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8kun, previously called 8chan, Infinitechan or Infinitychan (stylized as ∞chan), is an imageboard website composed of user-created message boards. An owner moderates each board, with minimal interaction from site administration.[1] The site has been linked to white supremacism, neo-Nazism, the alt-right, racism, antisemitism, hate crimes, and multiple mass shootings.[2][3][4] The site has been known to host child pornography;[5][6] as a result, it was filtered out from Google Search in 2015.[7] Several of the site's boards played an active role in the Gamergate harassment campaign, encouraging Gamergate affiliates to frequent 8chan after 4chan banned the topic. 8chan is the origin and main center of activity of the discredited QAnon conspiracy theory.[8][9][10]

Key Information

Shortly before the 2019 El Paso shooting, a four-page message justifying the attack was posted to the site, and police have stated that they are "reasonably confident" it was posted by the perpetrator.[3][11] In the aftermath of the back-to-back mass shootings on August 3 in El Paso and August 4 in Dayton, Ohio, respectively, the site was taken off clearnet on August 5, 2019, when network infrastructure provider Cloudflare stopped providing their content delivery network (CDN) service. Voxility, a web services company that had been renting servers to Epik, the site's new domain registrar, as well as Epik's CDN provider subsidiary BitMitigate, also terminated service.[12][13] After several attempts to return to clearnet were ultimately stymied by providers denying service to 8chan, the site returned to clearnet as 8kun in November 2019 through a Russian hosting provider.[14][15][16]

History

[edit]
Green infinity symbol, with "chan" underneath in black lowercase sans serif text
Former 8chan logo

8chan was created in October 2013 by computer programmer Fredrick Brennan.[17][18][19] Brennan created the website after observing what he perceived to be rapidly escalating surveillance and a loss of free speech on the Internet.[5] Brennan, who considered the imageboard 4chan to have grown into authoritarianism, described 8chan as a "free-speech-friendly" alternative,[5] and originally conceptualized the site while experiencing a psychedelic mushrooms trip.[18][6]

No experience or programming knowledge is necessary for users to create their own boards.[1] Since as early as March 2014, its FAQ has stated only one rule that is to be globally enforced: "Do not post, request, or link to any content illegal in the United States of America. Do not create boards with the sole purpose of posting or spreading such content."[1] Brennan claimed that, while he found some of the content posted by users to be "reprehensible", he felt personally obligated to uphold the site's integrity by tolerating discussion he did not necessarily support regardless of his moral stance.[5]

Brennan agreed to partner 8chan with the Japanese message board 2chan,[18] and subsequently relocated to the Philippines in October 2014.[20]

In January 2015, the site changed its domain after multiple people filed reports complaining to 8chan's registrar that the message board hosted child pornography. Despite subsequently regaining the original domain, the site remained at the new domain with the old domain redirecting to it.[6]

Numerous bugs in the Infinity software led to the funding and development of a successor platform dubbed "Infinity Next". After a several-month-long testing period, a migration to the new software was attempted in December 2015, but failed.[21][clarification needed] In January 2016, development was halted, and the main developer, Joshua Moon, was fired by Brennan.[22] Brennan himself officially resigned in July 2016, turning the site over to its owner, Jim Watkins and his son, Ron Watkins.[clarification needed][23][19] He cited the failure of the "Infinity Next" project and disillusionment with what 8chan had become as reasons.[23]

August 2019 removal from clearnet

[edit]

Following the three shootings in 2019 (Christchurch, New Zealand, in March; Poway, California, in April; El Paso, Texas, in August) in which the perpetrators of each used 8chan as a platform to spread their manifesto, there was increased pressure on those providing 8chan's Internet services to terminate their support.[3]

Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, initially defended his firm's technological support of 8chan on August 3, 2019, the day of the El Paso shooting: "What happened in El Paso today is abhorrent in every possible way, and it's ugly, and I hate that there's any association between us and that ... For us the question is which is the worse evil?"[2]

However, by the next day, August 4, with increasing press attention, Cloudflare changed its position, and rescinded its support for 8chan effective midnight August 5 Pacific Time, potentially leaving the site open for denial of service attacks. Prince stated: "Unfortunately the action we take today won't fix hate online ... It will almost certainly not even remove 8chan from the Internet. But it is the right thing to do."[24] Prince wrote on the Cloudflare Blog:[25]

8chan is among the more than 19 million Internet properties that use Cloudflare's service. We just sent notice that we are terminating 8chan as a customer effective at midnight tonight Pacific Time. The rationale is simple: they have proven themselves to be lawless and that lawlessness has caused multiple tragic deaths. Even if 8chan may not have violated the letter of the law in refusing to moderate their hate-filled community, they have created an environment that revels in violating its spirit.

Brennan, the creator of 8chan, ceased being the owner of the platform in 2015 and stopped working for the website in 2018. He stated on August 4, 2019, that 8chan should be shut down, and subsequently thanked Cloudflare for its decision to pull support for 8chan.[3][24]

Tucows also terminated its support as 8chan's domain name registrar, making the site difficult to access. In the wake of Cloudflare and Tucows' changes, 8chan switched its domain register to BitMitigate, a division of Epik, a provider that had previously serviced far-right sites like Gab and The Daily Stormer. After 8chan moved to Epik, the company's CEO Rob Monster wrote: "Freedom of speech and expression are fundamental rights in a free society. We enter into a slippery slope when we start to limit speech that makes us uncomfortable."[26] However, Voxility, the company that provided BitMitigate and Epik with its own servers and Internet connectivity, then took steps to stop leasing servers to BitMitigate, taking that site offline, and stated that the intended use of their servers violated their acceptable use policy.[13] Monster changed his decision to provide content hosting to 8chan soon after the company's removal from Voxility, citing concerns that 8chan did not have the ability to adequately moderate content. However, Ars Technica noted that the company had begun providing 8chan with DNS services.[27]

