May 07, 2025

In mid-April 2025 the infamous messaging board 4chan was taken down, the site returned an error allegedly as a result of a cyber-attack from a rival messaging board group. While the site was down for just over a week it did reappear, albeit with more security than the site had previously had.  

Throughout its tenure, 4chan has been a petri dish for internet culture, heavily influencing the humor and vocabulary of social media and meme pages worldwide. However, the anonymity the site works on that fosters creativity also enables its dark side with huge volumes of extremist content and the use of language, slurs and off-color jokes that historically would be banned from traditional social media sites. Nonetheless the site is important in understanding how some individuals operate on the internet and how this site has influenced real world events.  

In this blog we will review the history of 4chan, what it is used for and by who and review the recent activity which led to the brief downtime.  

Figure 1 – 4chan logo taken from the site 

Historical Overview of 4chan 

4chan was founded on October 1, 2003, by a 15-year-old New Yorker named Christopher “moot” Poole. Poole created 4chan as an English-language counterpart to the Japanese imageboard Futaba Channel (2chan), initially focusing on anime and manga discussion. Using translated open-source code from 2chan, “moot” built 4chan as an anonymous forum where users could post images and messages without registering accounts or providing any form of username. The site contains multiple boards which host discussions on a variety of topics. This anonymity and ephemeral design (threads are deleted after becoming inactive) set 4chan apart from other forums and quickly fostered a freewheeling, chaotic community. The site has gone through many changes both in management and in use since its inception.  

The site was originally launched as 4chan.net with a single board (“/b/” for random anime discussion). By year’s end, multiple boards for hentai, “cute” anime, wallpapers, yaoi, etc. were added. However, the site had issues almost from the beginning, in February 2004 the original domain was suspended, forcing a move to 4chan.org, and in March “moot” threatened to shut down the site due to server costs before user donations kept it alive. PayPal froze 4chan’s donations account in mid-2004 over content complaints, causing six weeks of downtime.

As the site rose in popularity, 4chan’s “/b/ – Random” board became infamous for its anything-goes culture. By 2008, /b/ was receiving up to 150–200k posts per day and had cultivated a reputation for adolescent irreverence and “notorious” pranks. Media outlets described /b/ as the “asshole of the Internet,” akin to a high-school bathroom wall of graffiti. In 2008, The Guardian summed up 4chan’s community as “lunatic, juvenile […] brilliant, ridiculous and alarming”, reflecting the site’s mix of absurd humor and offensive content. 

However, users on the 4chan site were not just posting and sharing memes between themselves. 4chan users pioneered collective online pranks and what they referred to as “raids.” Some of the users famously harassed white nationalist radio host Hal Turner with prank calls and DDoS attacks in 2006–07 (leading Turner to attempt an unsuccessful lawsuit). In early 2008, 4chan users helped spawn the hacktivist group Anonymous and launched “Project Chanology,” a protest against the Church of Scientology that moved from online pranks to real-life street demonstrations. This period was a “golden age” of trolling that saw users coordinating high-profile stunts, elevating 4chan’s notoriety and influence. 

By the 2010s, 4chan had expanded well beyond its anime roots. New boards were added for topics like weapons (/k/), video games (/v/), sports (/sp/), and literature (/lit/), reflecting a broader user base. In 2011, “moot” made a significant moderation decision: he deleted the “/new/” (news) board because it had become overrun with racist content, and also temporarily removed “/r9k/” due to issues with its purpose. Later that year, 4chan introduced “/pol/” (“Politically Incorrect”) as a replacement board for political discussion – a decision that would prove fateful as /pol/ soon became a hotspot for extremist and controversial content (more on that later). 

In August 2014, anonymous hackers leaked a trove of private celebrity nude photos, the infamous “Fappening” scandal, 4chan was one of the first sites where the images were widely posted. The incident forced 4chan to implement a DMCA policy and start cracking down on stolen explicit material, a notable shift for a site long permissive about content. However, the site continued to host images of this kind with a second scandal taking place, known as the Fappening 2.0 in 2017. 

