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4chan

4chan
Homepage on May 3, 2023
Type of site
Imageboard
Available inEnglish
OwnerHiroyuki Nishimura
Created byChristopher Poole
URL
CommercialYes
RegistrationNone available (except for staff)
LaunchedOctober 1, 2003 (2003-10-01)[1]

4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from video games and television to literature, cooking, weapons, music, history, anime, fitness, politics, and sports, among others. Registration is not available and users typically post anonymously.[2] As of 2022, 4chan receives more than 22 million unique monthly visitors, of which approximately half are from the United States.[3][4]

4chan was created as an unofficial English-language counterpart to the Japanese imageboard Futaba Channel, also known as 2chan, and its first boards were originally used for posting images and discussion related to anime. The site has been described as a hub of Internet subculture, its community being influential in the formation and popularization of prominent Internet memes, such as lolcats, Rickrolling, rage comics, wojaks, Pepe the Frog, as well as hacktivist and political movements, such as Anonymous and the alt-right. 4chan has often been the subject of media attention as a source of controversies, including the coordination of pranks and harassment against websites and Internet users, and the posting of illegal and offensive content as a result of its lax censorship and moderation policies. In 2008, The Guardian summarized the 4chan community as "lunatic, juvenile (...) brilliant, ridiculous and alarming".[5]

  1. ^ moot (October 1, 2003). "Welcome". 4chan. Retrieved August 2, 2008.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "4chan – Press". 4chan. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
  4. ^ Elley, Ben (March 9, 2021). ""The rebirth of the West begins with you!"—Self-improvement as radicalisation on 4chan". Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 8 (1): 1–10. doi:10.1057/s41599-021-00732-x. ISSN 2662-9992. S2CID 232164033.
  5. ^ Michaels, Sean (March 19, 2008). "Taking the Rick". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on July 27, 2008. Retrieved July 24, 2008.