4chan

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4chan is an anonymous imageboard website founded in 2003 by Christopher "moot" Poole, divided into several "boards" for discussion of different topics. It is known for its far-right content; its users are almost exclusively male and frequently use racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic slurs. Multiple far-right movements have originated on 4chan, including QAnon and the Boogaloo boys.

Origins and early development

4chan was launched on October 1, 2003, by Christopher "moot" Poole, a 15-year-old student from New York City. Poole, who posted under the handle "moot" (always lowercase), had been an active member of the Something Awful forums, specifically the "Anime Death Tentacle Rape Whorehouse" (ADTRW) subforum, where early discussions about creating an English-language imageboard took place.

The site was built by directly adapting the source code and board structure of the Japanese imageboard Futaba Channel (2chan), which Poole translated into English with the help of a small group of early collaborators from the ADTRW and world2ch communities, including users known as Shii, thatdog, and hova. 4chan initially consisted of just two boards: /a/ (Anime) and /b/ (Random).

Notable boards

/pol/ board

The "Politically Incorrect" board, /pol/, has been the primary engine of far‑right radicalization on 4chan since its creation in October 2011. A 2025 machine‑learning study of half a million posts found that 11.2% contained hate speech: 35.9% racist, 23.3% religious hate (overwhelmingly anti‑Jewish and anti‑Muslim), 16.5% anti‑LGBTQ, and 12% sexist. Nearly all of the most toxic discussions involved racism or sexual orientation. Academic researchers have described /pol/ as a site of "fascist fantasies" and documented the "chanification" of white supremacist extremism as its discursive style spread across the far‑right ecosystem.

/pol/ gave birth to both Pizzagate (2016) and QAnon (2017).

Jeffrey Epstein connection

In January 2026, millions of pages from the Jeffrey Epstein files were released by the U.S. Department of Justice. Among the documents were emails showing that Epstein met with 4chan founder Christopher “moot” Poole in October 2011, the same month 4chan launched its “Politically Incorrect” board /pol/.

The introduction was arranged by Boris Nikolic, an adviser to Bill Gates, who described Poole as a “cool guy” and linked to his Wikipedia page. After the meeting, Epstein wrote “i liked mmot slot. i drove him home, he is very bright." Presumably meaning to write "I like moot a lot". Four days later, Nikolic emailed Epstein about 4chan’s potential for political manipulation, writing: “This article describes why I find moot interesting. The potential for manipulation is huge.”

/pol/'s creation coincided almost simultaneously with the Epstein–Poole meeting, and the board rapidly became a cesspool of white supremacist, neo-Nazi and QAnon content. The release of the emails gave rise to a widespread conspiracy theory that Epstein himself had created /pol/—or at least encouraged its launch—as a vehicle for far‑right propaganda and mass manipulation. Poole has denied any connection, insisting that the board was added before his chance encounter with Epstein and that their single lunch meeting was “unmemorable,” a claim many implicated in the Epstein files have made to protect their reputations. Moreover, the documents expose how figures of the bourgeoisie recognize and engineer the creation of platforms for steering political discourse toward the far right.

/b/ board

/b/ (Random), the first board on 4chan, operates with minimal rules and has long served as an incubator for massive harassment campaigns. It was the birthplace of the hacktivist collective Anonymous (2008) and the misogynistic Gamergate campaign. Users on /b/ regularly orchestrate doxing, swatting, and coordinated “raids” against targets, cementing its reputation as one of the most toxic spaces on the internet.

/r9k/ board and the modern incel movement

4chan's /r9k/ (ROBOT9001) board, created in 2008, became the cradle of the modern incel (involuntary celibate) subculture. The formerly niche, gender‑neutral term was hijacked by /r9k/ users who built a shared mythology of "Chads" (dominant men), "Stacys" (women who prefer them), and "betas" (subordinate men). Following Elliot Rodger's 2014 mass shooting, /r9k/ glorified him through the "Beta Uprising" meme, which later directly inspired the 2018 Toronto van attack by Alek Minassian, who killed ten people and stated he was radicalised on 4chan.

Links to real-world violence

Far-right mass shootings

4chan has been directly implicated in multiple mass killings. Payton Gendron, who murdered ten Black people in Buffalo in 2022, wrote in his manifesto that his radicalization began on 4chan, stating “I only really turned racist when 4chan started giving me facts.” The 2019 Christchurch shooter also cited 4chan and 8chan as influences. In April 2022, Raymond Spencer livestreamed his shooting of four people in Washington, D.C. directly onto 4chan.