Around the same time (2014), 4chan was deeply involved in the Gamergate saga – an online harassment campaign targeting women in the gaming industry. Discussions about “Gamergate” originated on 4chan (notably on the /r9k/ board) and led to coordinated harassment of game developers and journalists. Moot eventually banned Gamergate threads for violating 4chan’s rules, prompting many aggrieved users to migrate to alternative imageboards, such as 8chan, which at times have been considered to contain more extreme material. These 2014 events were watershed moments, bringing 4chan intense media scrutiny for facilitating harassment and hosting illicit content. 

On January 21, 2015, Christopher Poole “moot” stepped down as 4chan’s administrator, citing stress and the strain of managing frequent controversies like Gamergate. In September 2015, Poole announced he had sold 4chan to Hiroyuki Nishimura, the Japanese entrepreneur who founded 2channel, the very site that inspired 4chan.  

As 4chan matured, it increasingly became associated with the rise of the alt-right and online extremist movements. The anonymous poster known as “Q” – who sparked the QAnon conspiracy theory – first appeared on 4chan’s /pol/ board in late 2017. 

Figure 4: Pepe the Frog

Memes and slogans, long used on 4chan seeped into mainstream politics; during the 2016 U.S. election, /pol/ users aggressively supported Donald Trump and spread memes like Pepe the Frog as political symbols, a meme which is now designated as a hate symbol. By this time, outsiders often conflated 4chan with its most toxic board (/pol/), even though the site still hosted diverse communities.  

In 2019, after a string of mass violence incidents were linked to manifestos on a 4chan spin-off (8chan), authorities and internet companies increased scrutiny on anonymous forums. Some ISPs in Australia and New Zealand even temporarily blocked access to 4chan in March 2019 following the Christchurch massacre, in attempts to stop the spread of the shooter’s video. 

Despite numerous controversies and predictions of its demise, 4chan remains online and influential. According to the site itself the site “serves approximately 680,000,000-page impressions to over 22,000,000 unique visitors per month (~11 MM in the US)”. It continues to be a global hub for internet subculture, though its reputation is forever tied to the edgier side of the web, which is perhaps what led to its recent troubles.  

The 4chan Community and Its Subcultures 

Data on 4chan’s user demographics is scarce due to the anonymous nature of the site However, it’s generally accepted that the user base skews young and male, with a strong representation of teenagers, students, and twenty-somethings who are internet-savvy.  

Figure 5: Stats shown on 4chan.org 

One of 4chan’s defining features is that users post anonymously – there are no usernames or profiles (aside from optional tags like “ID” on certain boards). This anonymity, combined with a lack of permanent archives on many boards, has cultivated a unique culture. Users often share gory or pornographic images, engage in extreme trolling, or discuss sensitive topics like self-harm, all under the banner of anonymity. 

Figure 6 – Example of Anonymous posts on 4chan 

Users often refer to each other simply as “anon,” and any hierarchy or fame a user gain is ephemeral. In this environment, community identity forms around boards and shared memes rather than individual people. Over the years, distinct subcommunities have thrived on 4chan, each with its own norms and in-jokes. The fact that all users are anonymous also makes it very difficult for investigators reviewing the credibility of threats made on 4chan which are unfortunately very common. 

Major Boards and Subcommunities 

Figure 7: List of boards currently active on 4chan 

4chan is divided into dozens of topic-specific boards, each indicated by a short tag (like /x/ or /g/). As the Wikipedia description aptly summarizes, “the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from video games and television to literature, cooking, weapons, music, history, technology, anime, fitness, politics, and sports, among others.”  

While a lot of these topics are innocuous, such as discussions of TV, Movies and gaming, the anonymous nature of the sites means that even these topics can generate extremist and violent conversations. However, there are several boards hosted on 4chan where the content is almost exclusively extremist in nature.  

