4chan

== Overview ==
4chan is an English-based imageboard website consisting of strictly anonymous, often controversial message boards dedicated to a variety of niche and popular topics. The site is currently owned by Japanese entrepreneur Hiroyuki Nishimura, the founder and former administration of the popular Japanese textboard 2channel (known colloquially as 2ch).
== Definition and History ==
Founded in 2003 by its influential admin Christopher Poole (widely known by his online handle "moot"), 4chan was originally created as an American counterpart to the popular Japanese Futaba Channel imageboard for discussing and sharing images related to Japanese comics and anime. With a following from the anime subforum found on the then-popular SomethingAwful message boards and translated source code from Futaba Channel itself, Poole developed the site into a discussion place for his personal interests, anime and manga. 
The imageboard, notably requiring no registration to participate, quickly grew to encompass a wide variety of topics, ranging from other aspects of Japanese and underground culture like mecha, hentai (anime and manga pornography), and torrents to traditional, broader subjects such as sports, technology, fitness, and entertainment. These boards are individually designated by the unique abbreviations used in their URLs (/m/, /h/, /sp/, etc.). The boards are also separated into six overarching categories found on the site's main page: Japanese culture, Adult (18+), Other, Misc. (18+), Interests, and Creative.
=== Function and Structure ===
Users on 4chan anonymously create and participate in fast-paced image-comment threads with topics 
relevant to the general subject of the boards to which they belong (i.e. a Nirvana discussion on the Music board /mu/). Threads are organized in order of the recency of their latest post with threads that reach their comment limit or fall past the board's active thread limit (typically due to inactivity) being temporarily archived and later removed from the site entirely. 
Based on the culture of the website as a whole, each board has its own unique culture among the users who frequent them, many preferring to identify certain sections their home boards. However, it is almost impossible for other users to designate such identifying information as they lack usernames outside of "tripcodes" which mark posts with signatures generated from hashed passwords, an unpopular practice. Individual board culture on 4chan, particularly that of /b/, has been the source for numerous, enormously widespread internet in-jokes known as internet memes over the the last decade.
== Controversy ==
Although welcoming in essence through its anonymity, 4chan is notorious for its vitriolic culture and userbase as well as the numerous controversies and movements it has spawned over the years, most notably from three of its most popular and vilified boards, /b/ (Random), /r9k/ (Robot 9001, a topic-less discussion section), and /pol/ (Politically Incorrect). Hacking and activist groups such as Anonymous and LulzSec possess ties to the site while users on the site itself have orchestrated dozens of online attacks, leaks, and protests. Events with real world implications and effects– ranging from police investigations to threats and violence such as the 2015 Umpqua Community College Shooting– also find their origins on the site, sparking criticism and widespread contempt from other online communities.
=== Examples of Controversy ===
==== 2015 Umpqua Community College Shooting ====
On October 2, 2015, 26-year old student Christopher Harper-Mercer fatally shot an assistant professor and eight students, leaving seven to nine others injured, at Umpqua Community College near Roseburg, Oregon. The attack, the deadliest mass shooting in the state's historyhttp://www.kgw.com/story/news/crime/2015/10/01/report-15-dead-umpqua-community-college-shooting/73154898/, has been linked to Harper-Mercer's social media postings. A possible warning post on 4chan's /r9k/ board, infamous for persisting threats of violence, is under investigation by the FBI for a potential connection to the shooting.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/oregon-shooter-plans-4chan_560da551e4b0768127016099 Users on the board have been criticized for ignoring and even encouraging the warning's poster and obfuscating the source by framing one of its more popular users.http://www.dailydot.com/politics/4chan-oregon-campus-shooter-frame/
==== 2014 celebrity photo hack (the Fappening) ====
On August 31, 2014, a massive leak of notable women celebrity photos, mostly compromising and private, was posted to 4chanhttp://variety.com/2014/biz/news/jennifer-lawrence-kate-upton-ariana-grande-exposed-in-massive-nude-photo-leak-1201295180/http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report-hacked-and-leaked-nude-hollywood-2015378 following a security breach of Apple's iCloud service which allowed infiltrators through phishing and brute force access to backups of its accounts.http://thenextweb.com/apple/2014/09/01/this-could-be-the-apple-icloud-flaw-that-led-to-celebrity-photos-being-leaked/http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29039294 These leaks spread to other sites such as Reddit and persisted for weeks following the initial wave.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2740387/New-wave-leaks-plague-celebrities-authorities-prove-unable-stop-spread-suggest-naked-photos-passed-users-online-CLUB-months.html Numerous celebrities, online communities, and journalists strongly criticized both 4chan and Reddit in their treatment of the leaks as well as media coverage surrounding the event.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/08/media-hypocrisy-celebrity-nude-photo-hack_n_5766488.htmlhttp://elitedaily.com/news/technology/4chan-anonymous-messaging-board/736285/
== Resources and Further Reading ==
* From Indymedia to Anonymous: rethinking action and identity in digital cultures
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1039561
A scholarly article explaining the appeal of 4chan and other sites' wholly anonymous systems of media sharing and communication.
* It’s Supposed to Look Like Shit: The Internet Ugly Aesthetic
http://vcu.sagepub.com/content/13/3/314.full.pdf+html
A scholarly article which attempts to explain the appeal of 4chan's lack of intuitive structure and interface.
* Absolutely everything you need to know to understand 4chan, the Internet’s own bogeyman
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/09/25/absolutely-everything-you-need-to-know-to-understand-4chan-the-internets-own-bogeyman/
A Washington Post article on the origins, structure, and toxic posting culture of 4chan.
* What is 4chan? Website under scrutiny after shootings
http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/what-is-4chan/
A brief Seattle Times piece on the role of 4chan in the internet landscape as a source of online culture and controversy, particularly in relation to the 2015 Umpqua Community College shooting in Oregon.
* User investment and behavior policing on 4chan
http://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4819/3839
A scholarly article on the patterns of management of 4chan's posts and the ways in which individual board culture is generated by these patterns.
== Citations ==
=== Keywords ===
Hacktivism, Harassment, Internet, New Media, Online Writing, Social Media, World Wide WebCategory:Keyword