/pol/

/pol/ (Politically Incorrect) is a political discussion board on 4chan. The board's intended purpose is the "discussion of news, world events, political issues, and other related topics".[1]

History

/pol/ was created in October 2011 as a rebranding of 4chan's news board, /new/,[2] which was deleted that January because of a high volume of racist discussion.[3]

Political views

/pol/ has been characterized as predominantly racist and sexist, with many of its posts taking explicitly alt-right and neo-Nazi points of view.[4][5][6][7][8][9] The Southern Poverty Law Center regards /pol/'s rhetorical style as widely emulated by white supremacist websites such as The Daily Stormer; the Stormer's editor, Andrew Anglin, concurred.[5]

Many /pol/ users favored Donald Trump during his 2016 United States presidential campaign.[9] Both Trump and his son, Donald Trump Jr., appeared to acknowledge the support by tweeting /pol/-associated memes such as Pepe the Frog. Upon his election, a /pol/ moderator embedded a pro-Trump video at the top of all of the board's pages.[10][11][12][13]

Content

Much of the content on /pol/ relies heavily on memes to further spread ideas.[14] One of the most popular memes found on the board is that of Pepe the Frog, which has been deemed as a white supremacist symbol by some media outlets due to it being shown in uniforms, places, and people associated with Nazism, the Ku Klux Klan, and antisemitism.[15][16][17] Many have questioned the sincerity of users on /pol/ as possible trolls.[18][19]

Notable events

/pol/ was where screenshots of Trayvon Martin's hacked social media accounts were initially posted.[20][21]

After the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, a Google search for a "registered democrat" showed a /pol/ thread in the top stories section falsely identifying him as the shooter. A spokesperson for Google said that the thread appeared because search queries and news about the man were rare allowing for the thread to the appear in the top stories section of the man's name but the thread did not appear in broader searches about the Las Vegas shooting.[22]

A popular meme that originated on /pol/ claims comedian Sam Hyde is the perpetrator of a mass shooting event or terrorist attack, in hopes of trolling a mainstream news outlet to report Hyde as the attacker.[23] The first instance of this hoax was the Umpqua Community College shooting.[24] According to BBC News, CNN mistakenly included Hyde's image on their coverage of the shooting.[25] Hyde has also been erroneously blamed for the 2015 San Bernardino attack, the 2016 UCLA shooting,[23] the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting,[26] the shooting of Alton Sterling,[27] the suspicious death of a black man in Piedmont Park, Atlanta,[28] the 2015 Paris attacks,[29] the 2016 Munich shooting,[30] the 2016 Kalamazoo shootings,[29][30] the 2017 Finsbury Park attack,[30] the 2017 Las Vegas shooting,[25] and the 2017 Sutherland Springs church shooting.[31][32] Another similar event happened after the 2018 Parkland, Florida shooting, when users posted images and attributing them to being the shooter, Nicholas Cruz.

Users of /pol/ engaged in coordinated attacks on LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner's HEWILLNOTDIVIDE.US, a performance art project made to protest Donald Trump's presidency.[33]

