4chan is an anonymous online imageboard known for its controversial content and influence on internet culture. It began as a hub for memes and online anarchy but evolved into a breeding ground for extremist ideologies and harassment campaigns.
4chan's controversies include its role in Gamergate, a harassment campaign targeting women in the gaming industry, and its association with the alt-right and the spread of far-right extremism. The forum has been linked to the radicalization of individuals and the creation of various domestic terrorist groups. Pepe the Frog, a meme originating on 4chan, became a symbol for the alt-right.
Recent hacks, exposing internal data, including user information and moderators' identities, have raised questions about the future of 4chan. While some believe the hack could mark the end of the platform, others suggest that 4chan might recover, albeit slowly.
Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter is seen as a contributing factor to 4chan's decline, as Twitter's increased size and reach arguably rendered 4chan less relevant. The shift to Twitter is believed to have widened 4chan's influence from online communities to direct impacts on American life and politics.
The future of 4chan remains uncertain. While some believe the site might eventually be restored, there is also a strong feeling amongst some users and observers that the platform's era has ended. The platform is slowly coming back online; however, the long-term effects of the hack are still unclear.
The last rites are being read for one of the internet's most controversial forums after it was hacked, reportedly by a rival internet faction.
Some believe the development could "spell the end" of 4chan, said Sky News, after more than 20 years of influence and notoriety.
The concept of 4chan is simple, said the broadcaster – it's an online forum where anonymous users share pictures and text. But what keeps many of its 27 million users coming back for more, said the BBC, are the site's "more controversial pages".
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4chan's meme content was the "funniest" thing my "14-year-old brain" had ever "laid eyes on", said Wired's Ryan Broderick. But what began as a "hub" for internet culture and an "anonymous way station for anarchic true believers" evolved into a "fan club for mass shooters" and the "beating heart" of far-right fascism. It became a "virus" that "infected every facet" of life, from the "slang we use" to the politicians "we vote for", he added.
The forum had been notorious in online circles for some time, but it came to mainstream attention in 2014 during Gamergate – the vendetta of harassment campaign against women in gaming. This resulted in "bomb threats, death threats" and women "fleeing their homes", said Sky News.
“Websites like 4chan create a surrogate family, same way you can form one at a bar,” Arthur Jones, a documentary-maker, told The Guardian. "You sit around, break each other’s balls, talk some shit, have fun and feel like you belong." Jones' first feature doc was about perhaps the most famous creation of 4chan – Pepe the frog who became a cultural touchstone for the alt-right. "Suddenly, the friendly frog was being given Hitler moustaches and Trumpian combovers by fringe extremists," said The Guardian, with users pairing the "reluctant mascot with racist, homophobic and antisemitic invective".
In this way 4chan helped "birth" a variety of "domestic terrorists", said Vice, as well as a "weaponised ideology of irony" powered by an ingrained sense of "nihilism" spawning "neo-Nazis, incels, and folks who identify as both". Perhaps unsurprisingly, this led to existential issues for the forum.
The forum's future was first called into question in 2022 when Elon Musk bought Twitter, a development that meant there was "really no point to 4chan anymore", said Wired.
A former extremism reporter, Ben Collins, told the outlet that the forum's user base moved into a "bigger ballpark and started immediately impacting American life and policy. Twitter became 4chan and the "4chanified" Twitter "became the United States government".
Then came the hack. Earlier this week, a message appeared on parts of the site with the words: "U GOT HACKED". The hacker posted screenshots allegedly showing 4chan's "back end, source code, and templates to ban users," said Tech Crunch, along with a list of the names of 4chan moderators and "janitors," or users who can delete posts and threads but don't have full moderator access.
There's a "growing feeling" that 4chan will stay offline, said PC Gamer, and a lot of people feel "maybe" that's not such a bad thing. A 4chan moderator said that work on restoring the site is underway, but a number of users "seem to have accepted that this really is very likely the end".
But some think it is a bit too soon to write it off and the site seems to be "slowly and stutteringly" coming back online, said Sky News.
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