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Comment by setquk | Hacker News Reader

I've heard the same horrific shit in casual conversation in numerous pubs in the UK in the last 30 years and the people in there certainly don't know what 4chan or 8chan are. In fact the horrible things pre-dated the proliferation of internet connectivity.

This isn't a specific platform problem but a problem with a subset of humanity.

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A pub audience is probably a handful of people, some platforms have a reach many magnitudes larger and this changes the dynamic.

That's true. But people engaging in "casual" conversation over beer aren't inciting each other to commit violent acts of hate.

But in those rare instances where a bar crosses over into openly supporting that type of speech, the police start taking an interest and monitoring that bar and its customers. And if a line gets crossed with respect to incitement, conspiracy, etc., the local municipality will usually pull the bar's liquor license and get it shut down to prevent future such crimes from being organized or incited at that bar.

So, really, you're actually quite spot on with the bar analogy. 4chan/8chan are exactly like a skinhead bar that's getting shutdown because the customers kept inciting each other to kill people and actually followed through.

Actually sometimes they are inciting it. There was a “paki patrol” (their term not mine) that originated in a local pub in a town I lived in. They did do things about it. We pulled one guy out of the river and helped him after they had chucked him in and threw bricks at his head and ambled off when they got bored.

Incidentally the police did nothing.

Edit: this was early 90s.

I'm not sure why a single incident of the police failing to enforce the laws over 2 decades ago during the notoriously racist Thatcher era is relevant to a discussion of incitement as it is enforced today?

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