See also

References

  1. ↑ (WebCite archive)
  2. ↑ moot !Ep8pui8Vw2, October 23, 2011, Welcome back, robots, 4chan /r9k/. (WebCite archive)
  3. ↑ January 19, 2011, Why were /r9k/ and /new/ removed? – Statement by him regarding the removal of /r9k/ and /new/. Archived from the original on August 21, 2011.
  4. ↑ "Absolutely everything you need to know to understand 4chan, the Internet's own bogeyman". The Washington Post. September 25, 2014. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Dylann Roof, 4chan, and the New Online Racism". The Daily Beast. June 29, 2015. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
  6. ↑ "#EndFathersDay is the work of 4chan, not feminists". The Daily Dot. Oct 8, 2014. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
  7. ↑ "4chan Trolls Take Over Electronic Billboard, Racism Ensues". Vocativ. December 7, 2014. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Alt-Right". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  9. 1 2 Hine, Gabriel Emile; Onaolapo, Jeremiah; De Cristofaro, Emiliano; Kourtellis, Nicolas; Leontiadis, Ilias; Samaras, Riginos; Stringhini, Gianluca; Blackburn, Jeremy (2017). "Kek, Cucks, and God Emperor Trump: A Measurement Study of 4chan's Politically Incorrect Forum and Its Effects on the Web" (PDF). Proceedings of the 11th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media: 9. arXiv:1610.03452. This paper presented the first large-scale study of /pol/, 4chan's politically incorrect board, arguably the most controversial one owing to its links to the alt-right movement and its unconventional support to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
  10. ↑ Lee, Oliver (13 March 2016). "Understanding Trump's Troll Army". Motherboard. Vice Media. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
  11. ↑ Ohlheiser, Abby (9 November 2016). "'We actually elected a meme as president': How 4chan celebrated Trump's victory". The Washington Post. Washington Post. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
  12. ↑ Steinblatt, Jacob (13 October 2015). "Donald Trump Embraces His 4Chan Fans". Vocativ. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
  13. ↑ Schreckinger, Ben (March–April 2017). "World War Meme". Politico. Politico. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
  14. ↑ "What the Harvard teens don't get about memes". Daily Dot. 7 June 2017. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  15. ↑ "Pepe the Frog". Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  16. ↑ Roy, Jessica. "How 'Pepe the Frog' went from harmless to hate symbol". latimes.com. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  17. ↑ Ellyatt, Holly (29 September 2016). "Who is Pepe the Frog and why has he become a hate symbol?". Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  18. ↑ Tait, Amelia (16 February 2017). "First they came for Pepe: How "ironic" Nazism is taking over the internet". New Statesman.
  19. ↑ Wilson, Jason (23 May 2017). "Hiding in plain sight: how the 'alt-right' is weaponizing irony to spread fascism". the Guardian. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  20. ↑ "White Supremacist Claims to Have Hacked Trayvon Martin's Email, Social Media Accounts". The New Yorker. March 29, 2012. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Bloggers Cherry-Pick From Social Media to Cast Trayvon Martin as a Menace". The New York Times. March 29, 2012. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
  22. ↑ "How reports from 4chan on the Las Vegas shooting showed up on Google Top Stories". Techcrunch. October 2, 2017. Retrieved November 6, 2017. /
  23. 1 2 "Don't Believe Any Breaking News That Names This Comedian As A Mass Shooter". BuzzFeed. Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  24. ↑ "Sam Hyde and Million Dollar Extreme Troll The Oregon Shooting". VDARE. Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  25. 1 2 Bell, Chris (October 2, 2017). "Las Vegas: The fake photos shared after tragedies". BBC News.
  26. ↑ Cox, Danny. "Sam Hyde: Gunman Possibly Identified In Mass Shooting At Pulse Nightclub In Orlando Being Ruled A Hoax". Inquisitr. Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  27. ↑ Smith IV, Jack. "Neither Robert Kinnison Nor Sam Hyde Killed Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana". mic.com. Mic. Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  28. ↑ Smith, Anthony. "Piedmont Park Hanging: No, Sam Hyde Did Not Lynch a Black Man in the Atlanta Park". mic.com. Mic. Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  29. 1 2 "How 4chan Tricked The Internet Into Believing This Comedian Is A Mass Shooter". Forbes. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  30. 1 2 3 Mezzofiore, Gianluca (June 19, 2017). "Never believe any breaking report on Twitter naming this comedian as the attacker". Mashable.
  31. ↑ "WATCH: Rep. Vicente Gonzalez Says Sam Hyde Is Sutherland Springs Shooter". Heavy. Heavy, Inc. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
  32. ↑ Bromwich, Jonah. "Sam Hyde and Other Hoaxes: False Information Trails Texas Shooting". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
  33. ↑ "A live stream of Shia LaBeouf chanting was disrupted by Nazi-themed dancing. Then things got weird". Washington Post. April 2, 2017. Retrieved November 10, 2017. /
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