There is a singular place from which most of Internet culture comes and you’ve probably never heard of it. 4chan.net is the deep dark and often disgusting hole that breeds both genius and depravity. You can thank 4chan for classics like LOLcats Rickrolling and most nonsensical but hilarious things you’ve discovered on the Internet. But before you grab a computer and check it out let me warn you: Don’t. The following examples are diamonds in the rough and it is very rough. The jokes and ideas that evolve from 4chan and take over the Internet are one-in-a-million and the other million can be sadistic usually pornographic and deadly to the faint of heart.
But every once in awhile when the stars align the temperature is perfect and the wind changes 4chan produces its own special brand of bizarre genius. Two years ago users of 4chan collectively called Anonymous decided to bring down the Church of Scientology. By some sort of strange representation of pure democracy a movement was formed called Project Chanology. Project Chanology was launched with an anonymous (duh) video addressed to Scientology warning Scientologists that “knowledge is free.” The video is referring to the process by which Scientologists can advance to higher levels within the religion which requires “auditing a process that can cost up to $15,000 per session. It can take several sessions to advance a level. Based on this and other inconsistencies, Anonymous determined that Scientology was not in fact a valid religion, that it should not hold tax-exempt religious status, and that it was a danger to society. This may seem like a joke from some Internet nerds you’ve never heard of, but keep in mind that 4chan receives about 10 million unique visitors a month. The most popular news site in the world, CNN.com, receives 11 million.
The subsequent campaign against Scientology featured various virtual and real-world attacks. 4chan launched a denial-of-service, in which a group can virtually overload a website or server, disabling it for a period of time. Anonymous laid low scientology.org and 10 other popular scientology sites in one fell swoop. The group organized protests all over the world where members of Anonymous, sporting the Guy Fawkes mask popularized by V for Vendetta closed down multiple Churches of Scientology with flash mobs of protesters. Finally, the Internet pranksters managed to obtain and publish a series of secret documents detailing every step of the process, revealing parts of the Scientology mythos that are reserved for only the highest level of Scientologists (a status that requires over $350,000 in fees).
It is surprising that such a cause was born out of a forum whose users call themselves /b/tards. I’ve only managed to visit the site a couple of times, and it’s usually with a hand half-covering my face, because the content can be vomit-inducing. Seriously, don’t visit the site. If you want to learn more about it, look them up on Wikipedia, or, if you’d like to delve a little deeper, check out their entries on Encyclopedia Dramatica, but don’t go to the website, and if you do, don’t tell me about it. But surprisingly enough, out of this compost, the geniuses of the Internet create culture.
Most of the time 4chan is engaged is more innocent games of pop culture manipulation. They were responsible for hacking Time’s 100 Most Influential List in 2009, with humorous results. The founder of 4chan, known as moot was number one in the poll, beating out the next entrant by 11 million. The first letters of the first 22 people listed spelled, marblecake also the game.” Marblecake is a reference to another message board a prank and a juvenile sex joke. The game refers to the game which you’ve just lost.
After that stunt the media started paying attention. The Guardian summed most of the coverage up when they called 4chan “a message-board whose lunatic juvenile community is at once brilliant ridiculous and alarming.” But still the larger non-geek public community isn’t really paying attention. While you may have a better understanding of the etymology of the online culture you participate in you’re probably thinking that knowing all of this doesn’t really affect you or your perception of the Internet. That’s good because that’s probably what Anonymous wants you to think.