8chan Owner Pledges Changes in House Testimony About Links to Mass Shootings

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8chan Owner Pledges Changes in House Testimony About Links to Mass Shootings 

8chan, the online message board linked to several recent mass shootings, plans to restrict parts of the website during a "state of emergency," site owner Jim Watkins told a U.S. House panel in a written statement. 

Watkins completed his closed-door deposition Thursday, said Representative Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, and Ranking Republican Mike Rogers of Alabama. The panel last month subpoenaed the American living in the Philippines to answer its questions about whether the website "amplifies extremist views, leading to the radicalization of its users." 

Watkins "provided vast and helpful information to the committee about the structure, operation and policies of 8Chan and his other companies. We look forward to his continued cooperation with the committee as he indicated his desire to do so during today's deposition," they said in a joint statement. 

"If 8chan comes back online, it will be done when 8chan develops additional tools to counter illegal content under United States law," Watkins said in the statement released by his lawyer. 

"If 8chan returns, staff would implement a way to restrict certain parts of the website during a state of emergency, in which case any board in question would be put in a read-only mode until it would be deemed safe enough to enable posting again," it said. 

8chan owner Jim Watkins (YouTube).

Critics last month pressed tech companies to shun 8chan, which in its Twitter profile describes its location as "The Darkest Reaches of the Internet" and has become a hotbed for white extremist content. 

Thompson and Rogers said last month that the shooting deaths of 22 people at an El Paso Walmart store was "at least the third act of supremacist violence linked to your website this year." 

The El Paso gunman allegedly posted a four-page statement on 8chan before his attack, while the site was also apparently used this year by the shooters who attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, and a synagogue in Poway, California, lawmakers told Watkins in a letter last month. 

Benjamin Barr, a lawyer for Watkins, said in a statement to the committee, that "8chan has never tolerated illegal speech and has a consistent track record of working with law enforcement agencies when appropriate." 

Watkins said 8chan "has worked responsibly with law enforcement agencies when unprotected speech is discovered on its platform. No single platform can sensibly prevent all hateful, illegal or threatening speech — it can only act in due time to remove it." 

The company did remove some posts soon after mass shootings in Texas, California and New Zealand, he said. 

But Watkins added, "my company has no intention of deleting constitutionally protected hate speech. I feel the remedy for this type of speech is counter speech, and I'm certain that this is the view of the American justice system." 

The message board has been voluntarily down since late August. 

September 06, 2019 at 07:43AM

Sudan Forms First Cabinet Since Fall of Bashir

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Sudan Forms First Cabinet Since Fall of Bashir

Sudan's prime minister announced on Thursday the formation of the first government since the overthrow of long-term ruler Omar Hassan al-Bashir in April. 

The government was formed as part of a three-year power-sharing deal signed last month between the military and civilian parties and protest groups. 

Abdalla Hamdok announced the names of 18 ministers in the new cabinet and said he would name two more later. 

"[The new government] will start its work immediately in a harmonious and collective way," Hamdok told a press conference in Khartoum on Thursday evening. "Today, we start a new phase in our history." 

The new government is an important step in transition away from nearly 30 years under Bashir, when Sudan was afflicted by internal conflicts, international isolation and deep economic problems. 

Military-civilian friction

However, the months since Bashir's fall have been marked by tension between the powerful security forces and civilian groups that are pushing for democracy, reform and justice for those killed during crackdowns on protests. 

The announcement of the cabinet had been held up by haggling over positions. Most of the 18 ministers announced on Thursday were approved 
earlier in the week. They include Asmaa Abdallah, who becomes the country's first female foreign minister, and Ibrahim Elbadawi, a former World Bank economist who will serve as finance minister. 

Madani Abbas Madani, a leader of the civilian coalition that negotiated the transition deal with the military, will be minister of industry and trade. 

General Jamal Omar, a member of the Transitional Military Council that took over from Bashir, was appointed defense minister. 

September 06, 2019 at 07:15AM

Farms Destroyed As Ghana Tries to Raise Cocoa Incomes

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Farms Destroyed As Ghana Tries to Raise Cocoa Incomes

Ghana, famous for its cocoa, supplies about 20 percent of the world's market. This year, the government announced plans to raise cocoa incomes, but cocoa bean farms are being destroyed, with or without the farmers' consent, as landlords end their leases early in favor of other crops, development or mining. 

Farmer Ama Serwah supported her children and grandchildren by growing cocoa and other crops on leased land. This month, a bulldozer cleared the land, as well as the livelihood of Serwah's family. Farmers believe the land was cleared to make way for a cattle farm.

Cocoa farmer David Servor looks at the land that once held his cocoa farm, which was recently destroyed, in Asikesu, Ghana. (S. Knott/VOA)

In Asikesu, a cocoa-growing region of Ghana, hectares of cocoa trees like Serwah's have been destroyed. Farmers like Serwah have toiled for years growing their crops, on land they do not own or have much control over.

Serwah says the compensation she received was not enough and now she does not know how she will feed her family.

Another farmer, David Servor, also surveys land he once farmed, using the profits to help pay his children's school fees. Now, he has been told to leave his home.

"About two weeks now I have not had sleep," he said. "Thinking, thinking, thinking, because all what I have done in my lifetime has gone forever. And it's like I'm alive but I'm dead."

Ghana's cocoa industry is regulated by a government body that sets the price the growers earn from their beans.

Asikesu is a cocoa-growing region in Ghana, but farmers who do not own the land they farm are losing their land to other developments. (S. Knott/VOA)

Earlier this year, Ghana added a $400 "living income differential" fee per ton of cocoa beans sold on the market, with the aim of improving livelihoods for farmers.

The president of the Concerned Farmers Association, Nana Oboadie Opambour Boateng Bonsu, says ensuring a sustainable future for Ghana's cocoa farmers means protecting the crop on which they rely.

"This is a serious challenge and it's something that we have been fighting for for so long, but it seems the government has put wax in its ears because government is not all that serious about this cocoa issue," Bonsu said.

Farmers losing their land is a major problem, Ghana's cocoa regulator says, and often the ownership structure of land is the issue, where farmers lease land from chiefs who later take it back when enticed by other developments.

While the regulatory agency works with chiefs to combat the practice, it does not have the right to tell landowners what to do with their property. However, officials say it offers legal representation to farmers to address compensation rates.

September 06, 2019 at 04:25AM