Although the website was unreachable through its usual domain on clearnet, users continued to access the site through its IP address and via its .onion address on the Tor hidden services darknet.[28] Security researcher and terrorism analyst Rita Katz noted that a site claiming to be 8chan had also appeared on ZeroNet, another darkweb network, although an 8chan administrator tweeted that their team was not the one running the site.[29]

On August 6, 2019, the United States House Committee on Homeland Security called 8chan's owner, Jim Watkins, an American living in the Philippines, to testify about the website's efforts to tackle "the proliferation of extremist content, including white supremacist content".[30] On August 11, 2019, Watkins uploaded a YouTube video saying that 8chan had been offline "voluntarily", and that it would go back online after he spoke with the Homeland Security Committee.[31] In early September, Watkins traveled to Washington, D.C. for congressional questioning. In an interview with The Washington Post, Watkins said that 8chan staff were building protections against cyberattacks to replace Cloudflare's services, and that the website could come back online as early as mid-September.[32]

Rebrand to 8kun and return to clearnet

[edit]

On October 7, 2019, 8chan's official Twitter account and Jim Watkins' YouTube channel released a video that unveiled a new "8kun" logo.[33][34][35][36][37][38] In it, a snake (which resembles that of the Gadsden flag) forms a shape of number 8 on top of the logo.[38] The "8chan" name was based on the '-chan' suffix (shortened from 'channel') used by the imageboards that employ the 2channel-like format, but it was suggested that the new name is a wordplay based on Japanese honorifics; in that case, '-chan' can be interpreted as the one generally used for young children, especially females, while '-kun' suffix is used for younger males in general, or sometimes subordinates in the workplace.[35][36][37] On October 9, 2019, 8chan's official Twitter account posted a notification that instructed board owners who wish to migrate to 8kun to send their "shared secrets" (a tool that enables board owner to recover an 8chan board) to an email address at 8kun.net.[39][37][38]

Brennan has vocally opposed 8chan's relaunch as 8kun, claiming the effort will not change the reputation previously associated with 8chan, and also citing his troubled relationship with 8chan administrators.[40][41][35][36][37][38] Brennan has also suggested that the success of 8kun will depend on the return of "Q" and its followers.[37] The new 8kun domain was registered with Tucows on September 7, 2019, but a spokesperson from Tucows stated that the company was unaware of the situation until the news about 8kun broke out, and that it was looking into the matter.[35][36][37][38] 8kun was set to launch by October 17, 2019, however the attempt failed as British server provider Zare discontinued support. A spokesperson for Zare claimed in a statement to Vice that the team behind 8kun may have provided false details while registering themselves.[42] On October 22, Watkins packed 8chan's servers into a van and transported them to an unknown location.[15] This was later revealed to be in preparation for a move to the network VanwaTech, owned by Nicholas Lim, the founder of BitMitigate.[15] On November 5, 8chan came briefly back online as 8kun by using a bogon IP through Media Land LLC. Media Land LLC is owned by the Russian Alexander "Yalishanda" Volosovyk, who has been described as the "world's biggest 'bulletproof' hosting operator" and is known for enabling cybercriminal activity.[16][43] 8kun's trouble getting back online continued in the subsequent weeks, with Ron Watkins telling The Wall Street Journal "8chan is on indefinite hiatus" on November 16.[44] 8kun moved to a .top domain on November 16, after the Tucows domain registrar stopped providing services earlier in the month.[45] CNServers, which indirectly provided DDoS protection to VanwaTech via Spartan Host, cut ties in October 2020, taking 8kun briefly offline as a result. VanwaTech subsequently moved to DDoS-Guard, a Russian-owned service provider registered in Scotland.[46][47]

Usage in planning the storming of the U.S. Capitol

[edit]
See also: 2021 storming of the United States Capitol

8kun, which is one of the primary platforms used by followers of QAnon and those on the far-right, was used by rioters to plan the January 6, 2021 storming of the United States Capitol. Some posts on the message board discussed which politicians the posters would kill once they entered the building,[47] and some suggested killing police, security guards, and federal employees.[48]

After receiving questions from The Guardian following the attack, the cyberattack protection company DDoS-Guard terminated its service to 8kun's hosting provider, VanwaTech. Speaking to The Guardian, one of DDoS-Guard's owners explained that the company had been providing their services to VanwaTech, not to 8kun directly, but that they "were not related to any political issues and don't want to be associated in any sense with customers hosting such toxic sites like QAnon/8chan".[47] Cyberattack protection services were restored to 8kun when VanwaTech began using the American company FiberHub.[47]

On August 27, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives select committee investigating the storming of the Capitol demanded records from 8kun (alongside 14 other social media companies) going back to the spring of 2020.[49]

Controversies

[edit]

Numerous controversies related to content posted on 8chan have arisen, to the extent that participation by individuals or companies in the website can itself cause controversy. On February 25, 2019, THQ Nordic hosted an AMA (ask me anything) thread on the video games board of the website, /v/, for which it later apologized.[50]

Gamergate

[edit]
Main article: Gamergate (harassment campaign)

On September 18, 2014, 8chan became entangled in the Gamergate harassment campaign after 4chan banned discussion of Gamergate,[5][20][51] whereupon 8chan became one of several hubs for Gamergate activity.[5][20][52][53] The site was little-known prior to the controversy.[54] 8chan's initial Gamergate-oriented board "/gg/" also gained attention after being compromised by members of the internet troll group Gay Nigger Association of America, forcing Gamergate activists to migrate to "/gamergate/". This replacement quickly became the site's second-most accessed board.[52]

Swatting incidents and violent threats

[edit]

