How long has 4chan existed

We've received your submission. There are also images of a dead woman, splayed naked on a bare mattress, mouth agape, a deep red mark going all around her neck. Authorities say it was the slaying suspect, David Kalac, who posted the pictures and wrote the accompanying posts about strangling the woman and his plan to be fatally shot by police.

The site is where hackers deposited nude celebrity photos over the summer. The site was born in , a year before Facebook, as an image and message board in the style of a similar Japanese board called 2chan, or Futaba.

Poole wanted to create a version of 2chan for American audiences to share his fascination with Japanese comics and television shows, the Journal said. Across the Pacific, American geeks were eyeing their Japanese counterparts lustily. Naturally, they found their way to places like Ayashii Warudo, and one enthusiast, a New Yorker named Christopher Poole, set out to create an English-language alternative.

Now the site is a. The design remains proudly undesigned. And because each message board is limited to 10 pages of posts, most messages get bumped off the server within a day, if not hours. Users are in it, they say, for the lulz. They make swatiskas trend on Google, tell Justin Bieber fans to self-harm, and leak celebrity nudes. And Gamergate, the smear campaign against female game developers?

Indeed, nearly every evil of the internet begins, or picks up steam, on the site. The fact that 4chan has been called so many things suggests a feeble attempt to make sense of chaos. Many of the recruitment techniques of the so-called alt-right were piloted there; many white nationalists started out as 4channers.

One of the main hubs for the pictures was 4chan. Poole complied with takedown notices from Hollywood lawyers, which 4channers expected. But then he went further. Some 4channers cried sellout. The same week news of the Fappening broke, so did Gamergate. It started after the ex-boyfriend of indie game developer Zoe Quinn wrote a blog post accusing her of sleeping with a game journalist. A small mob on 4chan attributed positive reviews of her most recent game, Depression Quest, to this fact.

They also targeted women who came to her defense, including feminist blogger Anita Sarkeesian and game developer Brianna Wu. But now, he wanted to appoint a successor so that the fate of 4chan was no longer solely in his hands. Poole is in the process of turning over control of 4chan to three moderators who, unlike him, will remain anonymous. He hopes to find a buyer for the site, a prospect that leaves one of the moderators anxious that the wrong overlord might step in. I like hiking.

Sean McCabe. Newswire Powered by. Close the menu. Rolling Stone. Log In. To help keep your account secure, please log-in again. You are no longer onsite at your organization. Please log in.