4chan, the infamous online message board created by troll mastermind Christopher “Moot” Poole in 2003, is officially gone from the internet. Once the bustling heart of viral internet culture, the site enjoyed a worldwide fame and notoriety that flourished under its cloak of anonymity. Instead, over the years it became, tragically, a leading home for mass shooters, the Gamergate harassment campaign, and far-right extremism. With 4chan’s legacy behind us, its effects and importance are still heavily felt all across the Internet and societies around the world.
At first, 4chan lured its users with the anonymity it offered. It provided them with the opportunity to freely and openly debate thousands of issues without fear of censorship. Organized into dozens of sub-boards covering everything from video games to cooking, it became a go-to destination for those seeking an unfiltered view of internet culture. Users thrived, even in a culture where posts would expire or return a “404” not found after a few days of lack of activity. This underlaymentness deepened the ephemeral aspect of their conversations.
Through the years, the reputation of 4chan changed drastically. The exact same chaos that made it so vibrant in its early years—the combination of art and anarchy—ultimately became its undoing. The site quickly morphed into a fan club for mass shooters and a hub in the vitriolic, misogynistic Gamergate movement. This dramatic change went well beyond its original purpose. It realized a dangerous new step toward far-right fascism.
As mainstream platforms like Twitter began to absorb content from 4chan, the site’s role as an “ammo dump” in the culture war diminished. Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, observed that the novelty and rebelliousness inherent in 4chan’s shock content became irrelevant when opinions transitioned to become the official policy of influential figures and corporations.
“The novelty of a website devoted to shock and gore, and the rebelliousness inherent in it, dies when your opinions become the official policy of the world’s five or so richest people and the government of the United States.” – Ben Collins
Though 4chan’s reign is obviously over, its cultural impact continues to be massive. Its impact can be felt all around the world, including in democracies such as France, Germany, Japan, and Brazil. Users on 4chan were led to believe that they could manifest change through meme-based racism, far-right populism and online harassment. This conviction became their guiding principle on the Internet. It didn’t stop there, spilling out into physical-world politics.
The site’s classic memes were rescued by the good natured users of that site who went out of their way to save them. Cates Holderness reflected on how unpredictable it could be what material you’d find disappearing—or saved—when she said it. He felt this was a fascinating feature of 4chan’s anarchic culture.
“The iconic memes that came out of 4chan are because people took the time to save it, you know? And the fact that nobody predicted, nobody could predict or control what was saved or what wasn’t saved, I think is really, really fascinating.” – Cates Holderness
Paradoxically, despite the poster child of its tumultuous past, 4chan’s culture was an unexpected win for its users. Much of that creative chaos has since been blacktopped by corporate platforms and their content-disseminating algorithms. As social media giants have implemented stricter content moderation policies, remnants of 4chan’s influence persist in a sanitized form across more mainstream channels.
If you missed it, rival message board hackers allegedly took 4chan down from the internet completely last week. This action puts a fitting end to one of the remaining bastions of stagnation that had continued since the George W. Bush administration. Its ethos hadn’t disappeared—it was bottled up and petrified while other spaces adapted to a changing world.
“Like any ostensibly nihilist cultural phenomenon, it inherently dies if that phenomenon itself becomes The Man.” – Ben Collins
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