4chan

4chan
4chan
4chan front page 2010.png
The 4chan homepage on August 23, 2010
URL 4chan.org
Commercial? Yes
Type of site Imageboard
Registration None available
Available language(s) English
Owner Christopher Poole
Launched October 1, 2003[1]
Alexa rank decrease 942 (November 2011)[2]

4chan is an English-language imageboard website. Launched on October 1, 2003, its boards were originally used for the posting of pictures and discussion of manga and anime. Users generally post anonymously and the site has been linked to Internet subcultures and activism, most notably Project Chanology.

4chan users have been responsible for the formation or popularization of Internet memes such as lolcats, Rickrolling, "Chocolate Rain", Pedobear, and many others. The site's "Random" board is by far its most popular and notorious feature. Known as "/b/", there are very minimal rules on posted content. Gawker once jokingly claimed that "reading /b/ will melt your brain".[3]

The site's Anonymous community and culture have often provoked media attention. For media planners, this enterprise is "further proof that creativity is everywhere and new media is less accessible" to advertisement agencies.[4] Journalists looked at how an Internet destination was hijacked for a prank, so that images of Rick Astley appeared instead of the page that was searched for; the coordination of attacks against other websites and Internet users; and covered the reaction to threats of violence that have been posted on the site. The Guardian once summarized the 4chan community as "lunatic, juvenile... brilliant, ridiculous and alarming."[5]

Contents

Background

4chan was started in 2003 in the bedroom of a then-15-year-old student from New York City named Christopher Poole, who posts as "moot".[6] Prior to starting 4chan, Poole had been a regular participant on the Something Awful forums.[7] He intended 4chan to be a place to discuss Japanese comics and anime, an American counterpart to the popular Japanese Futaba Channel ("2chan") imageboard.[8][9] Poole originally used the Futaba Channel to obtain anime-related images, and liked the concept of a message board where people anonymously shared images, which eventually led to his idea of creating a similar English-based website. During the creation of 4chan, he obtained the source code for the Futaba Channel website, and translated the Japanese text into English using Altavista's Babelfish online translator.[10][11] When he first created the website, it had only two boards: "/a/ - Anime/General" and "/b/ - Anime/Random"; over time more boards were created, and /b/ was eventually renamed to simply "/b/ - Random".[10][11]

The activity of 4chan takes place on message boards and imageboards.[3][9] The website is split into six categories: Japanese culture, Interests, Creative, Adult (18+), Other, and Misc (18+). These provide for on-topic boards to discuss anime, manga, technology, sport, photography, music, hentai, torrents, travel, physical fitness, as well as a random board. 4chan originally hosted discussion boards on a separate domain called "world4ch", but these were later moved to the dis.4chan.org subdomain.[12] The site has had at least one employee, a programmer whom Poole met via online Tetris. All other moderators are volunteers.[6] The boards that attract the largest amount of traffic, from greatest to least, are /b/ (Random), /v/ (Video games), /a/ (Anime and Manga), and /s/ (board intended for sharing explicit images).[10]

During the early days of 4chan, the boards that originally existed were the anime, random, cute, hentai, and yaoi boards; a lolicon board also existed at /l/,[13] but was removed less than one month after its creation.[14] The /g/ board also was initially dedicated to guro, before it was deleted and later remade as the "technology" board.[15]

During 2004, 4chan briefly went offline,[16] although the site returned fully online a few months later.[17] Following 4chan's return, non-anime related boards, such as the weapons, automobile, and video games boards, were introduced.[18] In 2008, the "Japan/General" board at /jp/ was created for topics that did not fit under the anime and manga category of /a/; /jp/ was later renamed to "Otaku Culture".

4chan is one of the Internet's most trafficked imageboards, according to the Los Angeles Times.[19] 4chan's Alexa rank is generally around 700,[20] though it has been as high as number 56 at times.[21] 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. Poole acknowledges that donations alone cannot keep the site online, so he has turned to advertising to help make ends meet.[22] However, the explicit content hosted on 4chan has deterred businesses who do not want to be associated with the site's content.[23] In January 2009, Poole signed a new deal with an advertising company; as of February 2009, he was $20,000 in debt and the site was continuing to lose money.[24]

Unlike most web forums, 4chan does not have a registration system, allowing users to post anonymously.[7][25] Any nickname may be used when posting, even one that has been previously adopted, such as "Anonymous" or "moot".[26] In place of registration, 4chan has provided tripcodes as an optional form of authenticating a poster's identity.[27] As making a post without filling in the "Name" field causes posts to be attributed to "Anonymous", general understanding on 4chan holds that Anonymous is not a single person but a collective (hive) of users.[28] Moderators generally post without a name even when performing sysop actions. A "capcode" may be used to attribute the post to "Anonymous ## Mod", although moderators often post without the capcode.[29] In a 2011 interview on Nico Nico Douga, Poole explained that there are approximately 20 volunteer moderators active on 4chan.[10] 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 can not post with a capcode. Revealing oneself as a janitor is grounds for immediate dismissal.[30]

In January 2011, Poole announced the deletion of the /r9k/ ("ROBOT9000") and /new/ (News) boards, saying that /new/ had become devoted to racist discussions, and /r9k/ no longer served its original purpose of being a test implementation of xkcd's ROBOT9000 script.[31] During the same year, the /soc/ board was created in an effort to reduce the number of socialization threads on /b/.

/r9k/ was restored on 23 October 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.[32]

4chan has been the target of occasional denial of service attacks. For instance, on December 28, 2010, 4chan went down due to a such an attack. Christopher Poole said on his blog "We now join the ranks of MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, et al.—an exclusive club!"[33]

Christopher Poole

Main article: Christopher Poole

Christopher Poole kept his real life identity hidden until it was revealed on July 9, 2008, in The Wall Street Journal. Before that time he had used the alias "moot".[6] The same day, Lev Grossman of Time published an interview describing Poole's influence as a non-visible administrator as "one of the most [significant]" on the evolution of content collaboration. Although Grossman's article began with the confession that "I don't even know his real name", he claimed to identify moot as Christopher Poole.[23] Later, on July 10, Grossman admitted that there was an outside chance that Christopher Poole was not moot's real name, rather an obscure reference to a 4chan inside joke.[34] The Washington Post concurred that "Christopher Poole" could be "all a big hoax, a 'gotcha.' It would be just what you'd expect from the creator of 4chan."[24] In March 2009, Time backpedaled somewhat on the issue by placing the moot persona on the 2009 Time 100 finalists list.[35]