In January 2015, the site was used as a base for swatting exploits in Portland, Seattle, and Burnaby, British Columbia, most of them tied to the victims' criticism of Gamergate and 8chan's association with it;[55] the attacks were coordinated on a board on the website called "/baphomet/".[53] One of the victims of a swatting attack said that she was singled out because she had followed someone on Twitter.[56][57] On February 9, 2015, content on the "/baphomet/" subboard was wiped after personal information of Katherine Forrest, the presiding judge in the Silk Road case, had been posted there.[58]

In 2019, a post threatening a mass shooting against Bethel Park High School was posted on 8chan; as a result, an 18-year-old individual was arrested and charged with one count of terroristic threats and one count of retaliation against a witness or victim.[59]

Child pornography

[edit]

Boards have been created to discuss topics such as child rape. While the sharing of illegal content is against site rules, The Daily Dot wrote that boards do exist to share sexualized images of minors in provocative poses, and that some users of those boards do post links to explicit child pornography hosted elsewhere.[5] When asked whether such boards were an inevitable result of free speech, Brennan responded: "Unfortunately, yes. I don't support the content on the boards you mentioned, but it is simply the cost of free speech and being the only active site to not impose more 'laws' than those that were passed in Washington, D.C."[5]

In August 2015, 8chan was blacklisted from Google Search for what Google described as content constituting "suspected child abuse content".[7]

Donald Trump presidential campaign

[edit]

In July 2016, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump tweeted an image of Hillary Clinton with a background of money and a six-pointed star which resembled the Star of David, containing the message "Most corrupt candidate ever". The image had been posted to 8chan's /pol/ board as early as June 22, over a week before Trump's team tweeted it. A watermark on the image led to a Twitter account which had published many other overtly racist and antisemitic images.[60][61][62]

QAnon

[edit]
Main article: QAnon

8chan is the home of the discredited far-right QAnon conspiracy theory.[8][9][10]

In October 2017, a 4chan user that referred to himself as "Q" started gaining attention by promoting conspiracy theories about the deep state.[63] The next month, citing security concerns, Q moved to 8chan and only posted there from then on, eventually leading to an international movement.[64] Sean Hannity has retweeted QAnon hashtags on his Twitter feed.[65][66][67] On March 14, 2018, the initial group of Q followers on Reddit were banned over their promotion of the theory.[68][69] They quickly regrouped into a new subreddit, which featured posts from Q and other anonymous posters on 8chan in a more reader-friendly format. The subreddit was banned[64] for a second time on September 12, 2018.[70] With a flood of new users on the board, Q asked one of the website's owners, Ron Watkins, to upgrade the website's servers in order to accommodate all of the board's website traffic on September 19, 2018.[71]

The movement has been linked with the Pizzagate conspiracy theory. The Q movement has also been linked to the hashtags #TheGreatAwakening and #WWG1WGA,[72][73] which stands for "where we go one, we go all"; it is also sometimes linked with the phrase "Follow the White Rabbit".[74]

Louisiana Police's antifa list

[edit]

In September 2018, the Louisiana State Police were scrutinized for using a hoax list of personal information about supposed antifa activists originally posted on 8chan's politics board. The document, dubbed "full list of antifa.docx" by police officers, actually contained the names of several thousand people who signed online petitions against then President Donald Trump. The State Police has refused to disclose the list, claiming it would "compromise" ongoing criminal investigations in which it expects arrests. A lawsuit against Louisiana State Police was filed on behalf of the record requester by Harvard lecturer and former public defender Thomas Frampton, alleging that the Police's refusal to release the list indicates that it actually believed the credibility of the hoax list and used it in investigations and litigations.[75][76][77]

2019 shootings

[edit]

The perpetrators of three mass shootings, all in 2019, each used 8chan to spread their manifesto. As a result, there was increased pressure on those providing 8chan's Internet services to terminate their support,[3] which led to the services companies' withdrawal from providing CDN and domain registry, taking the website off clearnet.

Christchurch mosque shootings

[edit]
Main article: Christchurch mosque shootings

Prior to attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 15, 2019, the perpetrator, Brenton Harrison Tarrant, posted links to what was ultimately a 17-minute Facebook Live video of the first attack on Al Noor Mosque and his white nationalist, neo-fascist manifesto The Great Replacement (named after the French far-right conspiracy theory of the same name by writer Renaud Camus) detailing his anti-Islamic and anti-immigration motivations for the attack. The shootings overall left 51 dead and 40 more injured.[78][79][80] Some members of 8chan re-shared it and applauded the attacks.[81]

On March 20, 2019, Australian telecom companies Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone blocked the websites 4chan, 8chan, Zero Hedge, and LiveLeak as a reaction to the Christchurch mosque shootings.[82] In New Zealand, the main ISPs, Spark, One NZ, and 2degrees, followed suit in blocking 8chan and other websites hosting footage of the shooting.[83]

Poway synagogue shooting

[edit]
Main article: Poway synagogue shooting

John T. Earnest, the perpetrator of a shooting at a synagogue in Poway, California, on April 27, 2019, and an earlier arson attack at a mosque in nearby Escondido on March 25, had posted links to his open letter and his attempted livestream on 8chan, which Earnest also named as a place of radicalization for him.[84] According to 8chan's Twitter, the shooter's post was removed nine minutes after its creation.[85]

El Paso shooting

[edit]
Main article: 2019 El Paso shooting

Patrick Crusius, the suspect in a mass shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, on August 3, 2019, allegedly posted a four-page white nationalist manifesto The Inconvenient Truth on 8chan less than an hour before the shooting began. 8chan moderators quickly removed the original post, though users continued to circulate links to this manifesto.[2][86]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

8chan

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
8chan was an anonymous website founded in 2013 by software developer as a more decentralized successor to , enabling users to create and moderate their own boards with minimal centralized oversight. The platform emphasized unrestricted anonymous posting, fostering discussions on diverse topics including politics, , and fringe ideologies, but it rapidly became associated with unmoderated extremist content such as white nationalist rhetoric and conspiracy theories. By 2014, control shifted to Jim Watkins after Brennan relocated to the for health reasons, leading to operational changes that Brennan later criticized. 8chan drew significant scrutiny for serving as a posting site for manifestos by perpetrators of mass shootings, including those in , Poway, and El Paso in 2019, prompting its primary domain registrar and content delivery network, , to terminate services on grounds of facilitating . Following the shutdown, the site briefly reemerged in late 2019 under Watkins' management, rebranded as 8kun to circumvent hosting restrictions while maintaining its core structure. Brennan, who disavowed the platform years earlier, publicly urged its permanent closure, expressing regret over its evolution into a hub for harmful ideologies despite his original intent for open discourse.

