It became a “virus” that “infected every facet” of life, from the “slang we use” to the politicians “we vote for”, he added. 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. In a rather dramatic turn that shocked little and yet stunned many, the notoriously lawless imageboard 4chan has reportedly been hacked. A long-dead board, /qa/, rose from the ashes, only to display a cryptic “U GOT HACKED” message.
Night – Mostly clear with a 40% chance of precipitation. Cloudy with a high of 64 °F (17.8 °C) and a 44% chance of precipitation. With no account system and minimal moderation, 4chan allowed users to say whatever they wanted without consequence. This made it a haven for niche interests, fringe art, and uncensored discourse—but also for racism, misogyny, and extremism.
Over time, it became a well-known source of internet memes, trolling, and extreme political rhetoric. The site has also been connected to the early formation of Anonymous, the rise of the alt-right, and the spread of nonconsensual AI-generated content. But the site itself had been frozen in amber since the George W. Bush administration. According to PC Gamer, the hacker may have had access to 4chan’s systems for over a year before launching the attack.
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“The free time that 4chan’s development team had available to dedicate to 4chan was insufficient to update our software and infrastructure fast enough, and our luck ran out.” Holderness calls 4chan the internet’s “Wild West” and says its demise this month felt appropriate in a way. The chaos that defined 4chan, both the good and the very, very bad, has largely been paved over by corporate platforms and their algorithms now. Now may be your last chance to lock in today’s high CD rates. Here are some of the top travel credit cards available right now, whether you’re looking for everyday rewards or luxury benefits. Get rewarded on your everyday essentials, annual vacations, and everything in between with today’s top rewards credit cards.
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- Quickly get input and make a decision in the group chat with polls.
- Specifically, the blog stated that a hacker with a UK IP address was able to access 4chan’s servers by exploiting its outdated software via a PDF upload.
- Send detailed event messages in WhatsApp group chats that include the date, time, and venue.
- Launched in 2003, 4chan is an anonymous imageboard where users can post text and images across a wide range of topic boards — from video games and anime to politics and adult content.
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Based in Australia, she writes about everything from video games and K-pop to movies and gadgets. “While not all of our servers were breached, the most important one was, and it was due to simply not updating old operating systems and code in a timely fashion,” read 4chan’s blog on Friday. But understanding how 4chan went from the home of cat memes to a true internet bogeyman requires an understanding of how the site actually worked. Its features were often overlooked amid all the conversations about the site’s political influence, but I’d argue they were equally, if not more, important. “Websites like 4chan create a surrogate family, same way you can form one at a bar,” Arthur Jones, a documentary-maker, told The Guardian.
- A long-dead board, /qa/, rose from the ashes, only to display a cryptic “U GOT HACKED” message.
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- Its features were often overlooked amid all the conversations about the site’s political influence, but I’d argue they were equally, if not more, important.
- Reports suggest that 4chan may have been running on outdated code as far back as 2016, with no meaningful updates or protections in place.
- While it played a role in meme creation and early internet activism, it also developed a reputation for hosting offensive, harmful, and sometimes extremist content.
Then, screenshots claiming to reveal its inner workings began circulating across the internet’s back alleys, TechCrunch reported. The platform became known for its minimal moderation, raw tone, and viral influence on internet culture. While it played a role in meme creation and early internet activism, it also developed a reputation for hosting offensive, harmful, and sometimes extremist content.
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In that sense, it’s a reminder of what the internet once was— wild, https://p1nup.in/ decentralised, unpredictable, and often deeply uncomfortable. Users also pointed out that before it went down, users on 4chan were at the forefront of investigating the happenings in the El Salvador prisons. Yet despite this, 4chan won’t ever return to its former incarnation.
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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. 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”. There are strategies for getting the lowest mortgage rates possible, such as choosing a shorter term. A money market account can help you grow your savings balance.
That cozy vibe came crashing down for me when I got doxed the summer going into my senior year. Someone made a “hate blog” for me—one of the first times I felt the dark presence of an anonymous stranger’s digital ire, and posted my phone number on 4chan. 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.
A 2018 Southern Poverty Law Center report linked 4chan’s culture to online extremism. In 2021, the game Minecraft removed a long-standing reference to its gaming board due to its toxic reputation. According to a previous report from Reuters, the breach appears to have exposed internal systems, including moderator tools and identifying information. Screenshots allegedly showing 4chan’s backend infrastructure began circulating online, and a defunct section of the site briefly reappeared with the phrase “U GOT HACKED” across the top. Amanda Yeo is an Assistant Editor at Mashable, covering entertainment, culture, tech, science, and social good.
4chan is where lolcats, Rickrolls, Pepe the Frog, and Doge first gained traction. It helped incubate meme culture before the word “meme” went mainstream. Its /b/ (random) board was pure digital anarchy—a chaotic free-for-all that pioneered meme formats and image macros still used across Reddit, Twitter, and TikTok. One 4chan janitor told TechCrunch that the data appeared real and added, “Doxxing is a longstanding pastime on 4chan, and the possibility that we could be exposed has always been there.” Some believe the hack may have marked the end of the platform altogether. PC Gamer reported that “with every single user of note doxxed, the site’s servers decimated, and the admin team in disarray, it’s unlikely 4chan will be back up soon. Or ever.”
The digital blackout has erased, if only temporarily, one of the internet’s most controversial corners. Over the years, it’s been linked to various online movements, trolling campaigns, and controversial subcultures. 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. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. 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.