More like 404chan, amirite?
April 15, 2025 9:19 AM Subscribe
4chan, the internet's most infamous forum, is down following an alleged hack : "According to screenshots shared on Imgur (NSFW warning), it appears a hacker gained shell access to 4chan's hosting server. They then went on to post images of the site's phpmyadmin page, and appear to have doxed the entire moderation team alongside many of the site's registered users. While it seems some users took steps to protect their identities, many appear to have used their primary email address to register for the forum, with .edu and even .gov addresses reportedly appearing in the list leaked emails." More coverage via TechMeme, @zappit.bsky.social bsky thread
*bill pullman independence day speech*
posted by phooky at 9:24 AM on April 15 [8 favorites]
posted by phooky at 9:24 AM on April 15 [8 favorites]
… and nothing of value was lost.
posted by sixswitch at 9:32 AM on April 15 [13 favorites]
posted by sixswitch at 9:32 AM on April 15 [13 favorites]
I couldn't have started my day with a better article.
posted by yumegari at 9:33 AM on April 15 [3 favorites]
posted by yumegari at 9:33 AM on April 15 [3 favorites]
Guess I'll go against the grain here: I feel too many people conflate /b/ and /pol/ with the whole website. The sfw hobby-focused boards (at least used to be) really great resources for information and discussion and anonymous posting truly is the best way of online interaction. My ideal forum would be something that had the anonymity and lack of permanence of 4chan but also good moderation.
posted by star gentle uterus at 9:36 AM on April 15 [20 favorites]
posted by star gentle uterus at 9:36 AM on April 15 [20 favorites]
It takes a special kind of person to go through the process of affirmatively registering their work .gov email address on a site notorious for
1) Anonymity.
2) Child pornography.
posted by meehawl at 9:41 AM on April 15 [11 favorites]
1) Anonymity.
2) Child pornography.
posted by meehawl at 9:41 AM on April 15 [11 favorites]
Guess I'll go against the grain here: I feel too many people conflate /b/ and /pol/ with the whole website.
Why yes, a website that supports harm to people is going to have its reputation colored by that. You don't get to avert your eyes from the leaking sewage.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:46 AM on April 15 [34 favorites]
Why yes, a website that supports harm to people is going to have its reputation colored by that. You don't get to avert your eyes from the leaking sewage.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:46 AM on April 15 [34 favorites]
You mean 4chan has a user registration system now? If there's ever been an appropriate moment for the KEKW emote, this is it!
posted by I-Write-Essays at 9:47 AM on April 15 [3 favorites]
posted by I-Write-Essays at 9:47 AM on April 15 [3 favorites]
Sucks to be them.
posted by tommasz at 9:56 AM on April 15 [3 favorites]
posted by tommasz at 9:56 AM on April 15 [3 favorites]
I I feel too many people conflate /b/ and /pol/ with the whole website.
Counterpoint: there are other vibrant places to discuss these topics that aren't also providing far-right recruitment and don't do things like pay several thousand dollars a month to someone going by the handle "RapeApe". I get that it's hard to move a community to another platform, but sometimes not doing so says a lot.
posted by phooky at 10:07 AM on April 15 [33 favorites]
Counterpoint: there are other vibrant places to discuss these topics that aren't also providing far-right recruitment and don't do things like pay several thousand dollars a month to someone going by the handle "RapeApe". I get that it's hard to move a community to another platform, but sometimes not doing so says a lot.
posted by phooky at 10:07 AM on April 15 [33 favorites]
(You know what the world could use now? A tool or protocol for moving a forum wholesale to another platform. I understand that platform managers will fight this tooth and nail, but it's kind of necessary at this point.)
posted by phooky at 10:10 AM on April 15 [7 favorites]
posted by phooky at 10:10 AM on April 15 [7 favorites]
Imagine Metafilter had a metanazi, and all the fascists were there, but the rest of us just hung out here like normal, would we be crying about how unfair it is that the whole site was torn down *just because some subsections of the site happened to harbor a nasty case of a nazi infestation"? Or would we be like - ya know, maybe the site could have done a better job of cleaning house.
Yeah, sorry, but no sorry. They could have come to metafilter (the non-nazi scum - hell some are probably on here, as indicated by your comment) - reddit (who, for a while, DID attempt to police nazis) etc. It's not like there aren't plenty of other forums that didn't tolerate that shit. No tears from me.
posted by symbioid at 10:15 AM on April 15 [17 favorites]
Yeah, sorry, but no sorry. They could have come to metafilter (the non-nazi scum - hell some are probably on here, as indicated by your comment) - reddit (who, for a while, DID attempt to police nazis) etc. It's not like there aren't plenty of other forums that didn't tolerate that shit. No tears from me.
posted by symbioid at 10:15 AM on April 15 [17 favorites]
I think it's possible to call out that comment without accusing them of being a Nazi.
posted by Flashman at 10:23 AM on April 15 [7 favorites]
posted by Flashman at 10:23 AM on April 15 [7 favorites]
I wasn't. The point was /b is full of nazis, they were complaining that the whole board gets tainted, and it's not fair, and my point is - then maybe don't go to a site that harbors nazis. I'm not saying THEY are a nazi, but if the site gets pwned for being a nazi-festering site, well, I guess it's sad non-nazis get caught up in it, but maybe don't belong to a site that for DECADES now (at least since I've been aware in the latter 00s) has had a certain rep (maybe "jokingly" at first...)