Prior to the Wall Street Journal and Time interviews, Poole deliberately kept his real identity separate from 4chan. He told Grossman "my personal private life is very separate from my Internet life ... There's a firewall in between."[23] As moot, he has spoken at conferences at Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[23] A 2008 article in The Observer had him down as "the most influential web entrepreneur you've never heard of", though he has since been described in more limited terms such as "benefactor".[36][37]

In February 2009, The Washington Post reported that Poole had attended Virginia Commonwealth University for a few semesters before dropping out. It reported that Christopher Poole was living with his mother while looking for a way to make money from owning 4chan.[24]

In April 2009, Poole was voted the world's most influential person of 2008 by an open Internet poll conducted by Time magazine.[38] The results were questioned even before the poll completed, as automated voting programs and manual ballot stuffing were used to influence the vote.[39][40][41] 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. ALSO, THE GAME."[42]

On September 12, 2009, Poole gave a talk on why 4chan has a reputation as a "Meme Factory" at the Paraflows Symposium in Vienna, Austria, which was part of the Paraflows 09 festival, themed Urban Hacking. In this talk, Poole mainly attributed this to the anonymous system, and to the lack of data retention on the site ("The site has no memory.").[43][44]

Christopher Poole at ROFLCon II (2010)

On February 10, 2010, Poole spoke at the TED2010 conference in Long Beach, California.[45][46] He spoke about the increasing prevalence of persistent user identities and the sharing of personal information on sites like Facebook and Twitter and he also spoke about the value of anonymous posting on sites like 4chan.[47] Fred Leal of the Brazilian newspaper Estadão said his inclusion in the conference "indicates that something extraordinary is happening... [4chan] challenges every Internet convention: it is, alone, the antithesis of Google, social networking sites, and blogs."[48]

In 2010, Poole was reported to have raised $625,000 to create a new online enterprise, called "Canvas".[11][49] The website opened on January 31, 2011, and features digitally modified images uploaded by users who are required to self-identify using Facebook Connect.[50]

In April 2010, Poole gave evidence in the trial United States of America v. David Kernell as a government witness.[51] As a witness, he explained the terminology used on 4chan to the prosecutor, ranging from "OP" to "lurker". 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.[52]

In a 2010 interview, Poole discussed his belief in the value of multiple identities, including anonymity, in contrast to the merge of online and real-world identities occurring on Facebook and many other social networking sites.[11]

Links to Anonymous and Project Chanology

See also: Anonymous (group) and Project Chanology

4chan has been labeled as the starting point of the Anonymous meme by The Baltimore City Paper,[21] due to the norm of posts signed with the "Anonymous" moniker. 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.[53]

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. On January 15, 2008, a 4chan user posted to /b/, suggesting participants "do something big" against the Church of Scientology's website. This message resulted in the Church receiving threatening phone calls. It quickly grew into a large real-world protest. Unlike previous Anonymous attacks, this action was characterized by 4chan memes including rickrolls and Guy Fawkes masks. The raid drew criticism from some 4chan users who felt it would bring the site undesirable attention.[21]

/b/ imageboard

The "random" board, /b/, follows the design of Futaba Channel's Nijiura board. It was the first board created, and is by far 4chan's most popular board, with 30% of site traffic.[54][55] Gawker.com's Nick Douglas summarized /b/ as a board where "people try to shock, entertain, and coax free porn from each other."[3] /b/ has a "no rules" policy, except for bans on certain illegal content, such as child pornography, invasions of other websites (posting floods of disruptive content), and under-18 viewing, all of which are inherited from site-wide rules. The "no invasions" rule was added in late 2006, after /b/ users spent most of the summer "invading" Habbo Hotel. The "no rules" policy also applies to actions of administrators and moderators, which means that users may be banned at any time, for any reason, including no reason at all.[56] 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/.[21] 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.[57]

The humor of /b/'s many users, who refer to themselves as "/b/tards",[57][58] is often incomprehensible to newcomers and outsiders, and is characterized by intricate inside jokes and black comedy.[58] Users often refer to each other, and much of the outside world, as fags.[21] They are often referred to by outsiders as trolls, who regularly act with the intention of "doing it for the lulz": a corruption of "LOL" used to denote amusement at another's expense.[57][59] The New York Observer has described posters as "immature pranksters whose bad behavior is encouraged by the site's total anonymity and the absence of an archive".[50] Douglas said of the board, "reading /b/ will melt your brain", and cited Encyclopedia Dramatica's definition of /b/ as "the asshole of the Internets".[3] Matthias Schwartz of The New York Times likened /b/ to "a high-school bathroom stall, or an obscene telephone party line",[57] while Baltimore City Paper wrote that "in the high school of the Internet, /b/ is the kid with a collection of butterfly knives and a locker full of porn."[21] Wired describes /b/ as "notorious".[58]

Each post is assigned a post number. Certain post numbers are sought after with a large amount of posting taking place to "GET" them. A "GET" occurs when a post's number ends in a special number, such as 12345678, 22222222, or every millionth post.[60] A sign of 4chan's scaling, according to Poole, was when GETs lost meaning due to the high post rate resulting in a GET occurring every few weeks. He estimated /b/'s post rate in July 2008 to be 150,000–200,000 posts per day.[34]

Memes

Internet memes are catchphrases or images that spread quickly, peer to peer, across the Internet.[61] Many Internet memes have originated on 4chan, usually /b/, as its fast moving, crowd psychology nature enables content to quickly be passed on to large numbers of viewers. Other memes originating on the site have gained media attention of a lesser degree. These include "So I herd u liek mudkipz" [sic], which involves a phrase based on Pokémon, and which generated numerous YouTube tribute videos.[7] 4chan, and other websites, such as the satirical Encyclopedia Dramatica, have also contributed to the development of significant amounts of leetspeak.[62]

A lolcat image using the "I'm in ur..." format

Lolcats

Main article: Lolcat

A lolcat is an image combining a photograph of a cat with text intended to contribute humour. The text is often idiosyncratic and grammatically incorrect. In 2005, the meme was widely popularized by 4chan in the form of "Caturday". Every Saturday, users posted pictures of cats with image macros relating to that day's theme.[63][64]

