Leaders of the House Homeland Security committee Tuesday called on the owner of 8chan to testify on his website's handling of racist and violent messages, after the alleged gunman in the El Paso mass shooting was linked to an anti-immigrant screed on the site prior to the attack.
Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.
) and the panel's ranking member, Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), demanded that Jim Watkins “provide testimony regarding 8chan’s efforts to investigate and mitigate the proliferation of extremist content, including white supremacist extremist content, on your website.”The fringe website, known as a haven for white nationalists, has faced a wave of scrutiny after the El Paso shooting on Saturday, which left 22 dead. It’s at least the third incident this year in which manifestos tied to mass shootings have popped up on 8chan.
In March, an account believed to belong to the gunman who killed over 50 in a pair of mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, aired white nationalist sentiment in a post on the platform. And in April, an individual who identified himself as the suspected gunman behind an attack on a synagogue near San Diego, Calif., posted racist views on the forum.
“Americans deserve to know what, if anything, you, as the owner and operator, are doing to address the proliferation of extremist content on 8chan,” Thompson and Rogers added.
A representative for 8chan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Watkins, the 8chan owner, claimed in a video statement today that the “manifesto was not uploaded” by the shooter, but said he did not know if the suspect penned it.
Watkins also tore into internet infrastructure company Cloudflare, which withdrew service from 8chan over the shooting. He called it a “cowardly” and “political” move.Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine