Apr 16, 2021 09:00:00

What is the idea of the founder of the hosting provider 'VanwaTech' that effectively supports the overseas anonymous bulletin board '8kun' where radicals gather?

In November 2020,

the United States Capitol assault incident before about two months broke out, white supremacist and extremist, conspiracy theories ' Q Anon ' of supporters such as gather anonymous bulletin board ' 8chan (8kun) ' is temporary It was closed in. Some of QAnon's supporters thought that the site was shut down by power and the plot was about to become a reality, but the reality didn't seem to be that serious.

A 23-Year-Old Coder Kept QAnon and the Far Right Online When No One Else Would --Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-04-14/qanon-daily-stormer-far-right-have-been-kept-online-by-nick-lim-s-vanwatech

The reason why 8chan was closed was due to a technical defect of the provider 'VanwaTech' that provides hosting services to 8chan. VanwaTech is a service founded in 2019 by a person named Nick Lim, who was 21 at the time, providing technologies such as protection against cyber attacks to various websites including 8chan. Despite being a small service, Lim continues to reign in a small corner of the business world, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

Lim says he serves one of America's most notorious large bulletin boards, but he doesn't have any particular ideas or political beliefs. In an interview conducted in early 2020, he said, 'I didn't know anything about QAnon,' and said he had no specific opinion on Mr. Donald Trump, the then president of the United States. But as long as someone like Lim supports the website, the people who gather there will not disappear.

Laws to crack down on radicalists in the United States aren't as broad as those on international terrorism, and even large providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) struggle to set consistent standards. .. These providers have set their own standards and are trying to eliminate certain ideas, but they are clear in a belief system that mixes different ideas, such as racists, Trump supporters, or just Republicans. It is difficult to draw a clear line.

Meanwhile, Lim argues that 'the real political crisis facing the United States is not the rise of radicalism, but the erosion of

the First Amendment,' in light of the recent world situation. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution stipulates that 'the parliament cannot restrict freedom of expression or press,' Lim said. 'We are facing the crisis of communist tyranny,' he said, citing the SF novel '1984, ' which depicts a totalitarian near future, as an example. 'We are one of the world's 1984 worlds.' I'm in front of you. ' The reason why he continues to provide services to 8chan is also based on the idea that he dislikes censorship and should not refuse clients.

'They are not illegal speech to me,' Lim said of the user's remarks based on a particular idea. In addition, Mr. Lim has a business relationship with Andrew Anglin, who runs the site 'Daily Stormer ' where neo-Nazis gather in the far right of the United States, but Lim was asked why he had such a relationship. 'I was curious about the Daily Stormer being censored,' he said.

Problematic sites like 8chan are usually discontinued by providers like AWS. The lack of these support means that the publishers will not be able to obtain the essential services for the survival of the website, such as domain name registration and protection from DDoS attacks. We cannot continue to provide it.

As of 2020, 8chan is said to be distributed and hosted on 11 IP addresses owned by 3 different companies, avoiding people's attempts to limit 8chan. Mr. Lim said that the SNS application 'Parler' was dismissed from AWS etc. and caused distrust of high-tech companies, but the current situation where censorship is being carried out on the Internet is a 'business opportunity' He says he is considering hosting a new website.