Rickrolling

Main article: Rickrolling

In 2005, a meme known as the "duckroll" began, after Poole used a word filter to change "egg" to "duck" across 4chan. Thus, words such as "eggroll" were changed to "duckroll". This led to a bait-and-switch in which external links disguised as relevant to a discussion instead led to a picture of a duck on wheels.[65]

In March 2007, the trailer for the video game Grand Theft Auto IV was released. Its immense popularity caused publisher Rockstar Games' website to crash. An unidentified 4chan user applied the concept of the duckroll to what appeared to be a link to the trailer on YouTube, but instead showed the music video for Rick Astley's 1987 song "Never Gonna Give You Up". Thus, the "rickroll" was born.[65] In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Astley said he found the meme "bizarre and funny".[5][65][66]

"Chocolate Rain"

Main article: Chocolate Rain

A link to the YouTube video of Tay Zonday's song "Chocolate Rain" was posted on /b/ on July 11, 2007.[67] The Age reported that 4chan posters urged each other to "swarm" the video on YouTube and thus increase its ranking.[68] The video became an immensely popular Internet meme, resulting in cover versions by John Mayer and Green Day drummer Tré Cool.[69] 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.[67][70]

Pedobear

Main article: Pedobear

In his American incarnation, Pedobear is an anthropomorphic bear child predator that is often used within the community to mock contributors showing a sexual interest in children.[71] Pedobear is one of the most popular memes on non-English imageboards, and has gained recognition across Europe. 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. This was done accidentally, due to the image being used from Google Images, the authors were unaware of the joke.[72] Similarly, the Dutch television guide Avrobode[73] used one of the images. It has been used as a symbol of pedophilia by Maltese graffiti vandals prior to a papal visit.[74]

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Main article: My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

In October 2010, The Hub launched the animated cartoon series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, which eventually became a popular Internet meme and cult television series. The Cartoons and Comics board (or /co/ for short) took an interest in jokes aimed at adult viewers, such as references to X-Men, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Diamond Dogs. This reaction soon spread to the general forum, /b/, where elements of the show quickly caught on as recurring jokes, and spread as memes to other forums around the Internet.[75]

Media attention

Internet attacks

See also: Anonymous (group)#KTTV Fox 11 news report and Sarah Palin email hack

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."[49]

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. The attacks caused Turner's website to go offline. This cost thousands of dollars of bandwidth bills according to Turner. In response, Turner sued 4chan, 7chan, and other websites; however, he lost his plea for an injunction and failed to receive letters from the court.[76]

KTTV Fox 11 aired a report on Anonymous, calling them a group of "hackers on steroids", "domestic terrorists", and collectively an "Internet hate machine" on July 26, 2007.[77] Slashdot founder Rob Malda posted a comment made by another Slashdot user, Miang, stating that the story focused mainly on users of "4chan, 7chan and 420chan". 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".[78]

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 popular search terms in the United States—for several hours. 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. A multitude of /b/ visitors followed the order and pushed the symbol to the top of the chart, though Google later removed the result.[19]

Later that year, the private Yahoo! Mail account of Sarah Palin, Republican vice presidential candidate in the 2008 United States presidential election, was hacked by a 4chan user. This followed criticism of Palin and other politicians supposedly using private email accounts for governmental work.[79] The hacker posted the account's password on /b/, and screenshots from within the account to Wikileaks.[80] A /b/ user then logged in and changed the password, posting a screenshot of his sending an email to a friend of Palin's informing her of the new password on the /b/ thread. However, he forgot to blank out the password in the screenshot.[81] A multitude of /b/ users attempted to log in with the new password, and the account was automatically locked out by Yahoo!. The incident was criticized by some /b/ users, in that most reports on the hack focused on 4chan, rather than Palin's violation of campaign law. One user commented, "seriously, /b/. We could have changed history and failed, epically."[82] The FBI and Secret Service began investigating the incident shortly after its occurrence. On September 20 it was revealed they were questioning David Kernell, the son of Democratic Tennessee State Representative Mike Kernell.[83]

The stock price of Apple Inc. fell significantly in October 2008 after a hoax story was submitted to CNN's user-generated news site iReport.com claiming that company CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a major heart attack. The source of the story was traced back to 4chan.[84][85]

In May 2009, members of the site attacked YouTube, posting pornographic videos on the site.[86] A 4chan member acknowledged being part of the attack, telling the BBC that it was in response to YouTube "deleting music".[87] In January 2010, members of the site attacked YouTube again in response to the suspension of YouTube user lukeywes1234 for failing to meet the minimum age requirement of thirteen.[88] 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.[88] Later the same year, 4chan made numerous disruptive pranks directed at singer Justin Bieber.[89]

In September 2010, in retaliation against the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America hiring of Aiplex Software to launch cyberattacks against The Pirate Bay, Anonymous members, recruited through posts on 4chan boards, subsequently initiated their own attacks, dubbed Operation Payback, DDoS'ing the website of all three companies.[90][91] The targeted websites usually went offline for a short period of time due to the attacks, before recovering.

A number of law firms associated with the anti-piracy industry were also affected, most notably the UK law firm ACS:Law, who had their web host account suspended multiple times due to the excessive traffic caused by the attacks.[92][unreliable source?] In retaliation for the initial attacks being called only a minor nuisance, Anonymous launched more attacks, bringing the site down yet again. 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.[93] It has been suggested that the data leak could cost the law firm up to £500,000 in fines for breaching British Data Protection Laws.[94] in January 2011, BBC News reported that the law firm have announced they are to stop "chasing illegal file-sharers". Head of the ACS:Law Andrew Crossley in a statement to a court addressed issues which influenced the decision to back down "I have ceased my work...I have been subject to criminal attack. My e-mails have been hacked. I have had death threats and bomb threats." [95]

Threats of violence

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.[96] The threat claimed that the attack would be carried out on October 22, the final day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.[97] 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. The games proceeded as planned but under a higher level of security awareness.[98] The threats came to light in the national media after Jake Brahm admitted to having posted the threats on 4chan and repeating them on other websites approximately 40 times.[97] Brahm did not expect the message to be taken seriously since he "would never take anything posted on 4chan as fact";[99] an FBI official was quoted as saying the "credibility of [the threat] was beyond ridiculous".[21] As a parody of the incident, 4chan temporarily added "Don't mess with football" as an additional rule for /b/.[21]

"Hello, /b/. On September 11, 2007, at 9:11 A.M. Central time, two pipe bombs will be remote-detonated at Pflugerville High School. Promptly after the blast, I, along with two ther Anonymous, will charge the building, armed with a Bushmaster AR-15, IMI Galil AR, a vintage, government-issue M1 .30 Carbine, and a Benelli M4 semi auto shotgun."

