Free speech debate rages after US killings

Should websites that promote violence be shut down? After 31 more deaths in the US, apparently fuelled by racist talk and easy access to guns, is it time to rethink western ideas of liberty? Saturday morning at the Walmart in Texas: the car park is full, parents are picking up back-to-school supplies, and a grandmother is waiting in the check-out queue. This is one of the biggest stores in America, a stone's throw from the Mexican border. Staff speak Spanish and English and the shelves are laden with Mexican food and football shirts. A gunman opens fire, leaving 20 people dead and 26 injured. All those attacked are Hispanic. Many Latinos, today, are calling the killings "a September 11 moment". Among the dead lies a 24-year-old mother, Jordan Anchondo, cradling her living, two-month-old baby. Her last act, shielding him from the bullets. "This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas". Less than an hour before, the suspected shooter, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius, posted these words in a hate-filled screed to the anonymous internet messageboard 8Chan. At least three mass shootings, this year, have been announced in advance on 8Chan, often accompanied by racist writings that go viral with comments flippantly referring to body counts as "high scores", and memes in praise of the killers. 8Chan was set up in 2013 as a utopianImpossibly perfect. The term comes from an ancient Greek phrase meaning "no-place" invented by Henry VIII's chancellor, Sir Thomas More, in 1516, as the name of an imaginary, ideal island. space for free speech, no matter how toxic. But, now, even its founder, Frederick Brennan, admits it has become a magnet for violent extremism. "Whenever I hear about a mass shooting, I say, 'All right, we have to research if there's an 8chan connection'." Yet 8Chan's current owner, Jim Watkins, has always resisted calls to moderate or shut down the site. On Sunday, even after events at El Paso, the 8Chan's home page said: "Welcome to 8Chan, the Darkest Reaches of the Internet." However, after renewed calls to shut down the site, Cloudfare, its cyber-security provider, ended its support and 8Chan has vanished - for now. How long, though, before another less scrupulousPrincipled, or very careful to avoid doing the wrong thing.  cyber-security firm helps it to reappear?n Hidden in plain sight? "Shut the site down," says Fredrick Brennan in The New York Times. He thinks reducing the number of sites like 8Chan will reduce the frequency of mass shootings. "Pie in the sky," cry others. That is like banning the tide from coming up. Extremists will just move elsewhere on the web. And, anyway, keeping sites like 8Chan visible makes it easier for law enforcement agencies to track and identify threats. KeywordsUtopian - Impossibly perfect. The term comes from an ancient Greek phrase meaning "no-place" invented by Henry VIII's chancellor, Sir Thomas More, in 1516, as the name of an imaginary, ideal island.