US President Donald Trump contended Wednesday there was no political support to implement tough controls on highly lethal assault weapons that were used in three mass shootings in the past two weeks.

Trump told reporters that he and leaders in Congress support legislation to prevent mentally ill people from possessing firearms via background checks.

"I think background checks are important. I don't want to put guns into the hands of mentally unstable people or people with rage or hate, sick people. I'm all in favor of it," he said.

But Trump replied negatively when asked if the US could ban assault rifles, like the semi-automatic weapons attackers used to kill 22 people on Saturday in El Paso, Texas and nine in Dayton, Ohio on Sunday.

"I can tell you there is no political appetite for that at this moment," he said.

"You could speak and do your own polling and there is no political appetite from the standpoint of legislature."

"I can only do what I can do," he added.

"I think there's a great appetite to do something with regard to making sure that mentally unstable, seriously ill people aren't carrying guns. And I've never seen the appetite as strong as it is now. I have not seen it with regard to certain types of weapons," he said.

Trump spoke before traveling to Dayton and El Paso to "pay his respects" to victims and their families and meet with local officials.

Those shootings, and a third in Gilroy, California on July 28 that left three people dead, involved AR-15 and AK-47-type assault rifles originally designed for war but now widely available in the United States.

The same weapons have been used in the deadliest massacres in the country over the past decade, and gun control advocates say their ban would reduce the toll in mass shootings.

Support for bans rise after mass shootings, but polls are generally inconclusive.

A Quinnipiac poll in May showed 63 percent of voters favored a ban on the sale of assault weapons.

In a Gallup poll taken shortly after the October 1, 2017 Las Vegas massacre, in which a gunman who stockpiled nearly two dozen assault rifles killed 58 people at a concert, Americans were evenly divided on a total ban on the manufacture, sale or possession of such weapons.

But in a repeat poll in October 2018, Gallup said only 40 percent supported such a sweeping ban, and 57 percent opposed.

After El Paso killings, renewed focus on online hate forums
Washington (AFP) Aug 5, 2019 - Efforts to take down the 8chan website where a racist "manifesto" was posted shortly before the El Paso shooting highlight the legal and ethical difficulties in curbing online hate speech that foments violence.

The digital security firm Cloudflare said Sunday it was terminating its services to 8chan, making it more difficult for the message board to remain online.

But hours later, an 8chan administrator said the service was migrating to BitMitigate, which calls itself "a non discriminatory provider" of security "that operates in the fullest consistency to free speech."

But 8chan's forum is the latest to raise questions about policing the internet without curbing digital rights or free speech.

Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right, said it is entirely appropriate for private web hosting and security providers to shut down sites like 8chan.

The site "is a cesspool of people egging each other on to all kinds of violence, not only violence against non-whites, but violence against women and more," Potok said.

"The private companies hosting these websites have every moral obligation to shut them down."

Potok added that a more proactive effort could be made to monitor sites like 8chan promoting violence.

"Law enforcement should be allowed to look at 8chan and other venues like that without violating people's rights," he said.

8chan, which promotes itself as a site devoted to the "darkest reaches of the internet" appeared to be offline Monday, but posted a message on Twitter saying "there might be some downtime in the next 24-48 hours while we find a solution."

- Responsibility to filter? -

The deadly El Paso shooting has prompted fresh calls for online firms to step up efforts to weed out calls to violence.

"Technology platforms have a responsibility to filter out extremist groups that are inciting violence," said Darrell West, director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution.

"That is not a freedom of speech issue because people do not have the right to encourage others to use violence. It is very damaging for society to allow people to engage in violence, hate speech, and actions that endanger other individuals," West said.

President Donald Trump said Monday that the internet "has provided a dangerous avenue to radicalize disturbed minds and perform demented acts" and added that "we must shine light on the dark recesses of the internet and stop mass murders before they start."

But Karen Kornbluh, head of the German Marshall Fund's digital innovation democracy initiative, said it's often difficult for firms to determine when to remove content.

"These decisions are very difficult for companies. They are rightly reluctant to take down speech," Kornbluh said.

Kornbluh said one way for companies to deal with incitement to violence would be to report any likely criminal activity to law enforcement authorities.

"Ironically the companies would remove some of the controversy if they would clarify up front that they have zero tolerance policies toward this illegal activity and will report it to the FBI where they see it, just as they report child pornography," she said.

- 'Lawless' platform -

Cloudflare chief executive Matthew Prince defended the decision to cut off 8chan, describing the site as "lawless" and responsible for "tragic deaths."

"Even if 8chan may not have violated the letter of the law in refusing to moderate their hate-filled community, they have created an environment that revels in violating its spirit," Prince said in a blog post.

Shortly before the El Paso mass shooting on Saturday, the suspect named by the media as Patrick Crusius, who is white, was believed to have posted a racist "manifesto" on 8chan that includes passages railing against the "Hispanic invasion" of Texas.

The author praised the Christchurch mosque attacks in New Zealand, which were also announced on 8chan in a racist manifesto allegedly posted by the perpetrator of that massacre.

Kate Klonick, a St. John's University professor specializing in internet law and online speech, said services such as Cloudflare may not be the best to make "hard content moderation decisions" which social networks are struggling with.

Klonick tweeted a link to her 2017 opinion article pointing out the problems with certain "pipeline" firms making content decision.

"What if Cloudflare started suspending service for a political candidate that its chief executive didn't like?" she wrote.

"The people who run these companies are not elected officials, yet we still expect them to safeguard our basic liberties while also meeting our cultural expectations."

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Dozens of migrants still stuck on vessel in Italy port
Rome (AFP) July 28, 2019
An Italian coastguard vessel stranded in the Mediterranean with more than 130 migrants aboard has been allowed to dock in the Sicilian port of Augusta but Rome on Sunday refused to let them disembark until a deal is struck with the EU. "The Gregoretti berthed in the port of Augusta overnight, as is the normal procedure for a military vessel. Now the EU has to act because the migration question concerns the whole continent," Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said in a statement. Some 140 migran ... read more