/b/ – “Random”  

The original board and longtime center of 4chan. /b/ has minimal rules and is known for its extreme anything-goes culture. Posts on /b/ can range from juvenile humor and absurd memes to grotesque shock images and offensive tirades. /b/ was where many famous pranks and memes originated. The LOLcats phenomenon – cutesy cat photos with captions and the practice of “Rickrolling,” tricking someone into watching Rick Astley’s music video, are often credited as starting on 4chan. One of the lighter sides of the site.  

/pol/ – “Politically Incorrect” 

Arguably the most controversial board on 4chan, /pol/ was created in October 2011 as a space for political discussion without strict moderation. It quickly became a magnet for extremists and fringe ideologies. Here, users share memes and news from a far right or conspiratorial perspective, often pushing and surpassing the limits of hate speech. Notably, many alt-right and white nationalist memes were popularized on /pol/. The board’s influence on real-world politics is significant. /pol/ was an early organizing hub for support of Donald Trump in 2016, and Trump’s campaign team appeared to acknowledge the board by tweeting memes that originated there. /pol/’s “culture” of aggressive, trolling debate has spread to other platforms and is emulated by some other extremist sites.  

/r9k/ – ROBOT9001 

This board was originally an experiment requiring posts to be unique to reduce copypasta, but it evolved into a different space. By the 2010s, /r9k/ became associated with lonely or disaffected young men with many posts about depression, social rejection, or nihilistic humor. It is here that the concept of the “incel” (involuntarily celibate) took root, along with memes about “beta” males.  

Spreading of Extremist Content 

4chan’s lax moderation has led to numerous instances of illegal and extremist content being posted, in some cases forcing law enforcement involvement. Users are known to often post violent content. In 2014, a 4chan user uploaded photos of a murdered woman’s body to /b/ claiming responsibility. The victim was later identified, and the post was linked to a real murder. Police were able to track and arrest the poster in that case, illustrating how anonymity can be pierced in some cases and with law enforcement powers.  

There have also been numerous bomb or mass violence threats posted on 4chan as “jokes” or hoaxes – several leading to evacuations and arrests. A recent case in 2023 saw a New Jersey man arrested for using 4chan to threaten a Florida sheriff, and other users in different states were arrested for copycat death threats. 4chan can therefore be seen as one of the first sites used to encourage the practice of Swatting.  

Hate speech and extremist propaganda is endemic to 4chan. The site has been accused in investigative reports of “incubating hate speech that may have fueled mass shootings”, since perpetrators of attacks in places like Christchurch, El Paso, and Buffalo frequented 4chan or its spinoffs and sometimes announced their intentions there. This resulted in a legal scare for 4chan when the New York State Attorney General investigated 4chan after the May 2022 Buffalo mass shooting – the shooter was radicalized on 4chan. The NY AG explored whether 4chan could be held liable for “providing a platform to plan and promote violence”, though ultimately, they didn’t file charges. 

4chan has been at the heart of numerous violent and extremis acts. Controversies have made 4chan a frequent target for those who argue the internet should be more regulated. Yet, despite every scandal – from child porn crackdowns to global news making hacktivism – 4chan persists. That resilience was tested yet again very recently, when the site faced one of its most serious disruptions to date: a major hack that took it offline. 

Recent Incident: 4chan Goes Down in a Cyberattack 

Figure 8: AI Generated Image An illustration of an anonymous hacker. In April 2025, 4chan suffered a major breach that exposed internal data and knocked the site offline. 

In mid-April 2025, 4chan experienced an outage, a rare event for a site that, despite its issues, usually stays online. On April 14, 2025, users suddenly found 4chan unreachable or only partially loading. It soon emerged that 4chan had been hacked and taken down by a hacker. The site was offline for days, prompting widespread speculation and the Twitter hashtag “#4chanHack” as people wondered what had happened. 