—The Pflugerville threat.[100]

On October 20, 2006, Brahm turned himself in to federal authorities, and was charged with fabricating a fake terrorist threat and taken into custody.[101] On February 28, 2008, he pled guilty to the federal charges. On June 5, 2008, he was sentenced to six months in prison, six months' house arrest, and ordered to pay $26,750 in restitution.[102]

Around midnight on September 11, 2007, a student posted photographs of mock pipe bombs and another photograph of him holding them while saying he would blow up his high school—Pflugerville High School in Pflugerville, Texas—at 9:11 a.m. on September 11.[100] Users of 4chan helped to track him down by finding the perpetrator's father's name in the Exif data of a photograph he took, and contacted the police.[103] He was arrested before school began that day.[104][105][106][107] The incident turned out to be a hoax; the "weapons" were toys and there were no actual bombs.[108]

Jarrad Willis, a 20-year-old from Melbourne, Australia was arrested on December 8, 2007, after apparently posting on 4chan that he was "going to shoot and kill as many people as I can until which time I am incapacitated or killed by the police".[109] The post, accompanied by an image of another man holding a shotgun, threatened a shopping mall near Beverly Hills.[110] While the investigation was still open, Willis was charged with criminal defamation for a separate incident[111] but died before the case was heard.[112]

On February 4, 2009, a posting on the 4chan /b/[113] said there would be a school shooting at St Eskils Gymnasium in Eskilstuna, Sweden. 1250 students and 50 teachers were evacuated.[114] A 21-year-old man was arrested after 4chan had provided the police with the IP address of the poster. According to the police the suspect said it was a joke and he was released after they found no indication that the threat was serious.[115][116]

Dusty the cat

On February 15, 2009, two videos featuring the physical abuse of a domestic cat named Dusty by a person calling himself "Timmy" were posted on YouTube. The 4chan community was able to track down the originator of the videos, a fourteen-year-old from Lawton, Oklahoma, and passed his details to his local police department. As a result of this, a suspect was arrested and the cat was treated by a veterinarian and taken to a safe place.[117][118]

ISP bans

AT&T temporary ban

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.[119][120]

On July 27, 2009, AT&T issued a statement claiming that the block was put in place after an AT&T customer was affected by a denial-of-service attack originating from IP addresses connected to img.4chan.org, and was an attempt to "prevent this attack from disrupting service for the impacted AT&T customer, and... our other customers." AT&T maintains that the block was not related to the content on 4chan.[121]

4chan's founder Christopher Poole responded with the following:[122]

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. Whoever pulled the trigger on blackholing the site probably didn't anticipate [nor intend] the consequences of doing so. We're glad to see this short-lived debacle has prompted renewed interest and debate over net neutrality and Internet censorship—two very important issues that don't get nearly enough attention—so perhaps this was all just a blessing in disguise.

Major news outlets have reported that the issue may be related to DDoSing of 4chan and that the suspicions of 4chan users fell on the person who owned Swedish-based Anontalk.com at that time for doing this.[123][124]

Concerning the AT&T claims of DDoS attacks originating from 4chan, Poole confirmed it was due to a network error:[122]

For the past three weeks, 4chan has been under a constant DDoS attack. We were able to filter this specific type of attack in a fashion that was more or less transparent to the end user. Unfortunately, as an unintended consequence of the method used, some Internet users received errant traffic from one of our network switches. A handful happened to be AT&T customers

Verizon ban

On February 4, 2010, 4chan started receiving reports from Verizon Wireless customers that they were having difficulties accessing the site's image boards. After investigating, Poole found out that only traffic on port 80 to the boards.4chan.org domain was affected, leading members to believe that the block was intentional.[125] On February 7, 2010, Verizon Wireless confirmed that 4chan was "explicitly blocked".[126] The block was lifted several days later.[127]