Overview and Philosophy

Founding Principles

8chan was established in September 2013 by software developer as an anonymous imageboard website designed to offer unrestricted freedom of expression beyond the constraints of existing platforms like . Brennan's creation stemmed from dissatisfaction with 4chan's centralized moderation under founder Christopher "moot" Poole, particularly after bans on certain discussions, prompting him to build a rival site during a period of personal experimentation with psychedelics. The platform, initially conceptualized as "Infinitechan," emphasized user empowerment through unlimited board creation, allowing individuals to initiate and govern topic-specific forums without administrative veto. Central to its founding principles was a commitment to minimal central moderation, confined strictly to content deemed illegal under law, such as material or infringements, while permitting otherwise prohibited activities on like raids or doxxing. served as a foundational , stripping users of identifiable traits to encourage unfiltered , with Brennan viewing it as essential for authentic online interaction free from real-world repercussions. defined the operational ethos: board volunteers, rather than site-wide administrators, enforced niche-specific rules, promoting a decentralized model where communities policed themselves to sustain viability. This approach positioned 8chan as a for "unabridged free speech," attracting users marginalized by stricter platforms. Brennan articulated the site's purpose as unseating 4chan's dominance by providing a more permissive alternative, stating his intent was to challenge Poole's authority through superior user freedom rather than ideological purity. The infinite scalability of boards reflected a principle of boundless topical exploration, theoretically accommodating any lawful interest without preemptive . Early adoption validated this framework, as seen in 2014 when participants migrated after 4chan's prohibitions, surging activity from roughly 100 daily posts to 5,000 per hour.

Core Features and Technical Design

8chan utilized Vichan, a PHP-based open-source software forked from Tinyboard, to power its platform. This engine facilitated anonymous text and image posting without requiring user registration or for core functionality, emphasizing accessibility and resistance to tracking. The system employed a database to store posts, threads, and board metadata, enabling efficient querying for threaded discussions where new replies "bump" active topics to the top. A defining feature was the allowance for user-initiated board creation, where individuals could propose and, upon approval by site administrators, establish dedicated sub-forums for niche topics, promoting a decentralized distinct from centralized platforms. Each board operated semi-autonomously, with volunteer moderators handling content rules specific to their community, while global site policies enforced minimal overarching restrictions focused on legality. remained absolute by default, with optional tripcodes for pseudo-identity verification but no persistent user profiles, reducing accountability and enabling unfiltered expression. Technically, the design incorporated anti-spam measures like on posts and file upload limits to manage server load, alongside automatic archiving of inactive threads to prevent database bloat. Support for embedded media and cross-board linking enhanced interactivity, though the lightweight architecture prioritized speed over advanced features like real-time notifications. This setup, rooted in earlier traditions, prioritized resilience and user control over polished .

Historical Development

Inception and Early Growth (2013–2016)

8chan was founded in October 2013 by Fredrick Brennan, an American software developer, as an imageboard site enabling users to create and moderate their own boards, intended as a freer-speech counterpart to 4chan with decentralized control over content communities. The platform launched under the initial name Infinitechan, emphasizing user anonymity and minimal global rules limited to prohibiting material illegal under U.S. federal law, such as child exploitation imagery or direct threats, while leaving board-specific moderation to volunteer administrators. Early operations ran on low-cost hosting, with Brennan handling development and site administration from his home, reflecting a bootstrapped approach amid limited initial resources. Initial user engagement remained minimal through mid-2014, averaging around 10 posts per day across a handful of boards focused on topics like , , and random discussion, as the site struggled to attract migrants from more established platforms. A significant growth phase began in September 2014, triggered by dissatisfaction among users during the controversy, where bans on related discussions prompted an exodus; post volume surged from approximately 100 per day to over 4,000 per hour, expanding the active board count and introducing communities for video games, , and niche interests. This influx diversified content but also amplified unmoderated threads, with boards self-organizing around user-proposed themes approved by Brennan. To support scaling, 8chan partnered in September 2014 with Jim Watkins' N.T. Technology for server hosting in the , relocating infrastructure from the U.S. to evade potential legal pressures and reduce costs; Brennan followed in October 2014, establishing operations in . By January , amid complaints to registrars about illegal content on certain boards, the primary domain shifted to 8ch.net to maintain accessibility. Growth continued unevenly into 2016, with periodic scrutiny—such as Google's August blacklisting for suspected child abuse material on fringe boards—but sustained by the site's reputation for lax oversight, culminating in Brennan's administrative handover later that year.

