https://www.wired.com/story/the-weird-dark-history-8chan/"His new site would offer the kind of freedom that 4chan’s users now perceived they no longer had. They would be constrained only by 8chan’s global rule, “Do not post, request, or link to any content that is illegal in the United States of America and do not create boards with the sole purpose of posting or spreading such content.” (The wording of the rule was tweaked slightly in May 2017.)"
"Copyrighted content and child pornography ran afoul of this rule and were supposed to be policed by the mostly volunteer moderators, but that didn’t always happen. Boards on pedophilia and “doxxing”—releasing someone’s personal information like home address and phone number, which often led to online and offline harassment—were allowed, as were legally gray-area images like softcore pictures of kids."
"The initial New York Times piece generated considerable interest in Brennan’s hardships. In a video filmed at the time, Aaron Parnes, the CEO of Razor Clicks—a company Brennan was then working for—says the outpouring of donations to help Brennan purchase a new wheelchair was restoring Brennan's "faith in the good of humanity and his courage to continue doing his best for himself and others.” (The news network Al Jazeera America also covered Brennan, producing a short documentary “The Other America: Fredrick Brennan.”)"
"But just a few months after Parnes, who is Jewish, was appealing for help for Brennan, Brennan was soliciting advice from 8chan users for a piece he was planning to write for the neo-Nazi publication The Daily Stormer. He posted a list of potential article ideas on 8chan, a list that was accompanied by images of beer cans dressed as members of the Klu Klux Klan attending a lynching."
"One idea was “shitting on ‘moot’ and 4chan,” but he ultimately settled on writing about his support of eugenics for people like himself with genetic diseases. The article, which was published four days later, ran under the headline “Hotwheels: Why I Support Eugenics.” (Brennan used Hotwheels as a handle online.) He says he wouldn’t write for the The Daily Stormer again, but he stands by the article’s content. (The article argues that people who can pass serious diseases on to their children could be offered money not to reproduce.*) “Was it smart to be in a Nazi newspaper? I have no idea. Probably not,” he says. “But if you actually read the article, it’s very tame.”"
Yikes…