[205], On July 26, 2009, AT&T's DSL branch temporarily blocked access to the img.4chan.org domain (host of /b/ and /r9k/), which was initially believed to be an attempt at Internet censorship, and met with hostility on 4chan's part. "[141] The FBI and Secret Service began investigating the incident shortly after its occurrence. /r9k/ was restored on October 23, 2011, along with /hc/ ("Hardcore", previously deleted), /pol/ (a rebranding of /new/) and the new /diy/ board, in addition to an apology by Poole where he recalls how he criticized the deletion of Encyclopedia Dramatica and realized that he had done the same. They described how a managing moderator named RapeApe is attempting to use the site as a tool for the alt-right, and how Nishimura is "hands off, leaving moderation of the site primarily to RapeApe." [98][99], Many early memes that originated at 4chan have gained media attention. In March of that year, the game's trailer had been released, and the game's immense popularity caused publisher Rockstar Games' website to crash. It's okay to be white or It's OK to be white (IOTBW) is a slogan based on a poster campaign organized on the website 4chan's discussion board /pol/ in 2017. [119] The site administrator moot eventually settled the matter by creating the board dedicated to discussion of the show, "Pony" (/mlp/), and apologised on behalf of the moderation team for neglecting "one of the largest subcultures in 4chan's history". [72] [162] On February 28, 2008, he pleaded guilty to the federal charges. [87] By 2012, personal confession stories of self-loathing, depression, and attempted suicide, began to supersede /b/-style roleplaying, otaku, and video game discussion. [138], On July 10, 2008, the swastika CJK unicode character (卐) appeared at the top of Google's Hot Trends list—a tally of the most used search terms in the United States—for several hours. [8] It is provided to its users free of charge and consumes a large amount of bandwidth; as a result, its financing has often been problematic. —Giggy 08:46, 27 August 2008 (UTC) Media attention November 3, 2010", "Arrested Man Credits 4chan With Helping Him Grow His Child Porn Collection. As a meme. [106] The Age reported that 4chan posters urged each other to "swarm" the video on YouTube and thus increase its ranking. That sense of nihilism has long played a role in edgy message boards such as 4chan: One WallStreetBets member told researchers last year that the community was "not just memes," but a … [30] Following 4chan's return, several non-anime related boards were introduced, including /k/ (Weapons), /o/ (Auto), and /v/ (Video Games). Every Saturday, users posted pictures of cats with image macros relating to that day's theme. In the end, this wasn't a sinister act of censorship, but rather a bit of a mistake and a poorly executed, disproportionate response on AT&T's part. [13][14] Any nickname may be used when posting, even one that has been previously adopted, such as "Anonymous" or "moot". [154], In January 2011, BBC News reported that the law firm announced they were to stop "chasing illegal file-sharers". He estimated /b/'s post rate in July 2008 to be 150,000–200,000 posts per day. [8] Christopher Poole told The New York Times, in a discussion on the moderation of /b/, that "the power lies in the community to dictate its own standards" and that site staff simply provided a framework. [192], In January 2011, Matthew Riskin Bean, a 20-year-old man from New Jersey, was sentenced to 45 days in prison for cyberbullying on 4chan. Giggy 02:01, 13 September 2008 (UTC) Example_4chan_random_board_thread.png we don't know the sources of all the pictures in this image, at least one is copyrighted, may need changing or tagging differently. This cost thousands of dollars of bandwidth bills according to Turner. [152] In retaliation for the initial attacks being called only a minor nuisance, Anonymous launched more attacks, bringing the site down yet again. [63], Each post is assigned a post number. Nuzzi described Pepe images and Trump memes that were tweeted, some of which were sexually explicit, violent, or mixed with Nazi imagery. "[20], The site was launched as 4chan.net on October 1, 2003 by Christopher Poole, a then-15-year-old student from New York City using the online handle "moot". [117], 4chan has been labeled as the starting point of the Anonymous meme by The Baltimore City Paper,[8] due to the norm of posts signed with the "Anonymous" moniker. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, music, literature, fitness, politics, and sports, among others. [108] The portion of the song in which Zonday turns away from the microphone, with a caption stating "I move away from the mic to breathe in", became an oft-repeated meme on 4chan and inspired remixes. He then started the bulletin board (the first board being /b/) with the intention of it being a low-key English version of Futaba Channel. [171] While the investigation was still open, Willis was charged with criminal defamation for a separate incident[172] but died before the case was heard. As the name suggests ("pedo" being short for "pedophile"), it is portrayed as a pedophilic cartoon bear.It is a concept used to mock pedophiles or people who have any sexual interest in children or "jailbait".The bear image has been likened to bait used to lure children or as a mascot for pedophiles. The "no invasions" rule was added in late 2006, after /b/ users spent most of that summer "invading" Habbo Hotel. [182][183][184][185], Ronald Ohlson, 37, was raided in April 2011 at his upstate New York home by the Department of Homeland Security after he obtained child pornography from 4chan. Brahm did not expect the message to be taken seriously since he "would never take anything posted on 4chan as fact";[161] an FBI official was quoted as saying the "credibility of [the threat] was beyond ridiculous". ", "A Virtual Unknown; Meet 'Moot,' the Secretive Internet Celeb Who Still Lives With Mom", "Web attack takes Anonymous activists offline", "Modest Web Site Is Behind a Bevy of Memes", "Tuning into innovation outside the confines of English-speaking web", "How The 4chan Sale Returns The Controversial Forum To Its Anime Roots", "Moot x Hiroyuki Social Media Talk Session (ID: 57271090)", "4chan history | Jonathan's Reference Pages", "4chan's Overlord Christopher Poole Reveals Why He Walked Away", "4chan Message Board Sold to Founder of 2Channel, a Japanese Web Culture Pioneer", "Christopher 'Moot' Poole sells anarchic imageboard 4chan to 2channel owner Hiroyuki Nishimura", "4chan sold by Moot to 2channel founder Hiroyuki Nishimura", "Who holds the deeds to gossip bulletin board 2channel? Police said that the suspect called it off as a joke, and they released him after they found no indication that the threat was serious. [118], Through its association with Anonymous, 4chan has become associated with Project Chanology, a worldwide protest against the Church of Scientology held by members of Anonymous. [191] As a result of the incident, 4chan announced that it would enforce a Digital Millennium Copyright Act policy, which would allow content owners to remove material that had been shared on the site illegally, and would ban users who repeatedly posted stolen material. Pepe the Frog is an internet meme.He is an anthropomorphic green frog who had originated in a comic by Matt Furie called Boy's Club. [158] Both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security expressed doubt concerning the credibility of the threats, but warned the relevant organizations as a precaution. [33] During the same year, the /soc/ board was created in an effort to reduce the number of socialization threads on /b/. After coming back up, the front page accidentally revealed a backup file of the entire website, which contained over 300 megabytes of private company emails, which were leaked to several torrents and across several sites on the Internet. In February 2010, a photoshopped version of Pedobear appeared along with mascots of the 2010 Winter Olympics in an article on the games in Gazeta Olsztyńska, a Polish newspaper. On January 15, 2008, a 4chan user posted to /b/, suggesting participants "do something big" against the Church of Scientology's website. [3][104][105], A link to the YouTube video of Tay Zonday's song "Chocolate Rain" was posted on /b/ on July 11, 2007. [19], 4chan has been the target of occasional denial of service attacks. [198] The posts were accompanied by the text: "Turns out it's way harder to strangle someone to death than it looks on the movies." [145] A 4chan member acknowledged being part of the attack, telling BBC News that it was in response to YouTube "deleting music". Neither Nishimura nor RapeApe responded to these allegations. [133][134], According to The Washington Post, "the site's users have managed to pull off some of the highest-profile collective actions in the history of the Internet. The games proceeded as planned but under a higher level of security awareness. [35] In a series of posts on the topic, Nishimura explained that the split was due to 4chan being blacklisted