’s a negative to them, too. They just don’t realize it.”
On Saturday, the alleged gunman who killed 20 people in an El Paso, Texas Walmart posted an anti-immigrant, racist screed on 8chan, outlining his plan to stop the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.”
“I’ve tried to understand so many times why he keeps it going, and I just don’t get it,” Brennan added. “After Christchurch, after the Tree of Life shooting, and now after this shooting, they think this is all really funny.”
In response to the shooting, Cloudflare announced they will be ending their services for 8chan.
“In the case of the El Paso shooting, the suspected terrorist gunman appears to have been inspired by the forum website known as 8chan,” a company statement read. “Based on evidence we’ve seen, it appears that he posted a screed to the site immediately before beginning his terrifying attack on the El Paso Walmart killing 20 people.”
The shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand and the synagogue shooting in Poway, California as well as the El Paso shooting were all announced on the site minutes before the attacks occurred.
