MANILA - The American owner of a far-right online message board connected to 3 mass shootings has left the Philippines, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Wednesday.
8chan owner Jim Watkins left the Philippines last May 9 and his current whereabouts are unknown, Guevarra told reporters, citing Bureau of Immigration records.
8chan, which promotes itself as a site devoted to the "darkest reaches of the internet," is home to posts from right-wing extremists, misogynists, and conspiracy theorists. The site was also used by a shooter who in March attacked 2 mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 51 people and providing inspiration for a shooting of a man at a synagogue in Poway, California a month later.
"As long as they are not making imminent threats of harm against someone, their speech is protected political speech," Watkins was quoted as saying in the report.The report said Watkins first learned about 8chan from his son, who had watched an Al Jazeera America documentary about the website's precursor, 4chan, and its founder, Fredrick Brennan.
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