I also feel bad they got caught up in it, but maybe don't defend the site by pretending /b is somehow unaffiliated. If it were, it wouldn't have affected the non /b users, which is kinda my point.
posted by symbioid at 10:31 AM on April 15 [9 favorites]
I also feel bad they got caught up in it, but maybe don't defend the site by pretending /b is somehow unaffiliated. If it were, it wouldn't have affected the non /b users, which is kinda my point.
posted by symbioid at 10:31 AM on April 15 [9 favorites]
In fact I *literally* said (well I think I misplaced a dash. "non-nazi scum" sounds like I think people who are non-nazi are scum, which is the opposite of intent, not sure how to format it, but I mean people who are NOT nazi scum, who post here)
I hope that clarifies? Maybe a bad edit in hyphenation is the misunderstanding?
posted by symbioid at 10:34 AM on April 15 [1 favorite]
I hope that clarifies? Maybe a bad edit in hyphenation is the misunderstanding?
posted by symbioid at 10:34 AM on April 15 [1 favorite]
Jokes are practice for when you stop joking.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 10:34 AM on April 15 [26 favorites]
posted by I-Write-Essays at 10:34 AM on April 15 [26 favorites]
Rumor is [CW: LLM summary of rabid anti-semitism and hate speech, 90% of text is actual quotes not generative] they found Elon’s account. Didn’t believe it it was true until I spotted this quote:
"X will be the new nation. The borderless, seamless grid. Resistance is deletion."
The rest is plausible as Elon but that one actually has his fingerprints. Christ.
posted by Ryvar at 10:44 AM on April 15 [15 favorites]
"X will be the new nation. The borderless, seamless grid. Resistance is deletion."
The rest is plausible as Elon but that one actually has his fingerprints. Christ.
posted by Ryvar at 10:44 AM on April 15 [15 favorites]
The speculation on Reddit was that they hadn't patched the site since m00t sold it 9 years ago, so this was something just waiting to happen.
posted by Spike Glee at 10:49 AM on April 15 [4 favorites]
posted by Spike Glee at 10:49 AM on April 15 [4 favorites]
banned_users: 9.9GiB
del_log: 8.1GiB
lol
posted by Klipspringer at 10:57 AM on April 15 [2 favorites]
del_log: 8.1GiB
lol
posted by Klipspringer at 10:57 AM on April 15 [2 favorites]
> The rest is plausible as Elon but that one actually has his fingerprints. Christ.
That is a troll.
posted by postcommunism at 11:10 AM on April 15 [1 favorite]
That is a troll.
posted by postcommunism at 11:10 AM on April 15 [1 favorite]
> Didn’t believe it it was true until I spotted this quote:
That quote was generated by chatgpt and does not seem to appear in the actual linked postings of SATANZ0Gpo.
posted by joeyh at 1:53 PM on April 15 [5 favorites]
That quote was generated by chatgpt and does not seem to appear in the actual linked postings of SATANZ0Gpo.
posted by joeyh at 1:53 PM on April 15 [5 favorites]
ok fine, then I'll laugh at that
posted by ryanrs at 3:19 PM on April 15 [2 favorites]
posted by ryanrs at 3:19 PM on April 15 [2 favorites]
I get that it's hard to move a community to another platform, but sometimes not doing so says a lot.
A thousand times this.
posted by aspersioncast at 6:28 PM on April 15 [1 favorite]
A thousand times this.
posted by aspersioncast at 6:28 PM on April 15 [1 favorite]
A flaming horse’s patoot!
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 11:46 PM on April 15
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 11:46 PM on April 15
Regarding RapeApe, he is believed to have had the goal of basically further radicalizing /pol/ and having it infect the rest of the site - thus playing a major role in the history of the alt-right. Here's the whole story of his influence on 4chan.
posted by BiggerJ at 2:17 AM on April 16 [3 favorites]
posted by BiggerJ at 2:17 AM on April 16 [3 favorites]
> if the site gets pwned for being a nazi-festering site
It would be nice if that was what happened, instead it seems to be an offshoot forum that's been mad their board for posting soyjaks got nuked half a decade ago.
posted by lucidium at 2:33 AM on April 16 [1 favorite]
It would be nice if that was what happened, instead it seems to be an offshoot forum that's been mad their board for posting soyjaks got nuked half a decade ago.
posted by lucidium at 2:33 AM on April 16 [1 favorite]
According to Know Your Meme, the first posts with receipts about the hack were on soyjack party (leaked info from moderator's forum, sourcecode) and kiwifarms (additional sourcecode). Probably the last two sites you can imagine having a problem with 4chan being fashy. (Link is nominally worksafe (assuming mentions and links to 4chan and worse don't light up your employer's firewall), the rest of the site is not necessarily sfw.)