by most advertising companies, and that the new 4channel domain would allow for the site to receive advertisements by mainstream ad providers. He also explained to the court the nature of the data given to the FBI as part of the search warrant, including how users can be uniquely identified from site audit logs. i.4cdn.org is the new unified host. [200], On July 14, 2019, 17-year-old Bianca Devins was murdered by 21-year-old Brandon Clark of Utica, New York after the two went to a concert together. He admitted to downloading about 25 child pornography images from 4chan. A few anonymous individuals went to Sullivan's Facebook profile and found his address, phone number, school ID number, school schedule and teachers, and other personal information. Revealing oneself as a janitor is grounds for immediate dismissal. they should thusly be included in the article. Both Trump and his son, Donald Trump Jr., appeared to acknowledge the support by tweeting /pol/-associated memes. Registration is not available and users typically post anonymously; posting is ephemeral, as threads receiving recent replies are "bumped" to the top of their respective board and old threads are deleted as new ones are created. [71][72][73][74] The Southern Poverty Law Center regards /pol/'s rhetorical style as widely emulated by white supremacist websites such as The Daily Stormer; the Stormer's editor, Andrew Anglin, concurred. The National Post's David George-Cosh said it has been "widely reported" that Anonymous is associated with 4chan and 711chan, as well as numerous Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels. [211][212], On February 4, 2010, 4chan started receiving reports from Verizon Wireless customers that they were having difficulties accessing the site's image boards. We could have changed history and failed, epically. Anonymous (group) § 4chan raids (2003–2007), Recording Industry Association of America, United States Department of Homeland Security, "What The Hell Are 4chan, ED, Something Awful, And "b"? Top Importance: 4chan memes, though unreferenced for the most part, are recognized and circulated to the point that old ladies in government offices circulate pictures of Longcat in their emails and, with the whole Chanology thing, it can be argued that the Anonymous name/culture, originating (in an unreferenced way) from 4chan, is now known. The website of the UK law firm ACS:Law, which was associated with an anti-piracy client, was affected by the cyber-attack. [note 1][22] After the site's creation, Poole invited users from the ADTRW subforum, many of whom were dissatisfied with the site's moderation, to visit 4chan, which he advertised as an English-language counterpart to Futaba Channel and a place for Western fans to discuss anime and manga. [10]Através de suas associações com o Anonymous, o 4chan se associou … "[198] The victim was Amber Lynn Coplin, aged 30. A multitude of /b/ visitors followed the order and pushed the symbol to the top of the chart, though Google later removed the result. Thus, the "rickroll" was born. [187], On February 17, 2012, Thaddeus McMichael was arrested by the FBI for child pornography charges after posting comments on Facebook claiming that he possessed child pornography. [34], In 2010, 4chan had implemented reCAPTCHA in an effort to thwart spam arising from JavaScript worms. [51][52][53] 4chan's interference with the vote seemed increasingly likely, when it was found that reading the first letter of the first 21 candidates in the poll spelled out a phrase containing two 4chan memes: "mARBLECAKE. The show was first discussed with some interest around its debut in October 2010. Prior to that, he had used the alias "moot". On the website, users post pictures and discuss them. [164] He was arrested before school began that day. In 2008, the page containing Pepe and the catchphrase was scanned and uploaded to 4chan's /b/ board, which has been described as the meme's "permanent home". [147] The videos uploaded by the user had apparently become popular with 4chan members, who subsequently became angered after the account was suspended and called for a new wave of pornographic videos to be uploaded to YouTube on January 6, 2010. [61] Due partially to its anonymous nature, board moderation is not always successful—indeed, the site's anti-child pornography rule is a subject of jokes on /b/. The article which contained parts of the interview said that it began on 4chan's /r9k/ board, where "Pepe transformed from harmless cartoon to big green monster", and then moved to Twitter. Information like his teachers and ID number had been posted directly, and the more personal information like his address was found in the EXIF data of some of the pictures posted on his profile. [208], 4chan's founder Christopher Poole responded with the following:[209][210]. The original post included a link to Westley Sullivan's Facebook profile, which has since been taken down, and a screenshot of a post which said "if fairview isnt closed tomorrow im going to blow it up", referring to Sullivan's high school, Fairview High School, in Boyd County, Kentucky. [58], The "random" board, /b/, follows the design of Futaba Channel's Nijiura board. [36], On January 21, 2015, Poole stepped down as the site's administrator, citing stress from controversies such as Gamergate as the reason for his departure. Rick Astley, king of the 'Rickroll,' talks about his song's second coming", "YouTube research shows picture is changing rapidly", "Foxy Boxxy : celle qui parle pour ne rien dire", "Polish newspaper claims 'Pedobear' is 2010 Vancouver Olympic mascot", "Papal billboards vandalism 'does not respect people's sentiments'- Curia", "Online group declares war on Scientology", "Pony Up Haters: How 4chan Gave Birth to the Bronies", "Hey, Bro, That's My Little Pony! [2] Spiegel Online beschreibt 4chan als Rickrolling, alternatively Rick-rolling or Rickroll, is a prank and an Internet meme involving an unexpected appearance of the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song "Never Gonna Give You Up".The meme is a type of bait and switch using a disguised hyperlink that leads to the music video. "[135], Users of 4chan and other websites "raided" Hal Turner by launching DDoS attacks and prank calling his phone-in radio show during December 2006 and January 2007. It’s a false flag for sure, but I’ll be aiming for the more tanned/dark haired muddied jeans in the crowd so real whites won’t have to worry," wrote Radulovic, according to the indictment. Rick Astley, king of the 'Rickroll,' talks about his song's second coming", 4chan archive; an archive of selected 4chan threads, 4chan data; a complete archive of 4chan threads, https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=4chan&oldid=6804875, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. [note 1] 4chan also has a junior moderation team, called "janitors", who may delete posts or images and suggest that the normal moderation team ban a user, but who cannot post with a capcode. It was later reported that the HTML numeric character reference for the symbol had been posted on /b/, with a request to perform a Google search for the string. [47], On November 17, 2018, it was announced that the site would be split into two, with the work-safe boards moved to a new domain, 4channel.org, while the NSFW boards would remain on the 4chan.org domain. Miang claimed that the report "seems to confuse /b/ raids and motivational poster templates with a genuine threat to the American public", arguing that the "unrelated" footage of a van exploding shown in the report was to "equate anonymous posting with domestic terror". Just like 4chan, 8chan is based on posting pictures and discussion anonymously, but unlike 4chan, 8chan lets its users decide what they want to discuss by allowing any user to create their own board dedicated to any topic, a concept first made popular by news bulletin boards like Reddit. On Telegram, militia groups, white nationalists and QAnon supporters swap updates on the latest voter fraud allegations and spread calls to take up arms to protect Trump’s presidency. /pol/ was where screenshots of Trayvon Martin's hacked social media accounts were initially posted. 4chan /b/ is 4chan /b/, its only purpose for an organized raid is a bulletin board for recruiting bodies. The block was lifted several days later. [94][95] The perpetrator of the Toronto van attack referenced 4chan and an incel rebellion in a Facebook post he made prior to the attack, while praising self-identified incel Elliot Rodger, the killer behind the 2014 Isla Vista killings. "[152], In August 2012, 4chan users attacked a third-party sponsored Mountain Dew campaign, Dub the Dew, where users were asked to submit and vote on name ideas for a green apple flavor of the drink. Instead of focusing on a limited supply of email material to comb through, the /htg/ culture allowed … Here I first encountered memes, lurkers, shitposting, trolling, and much else that would eventually erupt from this niche like pus from a wound. March 21, 2011", "Another 4chan Fan Arrested On Federal Charges: Navy man copped to getting child porn from web site. The body was discovered in Port Orchard, Washington, after the images were posted. When the site started, it was for discussing anime and manga, but now many other topics are discussed. [165][166][167][168] The incident turned out to be a hoax; the "weapons" were toys and there were no actual bombs. [24][40][41] Nishimura was the former administrator of 2channel between 1999 and 2014, the website forming the basis for anonymous posting culture which influenced later websites such as Futaba Channel and 4chan;[42] Nishimura lost 2channel's domain after it was seized by his registrar, Jim Watkins,[43][44] after the latter alleged financial difficulties. On June 5, 2008, he was sentenced to six months in prison, six months' house arrest, and ordered to pay $26,750 in restitution. 2016 United States presidential campaign. Brain fork 22:41, 3 … Better? "What The Hell Are 4chan, ED, Something Awful, And "b"? Her son will be home from school soon. [139] A /b/ user then logged in and changed the password, posting a screenshot of him sending an email to a friend of Palin's informing her of the new password on the /b/ thread. Users of 4chan's /b/ board would occasionally join into mass pranks or raids. [80][81][82][83], /r9k/ is a board which implements Randall Munroe's "ROBOT9000" algorithm, where no exact reposts are permitted. Raids are organized off site and none of those people care about 4chan being on the main page. [213], On March 20, 2019, Australian telecom company Telstra denied access to millions of Australians to 4chan, 8chan, Zero Hedge and LiveLeak as a reaction to the Christchurch mosque shootings. When creating 4chan, Poole obtained Futaba Channel's open source code and translated the Japanese text into English using AltaVista [155][156], On October 18, 2006, the Department of Homeland Security warned National Football League officials in Miami, New York City, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Oakland, and Cleveland about a possible threat involving the simultaneous use of dirty bombs at stadiums. This Is Going To Get Ugly", "AT&T Blocking Access to Portions of 4chan (Updated Again)", "AT&T Confirms 4chan Block After DoS Attack", "Verizon Wireless restores 4Chan traffic", "4chan, 8chan, LiveLeak and Others Blocked by Australian Internet Companies over Mosque Massacre Video", "Australian telcos block dozens of websites hosting Christchurch terror video", "4chan, 8chan blocked by Australian and NZ ISPs for hosting shooting video", Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right, "4chan and /b/:An Analysis of Anonymity and Ephemerality in a Large Online Community", Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, "Now 10 years old, 4chan is the most important site you never visit", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=4chan&oldid=1008686440, Articles with dead external links from July 2018, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles with dead external links from September 2010, Articles with dead external links from September 2018, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages, Wikipedia pages semi-protected against vandalism, Articles containing potentially dated statements from November 2020, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Articles containing potentially dated statements from June 2020, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 24 February 2021, at 15:03. [194] The allegations were followed by a harassment campaign against several women in the video game industry, organized by 4chan users,[195] particularly /r9k/. The meme first appeared on 4chan's /r9k/ board in September 2018. [215][216], New Zealand ISPs in the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shootings, As explained by Poole during a live-video online interview with, ie North American athletic types, not Scotsmen, Anthony McCosker, Sonja Vivienne, Amelia Johns (Oct 12, 2016), United States of America v. David Kernell. "[68] /pol/ was created in October 2011 as a rebranding of 4chan's news board, /new/,[34] which was deleted that January for a high volume of racist discussion. [33], Although there had previously been a strong left-libertarian contingent to 4chan activists, there was a gradual rightward turn on 4chan's politics board in the early-mid 2010s. They found that /pol/ substantially influences the meme ecosystem by posting a large number of memes, while r/The_Donald is the most efficient community in pushing memes to both fringe and mainstream web communities.