Expansion and Subcultural Integration (2017–2018)

In 2017, 8chan's /pol/ board, dedicated to politically incorrect discussions, exhibited marked growth in activity, with daily original posts rising steadily from April onward, reflecting an influx of users seeking unmoderated forums amid increasing content restrictions on platforms like 4chan and Reddit. This expansion was driven by migrations from other imageboards, where bans on extreme or controversial topics prompted users to create and populate specialized boards on 8chan for topics ranging from nationalism to fringe ideologies. The site's permissive board-creation model facilitated deeper integration with emerging subcultures, particularly in late 2017 when —an anonymous posting campaign alleging a secret war against a supposed elite cabal—transitioned from its origins on 's /pol/ to dedicated threads on 8chan, such as /cbts/, attracting dedicated followings for serialized "drops" of cryptic predictions. This period saw 8chan boards evolve into hubs for alt-right meme production and ironic discourse, blending chan-style anonymity with political activism, as users cross-pollinated content from while amplifying more radical variants. By 2018, subcultural entrenchment deepened through sustained engagement in and identitarian communities, with 8chan serving as a refuge for groups displaced by mainstream platform purges, including post-Gamergate holdouts and early incel-adjacent discussions, though quantitative traffic spikes were less documented than qualitative shifts toward self-sustaining echo chambers. The platform's philosophy of minimal intervention preserved these dynamics, enabling but also concentrating fringe elements that viewed 8chan as a bulwark against perceived elsewhere.

Ownership Transition and Internal Conflicts

In late 2014, 8chan founder , facing financial difficulties and persistent hosting problems, relocated to , , and entered a partnership with Jim Watkins' company, N.T. Technology, for server infrastructure support. In January 2015, Brennan transferred ownership of the site's domain to Watkins, who assumed legal control while Brennan retained administrative duties. This shift addressed 8chan's technical instability but marked the beginning of diverging visions for the platform's governance. By 2016, Brennan stepped down as administrator, delegating operational control to Ronald Watkins, Jim Watkins' son, amid growing user traffic and Brennan's personal health challenges as an individual with . Tensions escalated in autumn 2018 over ; Brennan increasingly advocated for removing violent or extremist material, citing ethical concerns, while Watkins prioritized minimal intervention to uphold the site's free speech ethos. In December 2018, Brennan formally severed ties, publicly expressing regret over the site's evolution and attempting—unsuccessfully—to regain domain control or force its closure through legal and technical means. Post-transition conflicts intensified following mass shootings linked to 8chan users, such as the 2019 Christchurch and El Paso incidents, where Brennan demanded the site be shuttered to curb manifestos and planning threads, accusing Watkins of negligence. Watkins rebuffed these calls, asserting that user anonymity and board voluntarism precluded proactive censorship, and defended operations during 2019 U.S. congressional scrutiny. Brennan, in turn, alleged Watkins' congressional testimony was deceptive and implicated him in promoting QAnon content on the platform. The rift culminated in legal repercussions in the , where in February 2020, authorities issued an for Brennan on cyberlibel charges filed by Watkins, stemming from Brennan's online claims that Watkins was "senile" and unfit to manage the site. This dispute highlighted irreconcilable differences: Brennan's post-handover pivot toward versus Watkins' adherence to the original model, which prioritized user-driven board creation over centralized oversight.

Community Dynamics and Content Moderation

User Anonymity and Board Creation

8chan facilitated user anonymity through a that required no account registration or personal verification, enabling participants to submit threads and replies under the default identifier "Anonymous" without disclosing identities. This design mirrored earlier imageboards like , emphasizing untraceable contributions of text, images, and files, with optional local thread IDs for pseudonymous continuity if desired by posters. Founder Frederick Brennan intentionally prioritized this as a core principle, describing it as a "great equalizer" that allowed equal participation regardless of personal circumstances, including his own , thereby reducing and encouraging candid expression. In parallel, 8chan's architecture supported user-driven board creation, distinguishing it from more centralized platforms by permitting individuals to apply for and establish dedicated subforums on niche topics. Applicants typically contacted site administrators via email or application forms, proposing a board theme and pledging to act as volunteer moderators tasked with primary oversight, including the deletion of globally prohibited content such as child sexual abuse material or direct calls to immediate violence. This volunteer-based model incentivized , with board owners granted administrative tools to enforce rules while retaining over thematic content, theoretically distributing burdens and aligning with vision of decentralized free speech across an "infinite" array of potentially unlimited boards. Successful applications resulted in immediate board activation upon approval, often requiring only a demonstrated commitment to legal compliance rather than extensive , which facilitated rapid proliferation of specialized communities from onward.

Moderation Approach and Free Speech Commitments

8chan's moderation approach emphasized , with primary responsibility delegated to volunteer board owners who managed content on their individual boards through discretionary rules, bans, and deletions as they saw fit. Site-wide administration maintained a narrow prohibiting only content illegal under , such as material or direct threats of violence, without proactive scanning or broad content curation. This framework explicitly stated: "Do not post, request, or link to any content illegal in the of America and do not create boards with the sole purpose of posting or spreading such content." The platform's free speech commitments positioned it as an alternative to more restrictive imageboards like , prioritizing user and board to foster unmoderated discourse on topics ranging from niche hobbies to political extremism. Founder Frederick Brennan, who launched 8chan in , framed this as a principled stand against overreach by centralized moderators, arguing that self-governance by communities would suffice for viability absent illegal activity. Board creation required no approval beyond basic technical setup, enabling rapid proliferation of specialized forums with varying internal standards, though owners could enforce stricter norms if desired. Following Brennan's departure in 2016 and Jim Watkins' assumption of control, the core policy endured, with Watkins affirming in congressional testimony on September 5, 2019, that 8chan would not remove constitutionally protected speech, even if hateful or inflammatory, while committing to address illegal posts upon verified reports. relied on user reports and occasional administrative sweeps rather than algorithmic intervention, reflecting a that legal compliance, not subjective harm prevention, defined operational boundaries. This stance drew criticism for enabling unchecked but aligned with the site's foundational rejection of preemptive .

