8chan cast out by Cloudflare after El Paso shooting

Internet forum used by extremists predicts it will be back online shortly

The internet forum 8chan, which was used by the suspects of the El Paso and Christchurch mass shootings to announce their intentions, has been forced offline after its security provider withdrew services.

8chan, launched in the US in 2013, had become a destination for online nationalism and extremism and had been linked to a number of harmful internet subcultures.

Cloudflare, the San Francisco-based cyber security group, said on Sunday night it would withdraw services from 8chan.

In a statement, Matthew Prince, Cloudflare chief executive, announced the company would no longer work with 8chan, describing it as a “cesspool of hate”.

“We reluctantly tolerate con

tent that we find reprehensible, but we draw the line at platforms that have demonstrated they directly inspire tragic events and are lawless by design,” he said.

“8chan has crossed that line. It will therefore no longer be allowed to use our services.”

Without Cloudflare’s support, the site became vulnerable to distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks, in which a website is overloaded with traffic to overwhelm its servers, leaving it inaccessible. Within minutes of Cloudflare’s announcement, 8chan went offline.

In an interview with the New York Times, 8chan founder Fredrick Brennan called for the site to be shut down. “It’s not doing the world any good. It’s a complete negative to everybody except the users that are there.

“And you know what? It’s a negative to them, too. They just don’t realise it.”

Mr Brennan cut ties with the site in December, after the mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, which left 51 dead.

The alleged shooter, Brenton Tarrant, is said to have authored a 74-page manifesto, also shared on 8chan and Twitter.

Following the 2017 Charlottesville rally, in which civil rights activist Heather Heyer was killed, Cloudflare withdrew support for the neo-nazi site The Daily Stormer.

Mr Prince said that Stormer had only suffered a “brief interruption” after Cloudflare cut off service before it switched to a rival. “They have bragged that they have more readers than ever. They are no longer Cloudflare’s problem but they remain the internet’s problem.”

He predicted that 8chan would also return to service shortly. “I have little doubt we’ll see the same happen with 8chan,” he said.