8chan

8chan
A green infinity symbol left of the word chan.
Type of site
 Imageboard
Available in English (users can create language specific boards)
Owner Jim Watkins
N.T. Technology (2channel)[1]
Created by Fredrick Brennan
Website 8ch.net
Alexa rank Positive decrease 3,857 (Global, April 2018)
1,436 (United States, April 2018)[2]
Commercial Yes
Registration Optional
Launched October 22, 2013 (2013-10-22)
Current status Online

8chan, also called Infinitechan or Infinitychan (sometimes stylized as ∞chan), is an American imageboard website composed of user-created boards. Each board is moderated by its owner, with minimal interaction from other site administration.[3] To own a board one must either create it or claim it if the board has had inactivity for over a week.

Several of the site's boards have played an active role in the Gamergate controversy, encouraging Gamergate affiliates to frequent 8chan after the topic was banned on the unaffiliated imageboard 4chan. The site has been linked to Internet subcultures and activism.

As of April 2018, the site is the 3,857th most visited site in the world,[2] and in November 2014, it was receiving an average of 35,000 unique visitors per day and 400,000 posts per week.[4]

History

8chan was created in October 2013 by computer programmer Fredrick Brennan,[4][5] also known by the nickname "Hotwheels".[6] Brennan created the website after he observed what he perceived to be rapidly escalating surveillance and a loss of free speech on the Internet.[4] Brennan, who considers the imageboard 4chan to have grown into authoritarianism, describes 8chan as a "free-speech-friendly" alternative,[4] and originally conceptualized the site while experiencing a psychedelic mushrooms trip.[6][7]

No experience or programming knowledge is necessary for users to create their own boards.[3] Since as early as March 2014, its FAQ has stated only one rule that is to be globally enforced: "Do not post, request, or link to any content illegal in the United States of America. Do not create boards with the sole purpose of posting or spreading such content."[3] Brennan has claimed that, while he finds some of the content posted by users to be "reprehensible," he feels personally obligated to uphold the site's integrity by tolerating discussion he does not necessarily support regardless of his moral stance.[4]

Brennan agreed to partner 8chan with the Japanese message board 2channel,[6] and subsequently relocated to the Philippines in October 2014.[8]

In January 2015, the site changed its domain 8chan.co to 8ch.net after multiple people filed reports complaining to 8chan’s registrar that the message board hosted child pornography. Despite subsequently regaining the domain, the site remained at 8ch.net, with the old domain redirecting to it.[7]

Numerous bugs in the Infinity software led to the funding and development of a successor platform dubbed "Infinity Next". After a several-month-long testing period, a migration to the new software was attempted in December 2015, but failed.[9] In January 2016, development was halted, and the main developer, Joshua Moon, was fired by Brennan.[10] Brennan himself would officially resign in July 2016, turning the site over to its owner, Jim Watkins and his son, Ron.[11] He cited the failure of the "Infinity Next" project and disillusionment with what 8chan had become as reasons.[11]

Controversies

Child pornography

The Washington Post described it as "the more-lawless, more-libertarian, more 'free' follow-up to 4chan."[7] Boards have been created to discuss topics such as child rape. While the sharing of illegal content is against site rules, The Daily Dot wrote that boards do exist to share sexualized images of minors in provocative poses, and that some users of those boards do post links to explicit child pornography hosted elsewhere.[4] When asked whether such boards were an inevitable result of free speech, Brennan responded, "Unfortunately, yes. I don’t support the content on the boards you mentioned, but it is simply the cost of free speech and being the only active site to not impose more 'laws' than those that were passed in Washington, D.C."[4]

In August 2015, 8chan was blacklisted from Google Search for containing content constituting "suspected child abuse content."[12]

Gamergate

On September 18, 2014, the website gained prominence in the Gamergate controversy after 4chan banned discussion of Gamergate,[4][8][13] whereupon 8chan became one of several hubs of Gamergate activity.[4][8][14][15] "/gg/", 8chan's initial Gamergate-oriented board, also gained attention after being compromised by members of the internet troll group Gay Nigger Association of America, forcing Gamergate activists to migrate to "/gamergate/". This replacement quickly became the site's second most populous board.[14]

Swatting incidents

In January 2015 the site was used as a base for swatting exploits in Portland, Seattle, and Burnaby, British Columbia, most of them tied to the victims' criticism of Gamergate and 8chan's association with it;[16] the attacks were coordinated on a board on the website called "/baphomet/".[15] One of the victims of a swatting attack said that she was singled out because she had followed someone on Twitter.[17][18][19] On February 9, 2015, contents on the "/baphomet/" subboard were wiped after personal information of Katherine Forrest, the presiding judge in the Silk Road case, had been posted there.[20]

Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016

In July 2016, US presidential candidate Donald Trump tweeted an image of Hillary Clinton with a background of money and a six pointed star, seen by some as resembling the Star of David, containing the message "Most corrupt candidate ever". The image had been posted to 8chan's /pol/ board as early as June 22, over a week before Trump's team tweeted it.[21][22] CBC News called 8chan an alt-right forum.[23]