References

  1. ^ moot (2003-10-01). "Welcome". 4chan. http://www.4chan.org/news.php?all#2. Retrieved 2008-08-02. 
  2. ^ "4chan.org Site Info". Alexa Internet. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/4chan.org. Retrieved 2011-11-02. 
  3. ^ a b c d Nick Douglas (2008-01-18). "What The Hell Are 4chan, ED, Something Awful, And "b"?". Gawker.com. http://gawker.com/346385/what-the-hell-are-4chan-ed-something-awful-and-b. Retrieved 2008-07-15. 
  4. ^ Unattributed (2008-08-07). "It's all about the money, stupid, not the latest online technology". Marketing Week: p. 13. http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-8246737/It-s-all-about-the.html. Retrieved 2009-02-04 
  5. ^ a b Sean Michaels (2008-03-19). "Taking the Rick". London: Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/mar/19/news. Retrieved 2008-07-24. 
  6. ^ a b c Jamin Brophy-Warren (2008-07-09). "Modest Web Site Is Behind a Bevy of Memes". Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121564928060441097.html. Retrieved 2008-07-24. 
  7. ^ a b c Jerry Langton (2007-09-22). "Funny how `stupid' site is addictive". The Toronto Star. http://www.thestar.com/living/article/257955. Retrieved 2008-07-16. 
  8. ^ Danny O'Brien (2008-05-02). "Tuning into innovation outside the confines of English-speaking web". Irish Times. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2008/0502/1209632797289.html. Retrieved 2009-01-17. 
  9. ^ a b "FAQ – What is 4chan?". 4chan. http://www.4chan.org/faq.php#what4chan. Retrieved 2008-07-15. 
  10. ^ a b c d As explained by Poole during a live-video online interview with Hiroyuki Nishimura, founder of 2channel, on the Japanese website Nico Nico Douga during his trip to Japan in 2011. Recording of video feed available at: 27 July 2011, Moot x Hiroyuk​i Social Media​ Talk Session (ID: 57271090).
  11. ^ a b c d Dibbell, Julian (2010-09/10). "Radical Opacity". Technology Review. http://www.technologyreview.com/web/25997/. 
  12. ^ "FAQ – What were 4channel and world4ch?". 4chan. http://www.4chan.org/faq.php#were. Retrieved 2008-07-15. 
  13. ^ "News". 4chan. 2004-08-14. http://www.4chan.org/news/?all#20. Retrieved 2011-10-29. 
  14. ^ "News". 4chan. 2004-08-14. http://www.4chan.org/news/?all#29. Retrieved 2011-10-29. 
  15. ^ "News". 4chan. 2004-08-14. http://www.4chan.org/news/?all#11. Retrieved 2011-10-29. 
  16. ^ 20 June 2004, Poole, DING DONG, 4CHAN IS DEAD, 4chan News
  17. ^ 11 August 2004, "The Team", WE'RE BACK!, 4chan News
  18. ^ "News". 4chan. 2004-08-14. http://www.4chan.org/news/?all#59. Retrieved 2011-10-29. 
  19. ^ a b David Sarno (2008-07-12). "Rise and fall of the Googled swastika". The Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-et-swastika12-2008jul12,0,7460743.story. Retrieved 2008-07-14. 
  20. ^ "4chan.org — Site Information". Alexa. http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main/4chan.org. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
  21. ^ a b c d e f g h Chris Landers (2008-03-02). "Serious Business". Baltimore City Paper. http://www.citypaper.com/columns/story.asp?id=15543. Retrieved 2008-07-13. 
  22. ^ moot (2008-02-12). "The long and short of it". 4chan. http://www.4chan.org/news.php?all#95. Retrieved 2008-08-02. 
  23. ^ a b c d Grossman, Lev (2008-07-09). "The Master of Memes". Time (United States) 172 (3): pp. 50–51. http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1821435,00.html. Retrieved 2008-07-24 
  24. ^ a b c Hesse, Monica (2009-02-17). "A Virtual Unknown; Meet 'Moot,' the Secretive Internet Celeb Who Still Lives With Mom". The Washington Post: pp. 23–24. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/16/AR2009021601565.html. Retrieved 2009-04-16. 
  25. ^ "FAQ – How do I post anonymously?". 4chan. http://www.4chan.org/faq.php#postanon. Retrieved 2008-07-16. 
  26. ^ "FAQ – Can I register a username?". 4chan. http://www.4chan.org/faq.php#register. Retrieved 2008-07-16. 
  27. ^ "FAQ – How do I use a "tripcode"?". 4chan. http://www.4chan.org/faq.php#trip. Retrieved 2008-07-16. 
  28. ^ "FAQ – Who is "Anonymous"?". 4chan. http://www.4chan.org/faq.php#anonymous. Retrieved 2008-07-16. 
  29. ^ "FAQ – What is a capcode?". 4chan. http://www.4chan.org/faq.php#capcode. Retrieved 2008-07-16. 
  30. ^ "FAQ – What are "janitors"?". 4chan. http://www.4chan.org/faq#whojan. Retrieved 2009-01-12. 
  31. ^ 19 January 2011, Why were /r9k/ and /new/ removed? - Statement by him regarding the removal of /r9k/ and /new/. Archived from the original on 21 August 2011.
  32. ^ moot !Ep8pui8Vw2, 23 October 2011, Welcome back, robots, 4chan /r9k/. (WebCite archive)
  33. ^ "Web attack takes Anonymous activists offline". BBC News. 2010-12-29. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12090245. Retrieved 2010-12-29. 
  34. ^ a b Lev Grossman (2008-07-10). "Now in Paper-Vision: The 4chan Guy". TIME. http://time-blog.com/nerd_world/2008/07/now_in_papervision_the_4chan_g.html. Retrieved 2008-07-24. 
  35. ^ "moot - The 2009 TIME 100 Finalists". TIME. 2009-03-19. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1883644_1883653_1885481,00.html. Retrieved 2009-09-02. 
  36. ^ David Smith (2008-07-20). "The 20-year-old at heart of web's most anarchic and influential site". London: Observer. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/20/internet.google. Retrieved 2008-07-20. 
  37. ^ Cohen, Stefanie (2009-02-22). "Grosses and ’Nets". The New York Post: p. 25. http://www.nypost.com/seven/02212009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/the_dark_heart_of_the_internet_156297.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-16. 
  38. ^ "The World's Most Influential Person Is...". TIME. 2009-04-27. http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1894028,00.html. Retrieved 2009-09-02. 
  39. ^ Heater, Brian (2009-04-27). "4Chan Followers Hack Time's 'Influential' Poll". PC Magazine. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2345987,00.asp. Retrieved 2009-04-27. 
  40. ^ Schonfeld, Erick (2009-04-21). "4Chan Takes Over The Time 100". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/21/AR2009042101864.html. Retrieved 2009-04-27. 
  41. ^ "moot wins, Time Inc. loses « Music Machinery". Musicmachinery.com. 2009-04-27. http://musicmachinery.com/2009/04/27/moot-wins-time-inc-loses/. Retrieved 2009-09-02. 
  42. ^ Reddit Top Links. "Marble Cake Also the Game [PIC]". Buzzfeed.com. http://www.buzzfeed.com/reddit/also-the-work-of-4chan-pic. Retrieved 2009-09-02. 
  43. ^ "Paraflows 09, Program for Saturday, Sep 12 2009". Paraflows.at. http://www.paraflows.at/index.php?id=131. Retrieved 2010-05-18. 
  44. ^ Herwig, Jana Partial transcript: Moot on 4chan and why it works as a meme factory, Digiom Blog, 2010-04-06, accessed 2010-04-07
  45. ^ "TED2010 program of speakers". Conferences.ted.com. http://conferences.ted.com/TED2010/program/speakers.php. Retrieved 2010-05-18. 
  46. ^ Fisher, Ken 4chan's moot takes pro-anonymity to TED 2010, Ars Technica 2010-02-11, accessed 2010-02-12
  47. ^ "4chan founder: Anonymous speech is 'endangered' « SciTechBlog". CNN.com Blogs. 2010-02-12. http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/12/4chan-founder-anonymous-speech-is-endangered/. Retrieved 2010-02-12. 
  48. ^ Leal, Fred (2010-04-19). "Feio, sujo e surreal" (in Portuguese). O Estado de S. Paulo: p. L1. Archived from the original on 2010-04-25. http://www.webcitation.org/5pF2y1JjE. Retrieved 2010-04-25. 
  49. ^ a b Cha, Ariana Eunjung (August 10, 2010). "4chan users seize Internet's power for mass disruptions". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/09/AR2010080906102.html?hpid=topnews. Retrieved August 10, 2010. 
