Over the years, social media platforms have become very responsive after tragedies like the shooting in Buffalo, New York, ensuring that extremist content or speech related to the events are quickly taken down. However, some platforms like 4chan function as a safe haven for hate content and “ruin it for everyone”, ISD’s head of communications, Tim Squirrell said in conversation with CNN Business.

“The consequence of that is that you can never complete the game of whack-a-mole. There’s always going to be somewhere circulating [this content]”.

The suspect in the Buffalo shooting posted a manifesto shortly before the rampage, describing and attributing his own radicalisation to watching the livestream video of the 2019 Christchurch mosque attack. While videos from that attack are widely unavailable, they are still clips circulating on alt-platforms like 4chan, which the suspect says to have started visiting back in 2020.