While Big Tech platforms like Facebook and Twitter at least try to police their sites, almost anything goes on 4Chan. While the site hosts forums on a variety of topics – including video games, memes and anime – and says it has rules against racism, its lax approach to content moderation means that hate speech not allowed by more mainstream platforms spreads more freely on 4chan.Ĥchan is part of the internet’s Wild West. The hate-filled forum 4chan, where all users post anonymously, appears to be at the center of the made-for-the-internet massacre that took place in a Buffalo supermarket on Saturday – from discussion on the platform apparently helping inspire the alleged attacker to spreading the gruesome video of the shooting.Ī 180-page document that has been attributed to the man suspected of the shooting, in which 10 people were killed, references how he was influenced by what he saw on 4chan, including how he was inspired by watching a video of the 2019 mass shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand – which were also streamed live.īen Decker, the CEO of Memetica, a threat analysis company, told CNN, “this is a step-by-step copycat attack of Christchurch, in both the real-world attack planning and selecting the target, and online coordinating the livestream and manifesto dissemination across fringe message boards.”Ĥchan, which was created in 2003, claims it receives 22 million unique visitors a month, half of whom it says are in the United States.
On Saturday afternoon, an anonymous user on the online forum 4chan wrote, “just 20 mins ago I just witnessed a mass shooting at a tops supermarket live on twitch with like 20 other viewers.”
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