If it sounds weird for KYM to be an information source for a website security story, try to imagine KYM being able to exist without image boards. This is business news to them.
posted by at by at 3:23 AM on April 16 [1 favorite]
If it sounds weird for KYM to be an information source for a website security story, try to imagine KYM being able to exist without image boards. This is business news to them.
posted by at by at 3:23 AM on April 16 [1 favorite]
Now do 8chan.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 4:56 AM on April 16
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 4:56 AM on April 16
Regarding RapeApe, he is believed to have had the goal of basically further radicalizing /pol/ and having it infect the rest of the site - thus playing a major role in the history of the alt-right.
Please tell me that this particular leak revealed "RapeApe's" real name?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:30 AM on April 16
Please tell me that this particular leak revealed "RapeApe's" real name?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:30 AM on April 16
> The rest is plausible as Elon but that one actually has his fingerprints. Christ.
I think it's a coin-flip as to whether its a larper ___posting (a 4chan term mocking mental illness) or it's real Elon.
But who uses trips for all posts, except a narcissist?
posted by onehalfjunco at 1:00 PM on April 16
Good roundup about the hack (it dispels some early misinfo about the leaked data) and brief history of 4chan from Ryan Broderick
posted by gwint at 2:36 PM on April 16 [1 favorite]
posted by gwint at 2:36 PM on April 16 [1 favorite]
While that was useful in clearing the air, I am so very tired of the "hate and abuse are the price of freedom" argument that has been getting trotted out. You do not have to wade through the pile of horseshit that was 4chan to try to find a pony - it is perfectly fine to look at this, and of all the harm 4chan enabled, and say "and nothing of value was lost."
In fact, I'd argue that if you are worried about the Internet becoming becoming more sterile and contained, then you need to put aside the temptation to valorize these places in the name of them "being human". Because a good part of why the corporations won is because people were given the choice between safety and freedom, it turns out that a lot of people choose safety because there is freedom for them in safety.
posted by NoxAeternum at 3:34 AM on April 17 [3 favorites]
In fact, I'd argue that if you are worried about the Internet becoming becoming more sterile and contained, then you need to put aside the temptation to valorize these places in the name of them "being human". Because a good part of why the corporations won is because people were given the choice between safety and freedom, it turns out that a lot of people choose safety because there is freedom for them in safety.
posted by NoxAeternum at 3:34 AM on April 17 [3 favorites]
> I am so very tired of the "hate and abuse are the price of freedom" argument [...] to valorize these places
Not only that, but per BiggerJ's link upthread, the environment of hate and abuse was deliberately cultivated. It was not some natural state revealed by the freedom of anonymity (at least not entirely).
I also recall Stormfront raiding 4chan with talking points ("mantras") even further back, but I may be misremembering that. It's been years, folks.
posted by postcommunism at 7:21 AM on April 17 [1 favorite]
Not only that, but per BiggerJ's link upthread, the environment of hate and abuse was deliberately cultivated. It was not some natural state revealed by the freedom of anonymity (at least not entirely).
I also recall Stormfront raiding 4chan with talking points ("mantras") even further back, but I may be misremembering that. It's been years, folks.
posted by postcommunism at 7:21 AM on April 17 [1 favorite]
It was not some natural state revealed by the freedom of anonymity (at least not entirely).
Which comes back to a hobby horse of mine - if you want anonymity to be valued, then you must oppose its use to abuse people. Because when a principle is used to defend abuse, the abused quite rightly begin to question its legitimacy. The article here made a good point - whenever we talk about "freedom", we need to think about whose freedom we're considering.
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:50 AM on April 17 [2 favorites]
Which comes back to a hobby horse of mine - if you want anonymity to be valued, then you must oppose its use to abuse people. Because when a principle is used to defend abuse, the abused quite rightly begin to question its legitimacy. The article here made a good point - whenever we talk about "freedom", we need to think about whose freedom we're considering.
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:50 AM on April 17 [2 favorites]
Ryvar: Okay, I deleted my post about this earlier because I was unsure, but now I think I know what's happened. The Reddit post you referenced (pre-deletion archive.is link here) cites 4plebs' 4chan archive, via a search on the site for Musk's alleged username (aka 'tripcode'). However, the Reddit poster fed the 4chan posts into ChatGPT to summarize them. The post you quoted doesn't turn up in 4plebs, so it was likely a digital hallucination.
Which means the digital dystopia in the process of becoming real is the Amazing Digital Circus. Which tracks.
posted by BiggerJ at 4:42 AM on April 18
Which means the digital dystopia in the process of becoming real is the Amazing Digital Circus. Which tracks.
posted by BiggerJ at 4:42 AM on April 18
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posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:23 AM on April 15 [18 favorites]