Emergent Subcultures and Discussions

The user-initiated board creation feature on 8chan facilitated the organic emergence of diverse subcultures, allowing anonymous users to establish dedicated spaces for niche topics including , gaming, interests, and experimentation, distinct from the more centralized structure of predecessor sites like . This decentralization resulted in over 1,000 active boards by 2018, each governed by volunteer moderators who enforced minimal rules focused on relevance rather than content ideology, fostering rapid evolution of community norms through ephemeral threads and collective . The /pol/ board, shorthand for "," exemplified a core emergent centered on unmoderated political , where users engaged in debates on , , and media critique, often employing irony and hyperbole to challenge mainstream narratives. Discussions here amplified sentiments, with threads frequently generating memes like —initially innocuous but repurposed as symbols of cultural rebellion—and the NPC () archetype, which satirized perceived conformity in left-leaning institutions. Academic analyses note that such meme propagation encoded ideological critiques, blending humor with veiled extremism, though proponents argued it represented authentic, uncensored dynamics absent from biased legacy media. Other subcultures included gaming-focused boards like /v/, where discourse intersected with broader cultural grievances, such as opposition to progressive influences in industry titles, leading to raids and meme campaigns echoing tactics. Fringe boards, such as those for or esoteric topics, attracted discussions on theories and alternative histories, with enabling speculative threads that occasionally overlapped with /pol/'s political fatalism. These communities thrived on adversarial interaction, including inter-board raids and doxxing defenses, which reinforced in-group solidarity but drew criticism from external observers for harboring unchecked vectors, despite evidence that much content constituted performative edginess rather than literal endorsement.

Associations with Key Movements

Gamergate and Anti-Censorship Activism

During the controversy, which emerged in August 2014 amid allegations of ethical lapses in and pushback against perceived ideological influences in the industry, 8chan emerged as a key venue for participants seeking unmoderated discussion spaces. Following 4chan's decision to delete Gamergate-related threads on its /v/ board in September 2014 due to concerns over doxxing and , users migrated to 8chan, where they promptly created the /gg/ board on September 15, 2014, allowing self-moderated conversations without centralized bans. This migration highlighted 8chan's design principle of user-initiated boards, enabling rapid establishment of topic-specific forums that bypassed restrictions imposed by larger platforms. 8chan's founder, Fredrick Brennan, positioned the site as an extension of anonymous imageboard traditions but with enhanced free speech protections, criticizing 4chan for increasing moderation that he viewed as creeping censorship. In a 2014 interview, Brennan emphasized that 8chan's model allowed any legal content via volunteer-moderated boards, contrasting with 4chan's top-down deletions, which Gamergate participants cited as evidence of broader platform biases against dissenting views on cultural and journalistic issues. Supporters of Gamergate, numbering in the tens of thousands across platforms by late 2014, used 8chan to coordinate efforts like archiving articles for transparency and critiquing media narratives, framing their activities as resistance to collusion and enforced progressive norms rather than targeted abuse. Critics, including mainstream outlets, attributed harassment campaigns to these forums, though empirical analyses of logs showed mixed participation, with 8chan's anonymity facilitating both substantive debates and inflammatory posts. This episode underscored 8chan's role in anti-censorship activism, as its minimal intervention policy—removing only content illegal under U.S. law, such as direct threats—attracted users disillusioned by on sites like and , which suspended Gamergate-associated accounts in October 2014. By November 2014, /gg/ had become a central node for ongoing discourse, with threads exceeding 100,000 posts, exemplifying how 8chan's structure empowered grassroots organization against perceived institutional gatekeeping in media and tech. The site's commitment to "extreme free speech," as Brennan described it, positioned it as a to growing content controls, though this approach later drew scrutiny for enabling unchecked escalation in user interactions.

QAnon Emergence and Conspiracy Discourse

The anonymous poster known as "Q" initiated the QAnon thread on 4chan's /pol/ board with five posts on October 28, 2017, claiming insider knowledge of a secret war against a cabal opposing President . These initial messages referenced Hillary Clinton's potential arrest and encouraged users to "research" connections to broader conspiracies involving elite corruption. By November 2017, discussions had proliferated, with users decoding Q's cryptic style—often phrased as questions or codes—into narratives of global child exploitation networks and political intrigue. Q's activity shifted primarily to 8chan in late 2017 and early 2018, where dedicated boards such as /cbts/ and later /qresearch/ were created or commandeered for exclusive drops and collective analysis. This transition provided a more stable environment for uninterrupted posting, as 8chan's decentralized structure allowed board volunteers to manage content without centralized , unlike 4chan's occasional thread purges. On /qresearch/, thousands of anonymous users—self-styled "bakers" and "anons"—threaded replies to Q drops, aggregating news clippings, timestamps, and cross-references to construct expansive timelines predicting events like "The Storm," a purported reckoning with arrests of high-profile figures. 8chan's role amplified QAnon's growth through its free-speech ethos, enabling unfiltered discourse that evolved from skepticism of official narratives to detailed, user-generated proofs-of-concept, such as decoding or photo forensics purportedly validating 's claims. Over 4,900 Q drops occurred across both platforms, with the bulk on 8chan, fueling daily threads that peaked in activity during amid real-world events like the Mueller investigation. This participatory model contrasted with top-down media, fostering a community-driven where empirical anomalies—like Epstein's network—were prioritized over institutional dismissals, though many forecasted outcomes, such as imminent Clinton indictments, failed to materialize. Critics in academia and mainstream outlets, often aligned with progressive viewpoints, labeled QAnon as a "far-right" without substantiating refutations of its core hypotheses, such as influence peddling, thereby highlighting selective scrutiny amid documented overreaches. On 8chan, the discourse integrated with existing /pol/ traditions of warfare and red-pilling, evolving into a meta-conspiracy encompassing interference and bioweapon theories by mid-2018. The platform's tolerance for fringe exploration thus catalyzed 's transition from niche chatter to a movement influencing offline rallies and political candidates.

