news.sky.com
Shortly before the mass shootings at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch, the gunman posted a link on Zig Forums to the Facebook page where he would live-stream his attack.
A man aged in his 20s has been charged with murder following the shootings at the al Noor mosque in central Christchurch and then the nearby Linwood mosque.
Posting to Zig Forums, he wrote: "The Facebook link is below, by the time you read this I should be going live."
He encouraged users to spread his message.
Within minutes users were applauding the gunman and sharing the link, while others said that sharing the information could land Zig Forums in trouble.
It is an imageboard, a type of internet forum in which people primarily discuss topics using images attached to each of their posts rather than just text, which contains explicit and offensive material.
It is unaffiliated with the infamous imageboard 4chan although it shares the same culture of anonymity and format of image posting.
In practice, its different boards focus on different topics, including video games and Japanese animation, anime.
They each feature a wide range of anonymous contributions and discussions, but those on its 'politically incorrect' board prominently include hate speech and antisemitic conspiracy theories, as well as an abundance of slurs towards minority ethnic and sexual groups.
Zig Forums features discussions of alleged "Muslims [sic] Reactions" inciting racial hatred, with unsourced images purporting to show a Muslim social media account reacting to the shooting by declaring war.
Another thread alleges that the shooting was conducted as part of a Jewish conspiracy, and others referencing a far-right party being elected in a local election in Spain.
It has been the subject of numerous scandals, including hosting child abuse material, involvement in the harassment of female games developers during Gamergate, and for its involvement in so-called swatting attacks - where people make false reports to police in order for them to be targeted by SWAT teams.
