8chan, terrorist factory of the extreme right?

Three killings in less than six months, the same website. Since the terrorist attacks in Christchurch, which left 51 dead and 49 wounded in two mosques in New Zealand on March 15, 2019, the name of the 8chan forum almost invariably comes back in an attack perpetrated in the name of white supremacism.

The gunman suspected of firing at a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas on Saturday, August 3, killing at least 20 people and injuring 26 others, posted a racist "manifesto" on 8chan shortly before the act. Brenton Tarrant, who was indicted for the Christchurch shooting, did the same, as did the far-right terrorist who killed a woman and wounded two people in a synagogue in San Diego, California, on April 27, 2019.

Terminating Service for 8Chan - https://t.co/q1Oa9mdySY

group / pol concentrates almost all hate content

Too much is too much, declared Monday, August 5, the computer company Cloudflare who broke his commercial ties with 8chan. Used by nearly 20 million sites, the services of this company are considered essential to protect against certain computer attacks. For its part, Fredrick Brennan, the creator of 8chan, called Sunday for the removal of this platform for free expression pushed to the extreme. He had already distanced himself from his controversial offshoot in recent months.

8chan is, in fact, only the last place in the world where white supremacism, "great replacement" and violence against blacks, Jews or Hispanics are being blamed on extremists. Previously, the Reddit community site, then the forum 4chan, had experienced the same excesses, before raging against its noisy minorities who were asked to pour their hatred elsewhere.

Like these other platforms, 8chan is a collection of sub-forums devoted to anything and everything - video games, new technologies or even web culture - with a very mild moderation of comments. It is the sub-forum / pol (for policy) that focuses almost all hate content and criticism.

The most virulent charge against this haunt for extremists came from the Bellingcat investigative journalism site. "As long as the authorities and the media do not treat these shooters as members of a terrorist organization similar to the Islamic State or al-Qaeda terrorist movement, the attacks will continue to be chained," he said. one of the journalists who spent several months investigating this forum and its members.

This bold parallel is based on the idea that 8chan, like propaganda sites of terrorist groups, incites acting out against designated enemies and "treats the perpetrators of the massacre as 'ours'," writes Bellingcat. "There are similarities in the fact that users upload manuals, guides, or manifestos that can help those who are likely to act, such as jihadist propaganda sites." 8chan provides a collection of texts hatred that allow those who consult them to build an alternative reality - with ideas like the theory of the 'great replacement' or 'white genocide' - which can serve as a pretext for an attack, "explains France 24 Bharath Ganesh, assistant professor of media studies at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands) and specialist on the far right on the Internet.

8chan also introduced a form of "gamification" of the attack. This would strengthen, for Bellingcat, the feeling of belonging to a group. "Since the killings in Christchurch, forum members have been regularly reminding Brenton Tennant of the number of victims and pointing out that this is a 'score to be exceeded'," Bellingcat writes. This terrorist had also broadcast live his attack "with a camera on his helmet as if it was a first-person shooter," adds the site. The author of the slaughter in the synagogue in San Diego had tried to do the same thing. "This gamification is primarily for the celebration of killings on 8chan," notes Bharath Ganesh.

"Terrorism wifi"

But these elements are not enough to make it a terrorist group in its own right, according to the experts interviewed. "There is no established chain of command or hierarchy where there is a prime contractor, as may be the case for Al Qaeda for example," says Matthew Feldman, director of the Center for Analysis of radical right (Extreme Right Analysis Center, a UK-based think-tank), contacted by France 24. There is also no access restricted to members on 8chan and "nothing 'forbidden an opponent to come to speak, which would be unthinkable on a forum of a jihadist terrorist group,' adds the expert.

Above all, "it is counterproductive to call a platform like a terrorist group, because the killing leaders are self-activated terrorists," notes Matthew Feldman. That is, they planned, prepared and executed their attack without outside help, even though their determination was built by surfing and chatting on the Internet.

For him, 8chan is more the quintessence of what he calls "wifi terrorism". Extremists multiply online hate speech by trying to reach the widest possible audience, hoping that this will be enough to push one or the other of the Internet users to act. "It's the same phenomenon as fifteen years ago in London, when Abu Hamza, the imam of the Finsbury Park mosque, claimed his hate message in the public square, except that it happens online," says Matthew Feldman. "Even if we can not predict who will act, it is statistically certain that someone will do it", summarizes this specialist

It is for this reason that the experts interviewed believe that the decision of Cloudfare and calls for the closure of 8chan are a good thing. If it had been an organized terrorist group, the end of a propaganda platform would have only slightly shaken their cohesion. However, in this case, "the members of 8chan will eventually find another platform, but those who have not yet been completely radicalized may not make the effort to look for the new site", assures Bharath Ganesh. In the case of "wireless terrorism", it is important, according to Matthew Feldman, "to ensure that the media on which hate messages are spread are the least important possible".