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Flowers and mementos are seen at a makeshift memorial outside Walmart, near the scene of a mass shooting which left at least 20 people dead, on August 4, 2019 in El Paso, Texas.
- 8chan is an anonymous message board that's been repeatedly tied to mass shootings.
- Over the weekend, 20 people were killed and more than two dozen others were injured at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas in a mass shooting.
- The shooter is believed to have posted a manifesto ahead of the shooting on 8chan.
- 8chan creator Fredrick Brennan is calling for the site to be shut down. Its current owner, Jim Watkins, has yet to issue a statement.
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The anonymous online message board 8chan describes itself as, "the Darkest Reaches of the Internet."
That's the first thing you see when you arrive at 8chan. It's at the very top of the front page.
Below it, a dizzying array of hyperlinked text is laid out across a variety of framed subsections. It looks like a website from 2001, and that's intentional. It's low-tech and lightweight, prioritizing its function above all else: As an anonymous message board system for some of the world's most offensive discussion.
It's back in the news once again because of the mass shooting this past weekend in El Paso, Texas - the shooter is believed to have posted a manifesto to 8chan just before the attack. The same scenario played out with the Christchurch, New Zealand shooter.
So, what is 8chan? And where did it come from?