Leak with lots of internal information: 4chan goes offline after hacker attack
Unknown persons claim to have had extensive access to 4chan and have made alleged evidence public. The site is now largely offline.
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The infamous online forum 4chan may have been compromised for months: After internals went online on a competing site, 4chan went offline on Tuesday. This was reported by TechCrunch, among others, and refers to a confirmation from a person whose email address was part of the leak. In the meantime, parts of 4chan can be viewed from time to time after immense loading times. So it doesn't look like it will remain permanently offline.
Meanwhile, US extremism expert Jared Holt has countered rumors on Bluesky that the leak also contains email addresses of US universities and US government officials. In terms of content, the revelations are "really boring", he says.
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The anonymous hacker allegedly had complete access to 4chan for months. The screenshots, which were shared on a competitor forum, show a view of 4chan as seen by the moderators and "janitors". According to TechCrunch, the latter can delete posts and discussions, but have fewer rights than moderators. The leak could therefore reveal the names of people who keep the notorious site alive. One of these janitors has responded to the US portal and confirmed that the content distributed looks genuine. However, the person is not overly concerned. It was always expected that such data would be made public.
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4chan has been notorious for its controversial content for years. Posts are made anonymously by default, copyrights are ignored and posts with right-wing extremist or anti-Semitic content are tolerated. Time and again, problematic trends on the internet have originated there, such as the influential conspiracy narrative surrounding "QAnon". However, this also applies to memes, which do not always have to be political. Various media have not received a statement from those responsible themselves from contact addresses on 4chan. Holt assumes that the site will not be able to go online for a while due to the increased interest, but will be back by the end of the week. The site would also have to be extensively patched by then, he writes.
(mho)
