House Homeland Security Committee Issues Subpoena to the Owner of 8chan Internet Site

WASHINGTON, August 14, 2019 -- The Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Homeland Security Committee have issued a subpoena to compel testimony from the owner of 8chan, the controversial internet message board site which has played a role in at least three mass shootings this year.

On Wednesday, Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. and Ranking Member Mike Rogers, R-Ala announced that they had subpoenaed Jim Watkins, a Philippines-based American expatriate and entrepreneur.

The committee aims to force Watkins to discuss efforts to combat the violent extremists who've used his site to announce their violent attacks, and stated that his testimony would be "critical" to their oversight efforts.

"Today the Committee on Homeland Security issued a subpoena to Jim Watkins, the owner of the website 8chan," Thompson and Rogers said in a statement.

"In recent years, violent extremist content has proliferated on both large and small social media platforms. At least three acts of deadly white supremacist extremist violence have been linked to 8chan in the last six months. We have questions on what is being done to counter this trend so we can be sure it is being properly addressed."

The site has existed on the fringes of the internet since its founding in 2013, but has been thrust into the public consciousness by mass shooters in Christchurch, New Zealand, and El Paso after they used it to publish racist manifestos explaining why they'd chosen to target crowds of Muslims and Hispanic-Americans, respectively.

In a video posted to YouTube on Sunday, Watkins said the site has been offline "voluntarily for the last week," and would remain so until he had spoken with the Homeland Security Committee.

A committee spokesperson told Breakfast Media that committee staff members have been in communication with Watkins though a U.S.-based registered agent, though the spokesperson stressed the committee is not aware of Watkins' current whereabouts.

"It's too early to say whether he'll comply," the spokesperson said.