8Chan Owner Claims El Paso Terror Manifesto Was Originally Posted on Instagram, Not His Platform

8Chan owner Jim Watkins released a video address on YouTube today where he addressed accusations from the media about his website and expressed condolences for the victims of the mass shootings in El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH over the weekend.

He began the video by mentioning that he watched President Donald Trump’s national address before admonishing the mass killers, who he said were likely mentally insane.

“It is a tragedy for those families. It is a tragedy for Mexico and the United States of America. It is indeed such a sad day and time in the history of the world,” he said.

Watkins claims that his company always works with law enforcement and that they were helping law enforcement find information to help their investigations “within minutes” of these tragedies.

“We have never protected illegal speech, as it seems that we have been accused of by some less than credible journalists. We have responded with both vigor and integrity every single time that a threat of violence has been posted and information for it has been requested by law enforcement,” Watkins said.

He believes that attacks on 8chan are essentially attacks on digital free speech, as he describes his internet forum as “an empty piece of paper for writing on.” This is why Watkins believes that Cloudflare, a popular tech service firm, pulling their infrastructure support for 8chan is such an injustice.

“We are working to restore service. Thank you to the incredible people and companies that are helping with this task. It is clearly a political move to remove 8chan from Cloudflare. It has forced a lot of people to find other places to talk,” he said.

Watkins noted in his video that the El Paso killer actually posted his manifesto on Instagram, and it was only posted later in second-hand fashion on 8chan. He believes his forum is the latest target in the political establishment’s war against free speech.

“It is actually sinister behavior. Ours is one of the last independent companies that offer a place you may write down your thoughts free from having to worry about whether they are offensive to one group or another,” Watkins said.

“Power consolidation of the media beginning as radio and TV stations were gobbled up by a few strong and rich companies is now moving at a breakneck pace through the internet. It will effectively silence the masses and leave them with no place to voice their messages,” he added.

The entire video address can be seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKPdbEAmWGE

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