  50. ^ a b Jeffries, Adrianne (January 31, 2011). "From the Creator of 4chan Comes the More Mature Canvas". The New York Observer. http://www.observer.com/2011/tech/creator-4chan-comes-more-mature-canvas?utm_source=observer&utm_medium=internal_links&utm_campaign=slider. Retrieved February 7, 2011. 
  51. ^ Jamieson, Alastair (2010-08-11). "Sarah Palin hacker trial provides 'lolz' courtesy of 4chan founder". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7938394/Sarah-Palin-hacker-trial-provides-lolz-courtesy-of-4chan-founder.html. 
  52. ^ "Transcript of testimony" (PDF). http://i.cdn.turner.com/dr/teg/tsg/release/sites/default/files/assets/poole-testimony.pdf. Retrieved 2011-10-29. 
  53. ^ David George-Cosh (2008-01-25). "Online group declares war on Scientology". National Post. http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/story.html?id=db57d8d2-ca06-4fe0-8a8b-4975100f7231. Retrieved 2008-07-13. 
  54. ^ Sorgatz, Rex (2009-02-18). "An Interview With The Founder of 4chan". Fimoculous.com. http://fimoculous.com/archive/post-5738.cfm. Retrieved 2009-05-18. 
  55. ^ moot (2008-07-11). "/b/". 4chan. http://www.4chan.org/news.php?all#101. Retrieved 2008-07-14. 
  56. ^ "4chan — Rules – /b/ - Random". 4chan. http://www.4chan.org/rules.php#b. Retrieved 2006-08-18. 
  57. ^ a b c d Schwartz, Mattathias (2008-08-03). "The Trolls Among Us". The New York Times Magazine: p. 24. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03trolls-t.html. Retrieved 2009-01-11. 
  58. ^ a b c Julian Dibbell (2008-01-18). "Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers". Wired. http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/16-02/mf_goons?currentPage=all. Retrieved 2008-01-18. 
  59. ^ Jonathan Kay (2008-08-06). "You'll miss us when we're gone". The National Post. http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=94f40e62-2db2-4917-8e21-e17b9a25b2db&p=1. Retrieved 2008-08-06. 
  60. ^ "FAQ on GETs". 4chan. http://www.4chan.org/faq.php#get. Retrieved 2007-03-14. 
  61. ^ Karl Hodge (2000-08-10). "It's all in the memes". London: Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2000/aug/10/technology. Retrieved 2008-09-13. 
  62. ^ Caitlin Moran (2008-06-20). "Scientology: the Anonymous protestors". London: The Times. http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article4173635.ece. Retrieved 2008-08-25. 
  63. ^ Paul Richards (2007-11-14). "Iz not cats everywhere? Online trend spreads across campus". The Daily Pennsylvanian. http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2007/11/14/News/Iz.Not.Cats.Everywhere.Online.Trend.Spreads.Across.Campus-3099929.shtml. Retrieved 2008-07-24. [dead link]
  64. ^ Sharon Steel (2008-02-01). "The cuteness surge". The Phoenix. http://thephoenix.com/Article.aspx?id=55486. Retrieved 2008-07-24. 
  65. ^ a b c "The Biggest Little Internet Hoax on Wheels Hits Mainstream". Fox News Channel. 2008-04-22. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352010,00.html. Retrieved 2008-07-24. 
  66. ^ David Sarno (2008-05-25). "Web Scout exclusive! Rick Astley, king of the 'Rickroll,' talks about his song's second coming". Los Angeles Times. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/03/rick-astley-kin.html. Retrieved 2008-07-24. [dead link]
  67. ^ a b "Thread 32640395". 4chanarchive.org. http://4chanarchive.org/brchive/dspl_thread.php5?thread_id=32640395. Retrieved 2008-07-14. 
  68. ^ Ricketson, Matthew (2008-07-16). "YouTube research shows picture is changing rapidly". The Age (Melbourne). http://business.theage.com.au/business/youtube-research-shows-picture-is-changing-rapidly-20080716-3fn1.html. Retrieved 2008-07-16. 
  69. ^ Mathew Ingram (2007-08-15). "Who is Tay Zonday?". The Globe and Mail. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070815.WBmingram20070815141502/WBStory/WBmingram/. Retrieved 2008-07-14. [dead link]
  70. ^ Garth Montgomery (2007-08-01). "Chocolate Rain goes huge". The Daily Telegraph (news.com.au). http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22170787-5012327,00.html. Retrieved 2008-07-14. [dead link]
  71. ^ "'Pedobear' an Olympic mascot?". Toronto Sun. 10 February 2010. http://www.torontosun.com/sports/vancouver2010/news/2010/02/10/12823326-qmi.html. Retrieved 12 February 2010. 
  72. ^ Moore, Matthew (8 February 2010). "Polish newspaper claims 'Pedobear' is 2010 Vancouver Olympic mascot". London: Telegraph.co.uk. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7187027/Polish-newspaper-claims-Pedobear-is-2010-Vancouver-Olympic-mascot.html. Retrieved 9 February 2010. 
  73. ^ Ook AVRO in de fout met Pedobear on Geenstijl, published February 11, 2010
  74. ^ "Panda print", The Times, 10 April 2010, p. 7
  75. ^ Dennis, Scott (2011-03-10). "Ponies overachieving, from feminism to 4chan". The Daily Barometer. http://media.barometer.orst.edu/media/storage/paper854/news/2011/03/10/Forum/Ponies.Overachieving.From.Feminism.To.4chan-3984768.shtml. Retrieved 2011-05-10. 
  76. ^ "Harold C. "Hal" Turner v. 4chan.org". Justia Federal District Court Filings. 2007-01-19. http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-njdce/case_no-2:2007cv00306/case_id-198438/. Retrieved 2008-07-14. 
  77. ^ "FOX 11 Investigates: 'Anonymous'". MyFOX Los Angeles. KTTV (Fox Broadcasting Company). 2007-07-26. http://www.myfoxla.com/myfox/pages/ContentDetail?contentId=3894628. Retrieved 2007-08-11. [dead link]
  78. ^ "Miang", CmdrTaco (ed.) (2007-07-28). "AC = Domestic Terrorists?". Slashdot. http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/07/28/1145204.shtml. Retrieved 2008-07-24. [dead link]
  79. ^ Ted Bridis (2008-09-17). "Hackers claim break-in to Palin's e-mail account". Associated Press. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iem-vu_mlRjRYfqkscEkw2ciRm7wD938N1JO0. Retrieved 2008-09-17. [dead link]
  80. ^ Tom Phillips (2008-09-17). "Sarah Palin's email gets hacked". Metro. http://theridiculant.metro.co.uk/2008/09/sarah-palins-em.html. Retrieved 2008-09-17. 
  81. ^ M. J. Stephey (2008-09-17). "Sarah Palin's E-mail Hacked". TIME. http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1842097,00.html. Retrieved 2008-09-17. 
  82. ^ David Sarno (2008-09-17). "4Chan's half-hack of Palin's email goes awry". The Los Angeles Times. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/09/4chans-half-hac.html. Retrieved 2008-09-17. [dead link]
  83. ^ Steve Bosak (2008-09-20). "Suspect Nabbed in Palin E-mail Hack". NewsFactor. http://www.newsfactor.com/news/Suspect-Nabbed-in-Palin-E-mail-Hack/story.xhtml?story_id=110003SJWA8K. Retrieved 2008-09-21. 
  84. ^ Sandoval, Greg (October 4, 2008). "Who's to blame for spreading phony Jobs story?". CNet News. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10058410-93.html. Retrieved January 11, 2009. 
  85. ^ Cheng, Jacqui (October 3, 2008). "Friday Apple links: Steve Jobs still not dead edition". Ars Technica. http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/10/03/friday-apple-links-steve-jobs-still-not-dead. Retrieved January 11, 2009. 
  86. ^ Fitzsimmons, Caitlin (2009-05-22). "YouTube besieged by porn videos". London: Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/may/22/youtube-porn-day. Retrieved 2009-06-13. 
  87. ^ Courtney, Siobhan (2009-05-21). "Pornographic videos flood YouTube". BBC News (BBC). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8061979.stm. Retrieved 2009-06-13. 
  88. ^ a b Bunz, Mercedes (2010-01-06). "YouTube faces 4chan porn attack". London: Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/jan/06/youtube-porn-attack-4chan-lukeywes1234. Retrieved 2010-01-13. 
