House Subpoenas Owner of 8Chan Message Board After Platform Linked to Mass Shootings

Democratic U.S. Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi listen as the U.S. acting secretary of homeland security, Kevin K. McAleenan, speaks at a federal building in Jackson, Miss., on Aug. 13, 2019. AP Photo/Emily Wagster Pettus

WASHINGTON—A key House committee has subpoenaed the owner of 8chan, an anonymous pro-free speech web forum that has been said to be a platform where extremist views have been amplified and people radicalized, including the man suspected of killing 22 people in a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.

Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson and the panel’s top Republican announced the subpoena on Aug. 14, saying that “at least three acts of deadly white supremacist extremist violence have been linked to 8chan in the last six months.”