Political Engagements (Trump Era)

8chan's /pol/ board emerged as a key venue for anonymous pro-Donald Trump activism during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, where users generated depicting Trump as an outsider challenging entrenched political and media establishments. These , often shared across platforms, formed part of a broader "meme war" effort by communities to bolster Trump's visibility and counter opponents. In late August 2016, 8chan users specifically targeted traffic to Trump's campaign website by posting provocative content, including memes laced with racial imagery, resulting in measurable referral spikes to donaldjtrump.com from the site. This tactic aimed to amplify Trump's message through controversy, aligning with user frustrations over perceived on larger platforms like . Post-election, 8chan hosted defenses of Trump against media scrutiny, exemplified by a March 2017 coordinated harassment campaign against investigative journalist after he released excerpts from Trump's 2005 tax documents; users doxxed Johnston's address and urged confrontations, framing it as retaliation against "." Site founder endorsed Trump in the 2016 election, viewing his candidacy as and potentially anti-war, though Brennan later distanced himself, citing the platform's unintended fostering of that overshadowed such alignments. Throughout Trump's presidency from January 2017 to January 2021, 8chan's minimal moderation enabled sustained user discussions endorsing policies like immigration restrictions and trade tariffs, often in opposition to institutional narratives; this drew participants seeking uncensored outlets amid growing on mainstream sites.

Controversies and External Responses

Allegations of Extremist Content and Illegal Material

8chan has been accused of hosting child sexual abuse material (CSAM), with reports dating back to at least 2014 when users on boards like /b/ shared such content despite site rules prohibiting illegal material in the United States. In August 2015, Google imposed a search engine block on the entire 8chan.co domain after detecting child abuse imagery, an unusual measure that prompted the site to relocate hosting. Although 8chan's stated policy forbade posting or linking to CSAM and required board volunteers to moderate violations, enforcement was inconsistent, leading to repeated complaints from watchdogs and contributing to ongoing deplatforming pressures by the late 2010s. Regarding extremist content, allegations centered on user-created boards such as /pol/, which featured discussions and imagery promoting , racial separatism, and framed in ethnonationalist terms, often without intervention from site administrators. These boards, operating under 8chan's decentralized moderation model where individual board owners set rules, allowed anonymous users to post manifestos and threads endorsing ideologies like the "great replacement" theory, with minimal removal unless reported as illegal. Anti-extremism organizations, including the , characterized 8chan as a persistent hub for such material, citing thousands of threads by 2019 that glorified historical figures associated with racial ideologies or called for societal upheaval, though these groups' expansive definitions of have drawn for conflating with incitement. Site founder later described the platform's evolution under subsequent ownership as enabling a "cesspool" of unmoderated hate, contrasting its original intent for niche hobbies. Critics, including mainstream media outlets, alleged that 8chan's commitment to minimal oversight—rooted in free speech principles—inherently amplified fringe views into echo chambers, with data from content analyses showing spikes in violent rhetoric correlating with global events like migration crises. However, defenders argued that user anonymity and self-moderation filtered most illegal escalations, and many allegations stemmed from biased monitoring by left-leaning advocacy groups prone to overgeneralizing right-wing discourse as extremist. By 2019, cumulative reports of both CSAM and ideological extremism prompted service providers like to terminate support, citing the site's failure to curb content that violated terms beyond U.S. legality. In 2019, 8chan served as a platform where perpetrators of several high-profile mass shootings posted manifestos outlining their ideological motivations and announcing their intentions shortly before carrying out the attacks, primarily on the site's /pol/ board frequented by anonymous users discussing and . These postings drew attention to 8chan's role in facilitating real-time dissemination of such content, though direct causal links between the site and the violence remain subjects of debate, with evidence pointing more to the platform amplifying pre-existing radicalization rather than originating it. On March 15, 2019, Brenton Tarrant, an Australian national, carried out shootings at two mosques in , , killing 51 people and injuring 40 others. Tarrant posted a 74-page titled "The Great Replacement" to 8chan approximately 20 minutes before initiating the attack, in which he detailed anti-immigrant and white nationalist grievances inspired by similar ideologies. The post included a link to a livestream of the event, and users on the board reportedly responded with encouragement during the attack. The occurred on April 27, 2019, when 19-year-old John T. Earnest entered the of Poway synagogue in , killing one woman and injuring three others during services. Earnest, who pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges, had posted a on 8chan moments before the attack, explicitly referencing Tarrant's Christchurch manifesto and expressing antisemitic views alongside admiration for prior attackers. The document outlined his self-described failures in prior attempts at violence and framed the shooting as retaliation against perceived Jewish influence. On August 3, 2019, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius opened fire at a in , targeting shoppers and killing 23 people while injuring 23 others. Crusius uploaded a to 8chan roughly 20 minutes prior, echoing "Great Replacement" theory concerns about immigration and advocating for territorial separation along ethnic lines. The posting, which included a reference to avoiding targeting Antifa, aligned with themes from prior 8chan manifestos, contributing to the site's subsequent .

Deplatforming Events and Hosting Disruptions

, a and DDoS protection provider, terminated its services to 8chan on August 5, 2019, effective midnight Pacific Time, citing the site's repeated hosting of manifestos from perpetrators of mass shootings, including the El Paso attack earlier that week where the shooter posted an anti-immigrant screed. The company's CEO, , described 8chan as a "lawless" platform that had demonstrated it could not moderate content responsibly, referencing prior incidents like the in March 2019 and the in April 2019. This decision followed public pressure and internal deliberations, with noting that while Cloudflare had previously resisted on free speech grounds, the pattern of violence-linked posts justified the action. Immediately after Cloudflare's announcement, 8chan's upstream host, Voxility, also cut ties, leaving the site unable to route traffic and effectively taking it offline by August 5, 2019. Efforts to migrate to alternative providers, such as firm BitMitigate, proved short-lived; BitMitigate's own upstream host, , terminated services to BitMitigate hours later amid similar concerns over facilitating access to 8chan. This chain reaction highlighted the interconnected dependencies in infrastructure, where providers faced reputational risks and potential legal scrutiny for supporting sites associated with . 8chan's domain registrar, , had previously transferred the site's domain to in 2019, but post-shutdown attempts to relaunch under the 8kun branding encountered further disruptions. In November 2019, shortly after 8kun went live, its domain services were terminated by the registrar for breaching terms related to illegal content facilitation. Additional hosting instability persisted into 2020 and 2021, including a temporary offline period in October 2020 when DDoS protection provider dropped 8kun following reports of its use in coordinating violent rhetoric, and another in January 2021 when a Russian shell company severed upstream connections amid links to the U.S. Capitol breach discussions. These events underscored ongoing challenges in securing reliable infrastructure, often resulting from provider decisions prioritizing liability avoidance over hosting commitments.