  89. ^ Emery, Daniel (5 July 2010). "Prank leaves Justin Bieber facing tour of North Korea". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10506482. Retrieved 20 July 2010. ; "Record label brands Justin Bieber tour vote "a hoax"". BBC. 7 July 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10545038. Retrieved 20 July 2010. 
  90. ^ Saetang, David (2010-09-20). "RIAA, MPAA Websites Pummeled By 4chan’s Wrath". PCWorld. http://www.pcworld.com/article/205813/riaa_mpaa_websites_pummeled_by_4chans_wrath.html. Retrieved 2011-10-29. 
  91. ^ "4chan Attack Brings Down MPAA Website". Gawker.com. 2010-09-18. http://gawker.com/5641634/4chan-attack-brings-down-mpaa-website. Retrieved 2011-10-29. 
  92. ^ enigmax (2010-09-22). "New 4chan DDoS Targets Hated Anti-Piracy Law Firm". TorrentFreak. http://torrentfreak.com/new-4chan-ddos-targets-hated-anti-piracy-law-firm-100922/. Retrieved 2010-09-24. 
  93. ^ enigmax (2010-09-25). "ACS:Law Anti-Piracy Law Firm Torn Apart By Leaked Emails". TorrentFreak. http://torrentfreak.com/acslaw-anti-piracy-law-firm-torn-apart-by-leaked-emails-100925/. Retrieved 2010-09-25. 
  94. ^ Chris Williams (2010-09-28). "ACS:Law's mocking of 4chan could cost it £500k". The Register. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/28/acs_ico/. Retrieved 2011-01-25. 
  95. ^ Jane Wakefield (2011-01-25). "Law firm stops chasing pirates". BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12253746. Retrieved 2011-01-25. 
  96. ^ Chris Dolmetsch, David Voreacos (2006-10-20). "Wisconsin Man Is Charged in Fake NFL Stadium Threats". Bloomberg.com. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=aVpJWbr6YesA&refer=home. Retrieved 2006-10-20. 
  97. ^ a b Roy Mark (2006-10-20). "Man Charged in Internet Bomb Threats". InternetNews.com. http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3639301. Retrieved 2008-07-24. 
  98. ^ Pierre Thomas (2006-10-16). "NFL Stadium Threat: Officials Skeptical But Issue Warning". ABC News. http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/10/nfl_stadium_thr.html. Retrieved 2008-07-21. 
  99. ^ "Ex-Grocery Clerk Gets 6 Months for NFL Stadium Attack Hoax". Associated Press. Fox News Channel. 2008-06-05. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,363525,00.html. Retrieved 2008-07-21. 
  100. ^ a b "4chanarchive — Thread 39101047". 4chanarchive.com. 2007-09-11. http://4chanarchive.org/brchive/dspl_thread.php5?thread_id=39101047. Retrieved 2008-01-18. 
  101. ^ Ronald Smothers (2006-10-20). "Man, 20, Arrested in Stadium Threat Hoax". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/21/us/21stadium.html?ex=1185681600&en=6f5000744e8dd0aa&ei=5070. Retrieved 2007-07-27. 
  102. ^ Sharon Gaudin (2008-06-16). "Man gets six months for posting terror threat online". PC World. http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1900356524;fp;2;fpid;1. Retrieved 2008-07-21. [dead link]
  103. ^ "4chanarchive — Thread 39168208". 4chanarchive.com. 2007-09-11. http://4chanarchive.org/brchive/dspl_thread.php5?thread_id=39168208. Retrieved 2008-01-18. 
  104. ^ "Pflugerville Student Arrested After Posting Bomb Threats". KXAN. 2007-09-12. http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=7058267. Retrieved 2008-01-18. [dead link]
  105. ^ "Police Investigate Bomb Threat at Pflugerville High School". Fox Television Stations, Inc. 2007-09-11. http://www.myfoxaustin.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=4324560&version=4&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1. Retrieved 2008-01-18. [dead link]
  106. ^ "Teen arrested for threatening to blow up school". Twean News Channel of Austin, L.P. d.b.a. News 8 Austin. 2007-09-11. http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=191790. Retrieved 2008-01-18. [dead link]
  107. ^ "Juvenile arrested in Pflugerville H.S. bomb threat". KVUE. 2007-09-11. Archived from the original on January 6, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080106183450/http://www.kvue.com/news/top/stories/091107kvueschoolthreat-cb.c37a07dc.html. Retrieved 2008-01-18. 
  108. ^ "Letter from Pflugerville Highschool". Pflugerville High School. http://4chanarchive.org/images/39168208/1189548484971.jpg. Retrieved 2008-09-11. 
  109. ^ Hudson, Fiona; Houlihan, Liam (2007-12-09). "Student faces jail over online joke". Herald Sun (news.com.au). http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22892993-661,00.html. Retrieved 2008-07-14. 
  110. ^ "Australian Police Arrest Man Who Threatened to Attack Los Angeles Mall". Associated Press. Fox News Channel. 2007-12-08. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316103,00.html. Retrieved 2008-07-14. 
  111. ^ Edwards, Geoff (2008-06-30). "Hoax student charges". Frankston Standard Leader (Leader Community Newspapers): p. 1. http://frankston-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/frankston-south-student-faces-court-over-email/. Retrieved 2009-02-06. 
  112. ^ Shaun Davies (2008-07-31). "Mall massacre hoax accused dies". ninemsn. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=606851. Retrieved 2008-07-31. 
  113. ^ Sivesson, Sara (2009-02-04). "Hemsidan som chockar "vuxen-Sverige"" (in Swedish). realtid.se (Alternativ Media Stockholm AB). Archived from the original on 2009-02-06. http://www.webcitation.org/5eOWnUExp. Retrieved 2009-02-04. 
  114. ^ Sæby, Inger-Marit (2009-02-04). "Svensk skole evakueres etter trusler" (in Norwegian). Verdens Gang. http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/artikkel.php?artid=557871. Retrieved 2009-02-04. 
  115. ^ "Young man arrested over school threat". The Local / TT. 2009-02-04. http://www.thelocal.se/17354/20090204/. Retrieved 2009-02-04. 
  116. ^ "21-åringen släpptes efter förhör" (in Swedish). Eskilstuna-Kuriren. 2009-02-04. http://www.ekuriren.se/ekuriren/senaste_nytt.php?id=798861&avdelning_1=102&avdelning_2=369&t=1525145308. Retrieved 2009-02-04. [dead link]
  117. ^ Danny O'Brien, "Online users stick claws into torturer", Irish Times, 20 February 2009. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/0220/1224241467858.html
  118. ^ "4chan /b/ goes after cat abusers, wins". Inquisitr.com. 2009-02-16. http://www.inquisitr.com/18170/4chan-b-goes-after-cat-abusers-wins/. Retrieved 2009-09-02. 
  119. ^ AT&T Reportedly Blocks 4chan. This Is Going To Get Ugly. Jason Kincaid, Tech Crunch, July 26, 2009.
  120. ^ "AT&T Blocking Access to Portions of 4chan (Updated Again)". Christopher Price. CentralGadget. 2006-07-26. http://www.centralgadget.com/att-blocking-access-to-portions-of-4chan-2336/. Retrieved 2006-07-26. 
  121. ^ "AT&T Confirms 4chan Block After DoS Attack". Chloe Albanesius. PC Mag. 2009-07-27. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2350814,00.asp/. Retrieved 2009-07-27. 
  122. ^ a b "4chan Status". 2009-07-27. http://status.4chan.org/index.html#2174049422947602936/. Retrieved 2009-07-27. 
  123. ^ "Feared Hackers Call Off Attack on AT&T". Fox News. 2009-07-28. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534941,00.html. 
  124. ^ When Your Pedicurist Is A Fish (dated July 22, 2008) Transcript of National Public Radio news interview. Retrieved 7/28/09
  125. ^ Verizon Wireless users are having trouble accessing the site
  126. ^ Verizon Wireless confirms block
  127. ^ Verizon Wireless restores 4Chan traffic, Wireless Federation, United Kingdom, 2010-02-10, accessed 2010-02-12, "After the concerns were raised over network attacks, Verizon Wireless restored traffic affiliated with the 4chan online forum."


