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4chan has been unreachable since early Tuesday, with users reporting widespread issues and outage monitoring websites lighting up with user complaints. Speculation is spreading fast across rival forums and social platforms about what’s going on. The leading theory? A massive hack.
As background, 4chan is a controversial, anonymous message board that’s been online since 2003. It started out as a meme factory and the launchpad for the hacktivist group Anonymous. But over time, it’s also become known as a breeding ground for more extreme content, including far-right rhetoric.
Here’s what we know about the 4chan data breach so far.
When did the 4chan outage begin?
Reports of a widespread 4chan outage began surfacing in the early hours of Tuesday, with thousands of users logging issues on Downdetector, a website that tracks service disruptions. The site has remained largely inaccessible since, and in the absence of any official statement from 4chan’s administrators, speculation is running rampant online.
Among the more prominent—though unverified—rumours is the claim that the site has been hacked, potentially exposing emails linked to moderators. Some users suggest the breach may have been enabled by server software that hasn’t been updated since 2016.
One post on soyjack.party, a competing imageboard, alleges that a hacker maintained access to 4chan’s backend for over a year before leaking sensitive website code and internal staff information. The user further claimed that a 4chan administrator, in an attempt to contain the situation, pulled the site offline. As of Tuesday afternoon, access remained intermittent at best.
On Reddit, similar claims have emerged, including assertions that internal communications between 4chan staff have been compromised. Some threads even include screenshots of what appear to be moderator login credentials, chat transcripts, and fragments of leaked source code.
None of these claims have been independently verified. However, if a breach of this scale has occurred, it could have serious implications for the platform’s user base. Given 4chan’s notoriety as a controversial message board, any exposure of user or moderator identities could lead to significant risks—ranging from harassment and blackmail to fraud.
Who took down 4chan?
Currently, it’s not known whether the 4chan outage is the result of a cyber-attack—or a technical failure. As of yet, no threat actors (that can be verified) have come forward to take responsibility for the incident.
We will update this article as we know more.