Rebranding and Post-2019 Trajectory

Shutdown and Reemergence as 8kun

On August 3, 2019, Patrick Crusius carried out a at a in , killing 23 people and injuring 23 others; shortly before the attack, he posted an anti-immigrant manifesto on 8chan's /pol/ board, echoing themes from prior incidents like the in March 2019 and the in April 2019, where perpetrators had similarly announced intentions via the site. In response, , the site's DDoS protection and content delivery provider, terminated services on August 5, 2019, with CEO citing 8chan's role in facilitating "the amplification of violence" through its tolerance of extremist content, marking a breaking point after repeated links to such events. This action severed 8chan's primary online infrastructure, rendering it inaccessible without immediate replacement. Subsequently, the site's domain registrar, (initially), and other upstream providers like withdrew support amid mounting pressure from advocacy groups and media scrutiny, effectively shutting down operations entirely by mid-August 2019. The shutdown reflected broader trends targeting platforms perceived as harboring illegal or violent material, though 8chan's model emphasized minimal moderation to preserve anonymous free speech, a stance defended by founder —who had relocated the site from the to avoid legal risks but later criticized its direction—yet ultimately overridden by commercial providers' risk assessments. No direct legal action forced the closure, but the cumulative association with manifestos from three mass shootings in prompted providers to enforce prohibiting content inciting violence, despite debates over whether such postings equated to causation or mere correlation. After approximately three months of downtime, the platform relaunched as 8kun on November 2, 2019, under new management led by Jim Watkins—previous owner of 8chan's infrastructure via N.T. Technology—and hosted on alternative servers, including vanwaTech for DDoS protection, with the rebranding intended to signal continuity while attempting to distance from past controversies. The site retained core features like user-created boards but introduced pledges against illegal content, though it quickly faced domain suspension by its registrar on November 11, 2019, for alleged breaches, leading to intermittent outages before stabilizing on .top and other domains. This reemergence preserved communities from boards like /pol/ and QAnon-related threads, underscoring the challenges of fully eradicating decentralized, ideology-driven online spaces amid provider-dependent hosting ecosystems.

Ongoing Operational Challenges

Since its reemergence as 8kun in November 2019, the site has faced persistent difficulties in securing stable internet infrastructure, with multiple providers terminating services amid pressure from activists and associations with controversial content. Shortly after relaunch, 8kun experienced repeated outages as hosting attempts were disrupted in a pattern described as "whack-a-mole" by observers, requiring rapid shifts between providers. In October 2020, DDoS protection vendor BitMitigate severed access to 8kun and related sites, citing violations of related to abusive content, though the site resumed operations later that day via a Russian firm, . These disruptions continued into 2021, when a Russian-owned shell company, Abelo Host, abruptly ended internet service protection for 8kun in , following scrutiny over the site's links to prior violence including the U.S. Capitol events. By July 2022, 8kun went offline again during U.S. congressional hearings on the January 6, 2021, Capitol breach, with owner Jim Watkins attributing the outage to external interference rather than technical failure, though independent analysis pointed to upstream provider actions. Such incidents have compelled reliance on "bulletproof" from niche or foreign entities, including VanwaTech operated by a Singapore-based coder, which supports deplatformed far-right and sites but offers limited reliability and scalability. Accessibility challenges compound operational instability, as major search engines like maintain blocks initiated in 2015 over suspected material, preventing easy discovery without direct IP access or alternative indexing. No major domain registrar terminations have occurred post-2019, but the site's dependence on ephemeral infrastructure exposes it to frequent downtime from DDoS attacks or voluntary provider exits, with uptime varying monthly and user traffic reportedly declining from peak levels. Legal pressures remain indirect, stemming from U.S. investigations into hosted content rather than direct shutdown orders, allowing survival through jurisdictional but perpetuating a cycle of reactive hosting migrations.

Current Status and Accessibility (as of 2025)

As of October 2025, 8kun operates as an active platform accessible via its primary clearnet domain, 8kun.top, hosting 327 public boards with real-time posting activity averaging 286 posts per hour across public boards. The site maintains a of deleting content that violates U.S. laws and banning associated users, while disclaiming responsibility for board-specific content created by independent operators. Total cumulative posts since its October 15, 2019 relaunch exceed 66 million, indicating sustained, albeit niche, user engagement. Accessibility remains straightforward for most internet users without restrictions, with the site confirmed operational and responsive on October 24-25, 2025, via standard web protocols. It employs distributed hosting across providers including SIA Veesp in , , and OVH in , , which supports resilience against targeted disruptions. Monthly organic traffic stands at approximately 250,000 visits as of September 2025, reflecting a stable but diminished audience compared to peak periods. However, visibility is hampered by delistings, such as Google's longstanding block initiated in 2015 over suspected illegal content, which persists without reversal. Prominent boards like /qresearch/ for QAnon-related discussions and /pol/ for politically oriented threads continue to function without apparent administrative interference beyond legal compliance. Users access the platform anonymously, with no mandatory registration, though some jurisdictions or ISPs may impose blocks due to associations with extremist material. No widespread outages or events have been reported in late 2025, allowing consistent availability for its core demographic.

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