Figure 9: Soyjak.Party logo taken from website

A group of users on a rival imageboard called Soyjak.party (nicknamed “the Party”) began claiming responsibility for the attack. Soyjak.party is a community that splintered from 4chan, often antagonistic toward it. According to posts by someone with the handle “Chud” on that site, an unnamed hacker had gained access to 4chan’s systems over a year prior and waited. On April 14, this hacker finally “executed Operation Soyclipse,” as Chud described it, which involved taking control of 4chan’s backend. 

The hackers defaced 4chan by temporarily restoring a long-defunct board (/qa/) with the message “U GOT HACKED XD” emblazoned on it. They also claimed to have exfiltrated a trove of data, including 4chan’s source code and user information. Screenshots were leaked on Soyjak.party and other forums showing what appeared to be 4chan’s administrator control panels and maintenance tools.  

One screenshot showed internal discussions on a private staff board (/j/) and a moderator interface that could view users’ IP addresses and locations. Another leak contained a list of email addresses of 4chan’s moderators, administrators, and janitors (janitors are basically volunteer moderators). The attackers doxed 4chan’s own staff, ironic for a site that prizes anonymity. Posts on Soyjak.party even began to share personal info and photos purportedly of some 4chan mods after this leak. 

Figure 11: “Proof” of 4chan hack on Soyjak.party 

Facing this breach, 4chan’s administrators took all servers offline to “control the damage,” according to the attackers’ account. For a period on April 15, the site either wouldn’t load at all or showed only a basic text version with errors, indicating the staff was struggling to restore things. One major theory, supported by a screenshot of a Bluesky social media post, was that 4chan’s software was woefully out of date – running an unpatched PHP version from 2016 – making it vulnerable. If true, the hack was a result of 4chan’s technical debt and lack of updates, something the site had been lucky to avoid catastrophe from until now. A Wired article noted that rumors of legacy, unpatched software causing the breach were circulating widely.

Over the next couple of days, more information came out via cybersecurity reporters. BleepingComputer reported that the hacker had indeed leaked parts of 4chan’s PHP source code on another forum – Kiwi Farms. The Daily Dot obtained samples of the stolen data, confirming it included an index of 4chan’s staff (one admin and ~218 moderators/janitors), hundreds of pages of archived posts (possibly from private boards), and even a list of users who had purchased 4chan Pass subscriptions (which involves an email address). In short, this was a comprehensive breach – touching administrative info, user data, and site code. DarkOwl also obtained a copy of the leaked documents.  

During the outage, 4chan’s administrators maintained near-complete silence. Attempts by journalists to get a statement were futile – Reuters reported that messages to 4chan’s press email went unanswered. Amusingly (in true 4chan fashion), one of the compromised moderator emails did reply to a Reuters inquiry by sending a link to an unrelated 4-minute shock video, essentially trolling the reporter.

By April 16 and 17, 2025, 4chan’s service was still unstable. Some users could load the site; others encountered Cloudflare errors. Gradually, the site did come back online, though many wondered what long-term impact the hack would have.  This incident led many to speculate about the future of 4chan – would it bounce back as it always has, or was this the beginning of the end? However, the site did comeback online and appeared to have beefed up their security. Users on the site picked up where they had left off with no apparent reduction in activity in response to the attack and the leaked data, although there were some suggestions that jannies left after having their personal information leaked.  

Despite this the future of 4chan remains uncertain. The site stands at a delicate point: it must adapt to survive, yet it must retain its essence to remain 4chan. If it manages to tighten security, maintain financial stability, and navigate legal waters while continuing to let its community be largely self-regulating and anarchic, it may well continue to be a fixture of the internet for years to come. Even if 4chan were to fall, its influence would live on – in the memes we share, the slang we use, and the dispersed communities that would carry forward its spirit. As of now, 4chan endures and its story is a testament to the chaotic, untamable force of online anonymity that it pioneered back in 2003. 

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