8chan goes dark after hardware provider discontinues service
The part that I concerned with has to do with discoverability.  If you push these people underground they will not disappear.  That has never happened in the history of humanity.<p>I would much rather the exist in plain view, free to voice their hatred in plain view.  I would much rather the algorithms and people of sound mind monitor these individuals and groups in broad daylight than have them exist behind encrypted radicalization chat rooms.<p>If the standard is to shutdown services that can lead to radicalization and, therefore, harm or death, then the government should shut down Facebook, Twitter, Google and maybe more.<p>Why treat this any differently that 737 MAX crashes?<p>The only reason I can see not to do this is to be able to keep an eye on people who self-radicalize.<p>Sadly I have an example of this in my own family.  We have an older relative (late 70’s) who, up until about two years ago, did not own a computer or use the Internet.<p>He was given a computer by a family member so he could use FB to keep in touch with family in the US and abroad.<p>We have been watching, in absolute horror, as he has been going down a path towards ever increasing hatred.  No, not what you think.  I won’t go into details other than to say that he had his political leanings a couple of years ago and FB turned them into nothing less than hatred, constant unrelenting hatred.<p>No, he isn’t going to go hurt anyone.  He is hurting himself.  He is in a solid gradient descent into a sad existence and likely already very much in the grips if depression.<p>I know it’s FB because that’s all he does with the computer.  He is, otherwise, computer illiterate.  He doesn’t have much if an education, which makes the constant stream of hateful memes, posts and articles impossible for him to filter.  He is, effectively, mostly incapable of critical thinking now that he has been pulled down into this dark cave.<p>Precisely because this is happening in plain sight, various members of our family, myself included, have been engaging with him to try and pull him out of Plato’s proverbial cave.<p>This task is incredibly difficult.  FB feeds him a constant stream of similar material and the world of reason evaporates behind a cloud of hatred.  All he sees are shadows on the wall.<p>We need this in the open in order to be able to help those we love as well as others.<p>We also need FB and others to understand how much harm their algorithms seem to be causing.