External links

v · d · eAnonymous and the Internet
Related websites
4chan · Encyclopedia Dramatica · Lurkmore.ru · WikiLeaks
 Anonymous at Scientology in Los Angeles.jpg
Topics
Terms

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • 4chan — URL http://www.4chan.org/ Commercial non Type de site …   Wikipédia en Français

  • 4chan — ist ein englischsprachiges Imageboard. Die Seite ist dem japanischen Vorbild 2channel nachempfunden. 4chan ist eine der 900 meistbesuchten Seiten des Internets.[1] Die Seite machte durch provokative Netzaktionen auf sich aufmerksam und gilt als… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • 4chan — 4chan …   Википедия

  • 4chan — Esta página o sección está siendo traducida del idioma inglés a partir del artículo 4chan, razón por la cual puede haber lagunas de contenidos, errores sintácticos o escritos sin traducir. Puedes colaborar con Wikipedia continuando con la… …   Wikipedia Español

  • 4 chan — 4chan 4chan (japonais : 四葉, Yotsuba, 4 feuilles ) est un BBS anonyme anglophone, constitué d un réseau d imageboards, qui a pris modèle sur les très populaires sites japonais 2channel et Futaba Channel. Il a été mis en ligne en octobre… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Форчан — 4chan Заглавная страница 4chan 1 февраля 2009 www.4chan.org Коммерческий: Нет …   Википедия

  • Christopher Poole — Other names moot …   Wikipedia

  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic — My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic …   Wikipedia

  • AT&T — This article is about the company known as AT T since 2005 and formerly SBC. For the original AT T founded in 1885, see AT T Corporation. For the mobile telephony provider, see AT T Mobility. For other uses, see AT T (disambiguation). AT T Inc.… …   Wikipedia

  • Operation Payback — is a coordinated,[1] decentralized[2] group of attacks on opponents of Internet piracy by Internet activists using the Anonymous moniker a group sometimes affiliated with the website 4chan. Operation Payback started as retaliation to distributed… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”