QAnon

During 2018, a user that refers to himself as "Q" gained attention and promoted theories about a "deep state". Sean Hannity has notably retweeted QAnon hashtags on his Twitter feed.[24][25][26] A group on Reddit was banned on March 14, 2018, over promoting the conspiracy theory.[27] The conspiracy has been linked with the "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory. The conspiracy has also been linked to the hashtag, "#FollowTheWhiteRabbit".[28]

Louisiana Police's Antifa List

In September 2018, the Louisiana State Police were scrutinized for using lists of personal information about supposed Antifa members which were posted on 8chan's politics board. The file "antifa.docx" was found in police databases and led directly to the opening of criminal investigations.[29]

References

  1. ↑ 8chan – Who owns 8chan?
  2. 1 2 "8ch.net Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 Brennan, Fredrick. "FAQ". 8chan.co. Infinitechan. Retrieved November 23, 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Howell O'Neill, Patrick (November 17, 2014). "8chan, the central hive of Gamergate, is also an active pedophile network". The Daily Dot.
  5. ↑ Brennan, Fredrick (March 17, 2015). "Full transcript: Ars interviews 8chan founder Fredrick Brennan". Ars Technica (Interview). Interviewed by Sam Machkovech. Archived from the original on November 25, 2015. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 Brennan, Fredrick (October 9, 2014). "Q&A with Fredrick Brennan of 8chan". Know Your Meme (Interview). Interviewed by Don Caldwell. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 Caitlin, Dewey (January 13, 2015). "This is what happens when you create an online community without any rules". The Washington Post.
  8. 1 2 3 Chen, Adrian (October 27, 2014). "Gamergate Supporters Partied at a Strip Club This Weekend". New York.
  9. ↑ Moon, Joshua (December 19, 2015). "qt2ww". Archived from the original (Plaintext) on December 19, 2015. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  10. ↑ Brennan, Fredrick (January 26, 2016). "Infinity Never". Medium. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
  11. 1 2 8chan.co (July 4, 2016). "'Hotwheels'—a postmortem". Medium. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  12. ↑ Machkovech, Sam (August 14, 2015). "8chan-hosted content disappears from Google searches". Ars Technica. Condé Nast. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  13. ↑ Audureau, William (October 15, 2014). "4chan, wizardchan, 8chan... s'y retrouver dans la jungle des forums anonymes les plus populaires du Web". Le Monde (in French). France.
  14. 1 2 Bernstein, Joseph (December 4, 2014). "GamerGate's Headquarters Has Been Destroyed By Trolls". Buzzfeed.
  15. 1 2 Hern, Alex (January 13, 2015). "Gamergate hits new low with attempts to send Swat teams to critics". The Guardian. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  16. ↑ Mattise, Nathan (January 4, 2015). "8chan tries "swatting" GamerGate critic, sends cops to an old address". Ars Technica.
  17. ↑ McElroy, Justin (January 15, 2015). "Police falsely called to Burnaby women's home by online harassers". Global News. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  18. ↑ Cheong, Ian Miles (January 13, 2015). "Canadian Victim of Gamergate SWATing Attempt Comes Forward". Gameranx. Archived from the original on January 16, 2015. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Reckless 'swatting' prank sends police to B.C. woman's home". CTV News. January 14, 2015. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
  20. ↑ Machkovech, Sam (February 12, 2015). "Notorious 8chan "subboard" has history wiped after federal judge's doxing". Ars Technica. Retrieved February 13, 2015.
  21. ↑ Smith, Anthony (July 3, 2016). "Mic Discovered Who Created Trump's Anti-Semitic Hillary Meme – And It's Disturbing". Mic. Retrieved August 30, 2016.
  22. ↑ Wendling, Mike (August 26, 2016). "Trump's shock troops: Who are the 'alt-right'?". BBC News. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  23. ↑ Kwong, Matt (August 26, 2016). "'Alt-right' rising: Clinton takes on Trump's embrace by white nationalists". CBC News. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  24. ↑ "Anti-abortion group Operation Rescue has become fully "red-pilled" by an 8chan conspiracy theory". Salon. February 20, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  25. ↑ "Infowars fully embraces 'The Storm', a conspiracy theory called "the new Pizzagate"". Media Matters for America. January 8, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  26. ↑ Sommer, Will (January 12, 2018). "Meet "The Storm," the conspiracy theory taking over the pro-Trump internet". Medium. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  27. ↑ Sommer, Will (March 14, 2018). "Reddit has banned the main subreddit devoted to the right-wing "#QAnon" conspiracy theory popular on Infowars, and is apparently purging a bunch of users' accounts as wellpic.twitter.com/3EZvxbuVJH". @willsommer. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  28. ↑ "'Follow the White Rabbit' is the most bonkers conspiracy theory you will ever read". November 21, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  29. ↑ "Louisiana Police Appear To Be Using A Hoax Antifa List Created By 8Chan To Open Criminal Investigations".

/pol/ /v/ /b/ /tv/ /hisparefugio /vlg/

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