TORONTO 鈥� Notorious anonymous forum website 8chan, which was deplatformed in August due to links to the El Paso shooting, is back online after rebranding as 8kun.
The new site appears seemingly identical to the previous iteration, except for the notable absence of the /pol/ board, which was infamous for hosting some of the sites darkest content, including manifestos of mass shooters, neo-Nazi content and extremely graphic memes.
Jim Watkins, the current owner of 8chan/8kun, remained defiant in the face of mounting scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers about the extremist affiliations on his site, releasing videos on YouTube detailing the progress of getting the site back online and asking users to 鈥渉ang together.鈥�
In the summer, Watkins was subpoenaed by the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee to testify about the website鈥檚 role in mass shootings, including the Christchurch shooting in New Zealand and the Poway Synagogue shooting in California, where both perpetrators published materials on, or interacted with, the site prior to committing their attacks.
After the closed-door hearing, Watkins released a statement through his attorney laying out changes that would be implemented on the new site to combat 鈥渋llegal鈥� hate speech, however Watkins said that the company 鈥渉as no intention of deleting constitutionally protected hate speech.鈥�
On 8kun鈥檚 new site, a warning appears in the upper right hand corner, saying users who post 鈥渃ontent that violates the laws of the United States of American will be deleted and the poster will be banned,鈥� but it is not clear if and how any new moderation policies have been implemented.
Ron Watkins, one of 8kun鈥檚 site administrators and the son of Jim Watkins, that the site was now live, but that he was unsure how they would be able to remain online due to 鈥渁ctivists trying to deplatform us, and hackers preparing to ddos us.鈥�
Watkins also told users that if the site goes down, they , which allows for anonymous, encrypted and difficult to trace communication over a computer network, as there is a 鈥渉idden service鈥� with access to the site on the 鈥渄eepnet.鈥�
Meanwhile, Fredrick Brennan, the original creator of 8chan but no longer affiliated with the site, is continuing his online campaign to have the site shut down.
Brennan has been warning 8kun users, via his Twitter account, that their data is being sent to a Russian ISP 鈥渒nown for hosting malware, phishing sites and ransomware.鈥�
鈥淲ho knows what they will use your data for,鈥� , adding cryptically that user data 鈥渋s most likely being scooped up by the FSB (modern KGB)!鈥�
There are currently 63 public boards online on 8kun according to the site鈥檚 home page, with the site鈥檚 warning that 鈥渕igration is still ongoing.鈥�
