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8chan is an online messaging board that has been used by anonymous accounts to share extremist messages and cheer on mass shooters. It is rife with racist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
In the four-page document on 8chan, the author wrote: “I’m probably going to die today.” A CNN analysis found it was posted less than 20 minutes before police received the first calls about the El Paso shooting.
The document is filled with white nationalist and racist hatred toward immigrants and Hispanics, blaming immigrants and first-generation Americans for taking away jobs and the blending of cultures in the US.
The writer of the document linked to the El Paso suspect expressed support for the shootings of two mosques in Christchurch.
Tipsters alerted the FBI about the 8chan post approximately five minutes before the gunman, John T. Earnest, allegedly began shooting, an FBI official confirmed to CNN.
The manifesto talks about killing Jewish people without making reference to Poway or Congregation Chabad.
Just like the El Paso-linked post, the person identifying himself as John Earnest said he was inspired by the Christchurch attacks.
8chan was founded by software developer Fredrick Brennan as an even more unconstrained alternative to online forum 4chan, which he believed was too tightly moderated.
Brennan told CNN on Sunday that the site’s current administrators “are running it in a way that is indefensible.”
“If it’s going to keep on like this it should be shut down,” he said. “I don’t want to pile on but they are not doing anything to solve this. They should at least shut down the board for a week or a month after something like this. They are letting their users incite violence.”
In an interview with the WSJ after the New Zealand shootings, Brennan expressed regrets about creating the site, claiming it went too far.
CNN has reached out to 8chan for comment.
CNN’s Paul Murphy, Artemis Moshtaghian and Sara Sidner contributed to this report
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