*(CNN) – A few weeks ago, on May 14 (2022), an anonymous user of the online forum 4chan wrote: “Just 20 minutes ago, I just witnessed a mass shooting at a high-end supermarket on twitch with around 20 other viewers. “
The hate-filled 4chan forum, where all users post anonymously, appears to be in the midst of the internet-designed bloodbath that took place Saturday at a Buffalo supermarket, stemming from discussions on the platform that encouraged the alleged attacker to broadcast the gruesome video. of the shooting
A 180-page document attributed to the man suspected of the shooting, in which 10 other people were killed, refers to how he influenced through what he saw on 4chan, adding how he cheered up watching a video of the 2019 mass shootings. in Christchurch, New Zealand, which were also broadcast live.
Ben Decker, chief executive of Memetica, a risk research company, told CNN: “This is a step-by-step imitation attack from Christchurch, whether it’s the real-world attack; making plans and target selection, and online; coordinating the live broadcast and broadcast of the manifesto on marginal bulletin boards.
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4chan, which was created in 2003, claims to get 22 million exclusive visitors per month, some of them in the United States.
While forum hosts on a variety of topics, adding video games, memes and anime, and says it has regulations that oppose racism, its lax technique for moderating content means that unauthorized hate speech through more conventional platforms spreads more freely on 4chan.
4chan is a component of Internet. Si’s Wild West while Big Tech platforms like Facebook and Twitter at least search their sites, almost everything happens on 4Chan. Parts of their forums are almost exclusively loyal to sharing racist and anti-Semitic memes and tropes.
A similar site, 8kun, which was originally called 8chan and was derived from 4chan when that forum banned the movement known as Gamergate, has been linked to other atrocities.
In the immediate aftermath of the Buffalo shooting, some 4chan users didn’t talk about the horrific loss of life, but shared strategies for uploading video of the footage to make more people notice.
Twitch, the Amazon-owned service on which the shooter had live-streamed the attack component, said it removed the video for violating its policies two minutes after the violence in the video began. The live stream itself had only been seen through a small number of people, perhaps as few as 20, according to screenshots circulating from the broadcast.
The 4canners who had recorded the live stream discussed tactics to reload the video to other sites and facilities that could be used to hide their identity while doing so.
Copies of the video circulated online Sunday. Some of those copies would have been viewed millions of times.
Platforms like Facebook and Twitter have banned sharing the video on their sites, but the companies were obviously suffering on Sunday to engage its dissemination.
We don’t have statistics for the Buffalo video yet, but within 24 hours of the Christchurch shooting, Facebook said it had disposed of 1. 5 million copies of the shooter’s video.
The preservation and sharing of those videos through far-right communities on 4chan and other fringe forums would possibly motivate additional bloodshed, according to Decker, as evidenced by what the Buffalo suspect wrote in his alleged document.
CNN reached out to 4chan for comment.