4chan Sold To The Japanese Man Who Originally Inspired It

Image based bulletin board 4chan has been sold to Japanese messaging board 2Channel’s founder, by 4chan’s Christopher Poole. He did not say how much he had sold it for. “There is nobody more qualified than Hiroyuki to lead 4chan, and I can’t think of a person better suited for the task”, Poole wrote.

Poole stated that Nishimura, “is one of few individuals with a deep understanding of what it means to provide a digital home for tens of millions of people for more than a decade”. His creation of 2channel in 1999 sparked an era of anonymous-centric web culture in Japan that led to the creation of Futaba Channel, the site that inspired 4chan.

It should be no surprise that “imageboard” websites like 4chan, 8chan, and 2channel-which all host anonymous, provocative content from users around the world, often without charging any fees-have their share of fuzzy-sounding, behind-closed-door stories. Because of the site’s hands-off approach to moderation – especially on its /b/ random board – it has also been highly controversial at times, particularly for its raids on other sites.

You can read the rest of the Times’ interview with Poole here. “I can treat it more like a business by bringing people on, giving them responsibility and training them”. If Reddit is the “the front page of the internet” as it self-proclaims, then 4chan is the back page where most of the creativity comes from, whether it’s stunningly clever or appallingly reprehensible.

Nishimura’s revenue came from attracting advertisers, something that 4Chan has always struggled with, likely due to the wildly offensive nature of numerous discussions that take place on the site. Anonymous board owners from Poole to Fredrick Brennan (the owner of 8chan, where the online harassment movement GamerGate gained strength) have claimed that their sites are bastions for free speech on an increasingly regulated internet. He said that the site would be kept up and running by part-time assistants.