8chan announced that they would be retaining Benjamin Barr to assist with their Congressional hearing and have released a statement in full below. Some highlights:
8chan has no plans to police “hate speech”
My company has no intention of deleting constitutionally protected hate speech. I feel the remedy for this type of speech is counter speech, and I’m certain that thisis the view of the American justice system.
8chan has banned 47,000 users for illegal content
8chan enforces one content moderation rule on the entire website: “Do not post, request, or link to any content that is illegal in the United States of America and do not create boards with the purpose of posting or spreading such content.”
In 2019alone, the following items were deleted as a result of content moderation:
92 discussion boards deleted
47,585 users banned
132,874 posts deleted
8chan complies with law enforcement
Over the course of 2019 alone, 8chan staff have complied with 56 U.S. law enforcement requests. Before the Christchurch incident, 8chan used to receive a much lower number of law enforcement requests (around one or two a month, sometimes none). Foreign law enforcement requests are usually handled through American authorities.
