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8chan: Ex-users of far-right site flock to new homes across internet

14 points by frereubu 7y ago

salawat 7y ago
It is rather disingenuous to label 8chan as a "Far-right" website. It's a glorified bulletin board; and is in that sense an ideologically neutral tool. Leftypol/far-left is just as present as the notorious far-right the media has been harping on in the past couple weeks. Frankly, I'm saddened that everyone seems to want to focus on the tool instead of the people once again. It's an infuriating tendency that more than anything I'd like to see stop. If we demonized every tool that can be used to cause mischief, we wouldn't have any able to be freely owned.
- krapp 7y ago
  No one is focusing exclusively on the tool here except for you. When someone refers to 8chan as "far-right", they are not characterizing the software itself as having a far-right ideology, as opposed to the people using it, and the characterization remains correct in the general sense, even if not every member and not every board fits the description. Colloquial language is not required to have the precision of a legal document. And the existence of far-left boards has no bearing on arguments regarding the nature of /pol/ or its effects. Claiming that 8chan is ideologically neutral simply because software cannot possess an ideology is a disingenuous argument to make, as the site's deplatforming was not focused on the software per se, but the userbase of /pol./
- lunias 7y ago
  "Frankly, I'm saddened that everyone seems to want to focus on the tool instead of the people once again. It's an infuriating tendency that more than anything I'd like to see stop." Me too. Not a big fan of thought police. Action police? Sure, seems necessary. That being said, I think that any host is well within their rights to refuse to host content. I just think that it doesn't make much of a difference; except to scatter and make identifying people before they act more difficult.
Fjolsvith 7y ago
8chan will be back, and it will be hardened against DDOS and not reliant on SV good will.

14 points by frereubu 7y ago

It is rather disingenuous to label 8chan as a "Far-right" website. It's a glorified bulletin board; and is in that sense an ideologically neutral tool. Leftypol/far-left is just as present as the notorious far-right the media has been harping on in the past couple weeks. Frankly, I'm saddened that everyone seems to want to focus on the tool instead of the people once again. It's an infuriating tendency that more than anything I'd like to see stop. If we demonized every tool that can be used to cause mischief, we wouldn't have any able to be freely owned.

krapp 7y ago
No one is focusing exclusively on the tool here except for you. When someone refers to 8chan as "far-right", they are not characterizing the software itself as having a far-right ideology, as opposed to the people using it, and the characterization remains correct in the general sense, even if not every member and not every board fits the description. Colloquial language is not required to have the precision of a legal document. And the existence of far-left boards has no bearing on arguments regarding the nature of /pol/ or its effects. Claiming that 8chan is ideologically neutral simply because software cannot possess an ideology is a disingenuous argument to make, as the site's deplatforming was not focused on the software per se, but the userbase of /pol./
lunias 7y ago
"Frankly, I'm saddened that everyone seems to want to focus on the tool instead of the people once again. It's an infuriating tendency that more than anything I'd like to see stop." Me too. Not a big fan of thought police. Action police? Sure, seems necessary. That being said, I think that any host is well within their rights to refuse to host content. I just think that it doesn't make much of a difference; except to scatter and make identifying people before they act more difficult.

Fjolsvith 7y ago

8chan will be back, and it will be hardened against DDOS and not reliant on SV good will.