UPDATE 2-8chan owner called before U.S. Congress, as latest host drops site

(Adds comments from 8chan owner; paragraph 10)
By Katie Paul and Elizabeth Culliford
Aug 6 (Reuters) - Online message board 8chan's fortunes
worsened on Tuesday, as it was once again made homeless by a
technical services provider and its owner was called to testify
to the U.S. Congress after 8chan was linked to a weekend mass
shooting in El Paso, Texas.
The House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee
demanded that owner Jim Watkins, an American living in the
Philippines, testify about 8chan's efforts to tackle "the
proliferation of extremist content, including white supremacist
content."
The committee's Democratic chairman, Bennie Thompson, and
Mike Rogers, its ranking Republican, sent a letter https://tmsnrt.rs/2YuWNQ7
to Watkins to appear, calling the El Paso massacre "at least
the third act of supremacist violence linked to your website
this year."
8chan was offline on Tuesday after Seattle-based Epik became
the latest provider to cut ties. In a statement, Epik's chief
executive, Rob Monster, cited concerns about its inadequate
enforcement and a greater possibility of violent radicalization.
In the heavily Hispanic city of El Paso on Saturday, a
gunman killed 22 people at a Walmart store. Authorities have
cited a lengthy anti-immigrant manifesto, apparently posted on
8chan by the suspect, as evidence of a racial motivate.
After the shooting, U.S. cyber security firm CloudFlare
withdrew services from 8chan, prompting it to sign up with Epik
on Monday. Epik's own web infrastructure provider, Voxility,
dropped it as a customer in response. Epik still provides services to neo-Nazi site the Daily
Stormer and "free-speech" site Gab, as well as InfoWars, a
website run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Monster told Reuters the anonymity on 8chan differentiated
it from other sites. "Nobody has a vested interest in personal
accountability, since you always get a new persona," he said.
Fredrick Brennan, who created 8chan in 2013, has called for
the site to be closed down. "If I could go back and not create
8chan at all, I probably would," he told Reuters in an
interview, likening it to Frankenstein's monster. In a reply https://twitter.com/infinitechan/status/1158900722425110529?s=21
to the House committee, a copy of which was posted on Twitter,
8chan's Watkins said he was always available to talk by
telephone. "Rest assured I am not an extremist. My telephone
should work worldwide," he said.
He argued earlier that the site provided a space for free
speech.
"Think of 8chan as a large community of 1 million people
that are now looking for a home," Watkins said in a video he
posted on YouTube, with a shadowy likeness of American founding
father Benjamin Franklin behind him.
Watkins said the Texas suspected gunman's manifesto was
first uploaded not to 8chan but to Instagram, the photo-sharing
app owned by Facebook.
A Facebook spokeswoman said the company has found "nothing
that supports this theory" in an investigation since Saturday.
Facebook disabled the suspect's Instagram account, which had not
been active in more than a year, she added.