4chan founder ‘Moot’ quits controversial site after 12 years
Christopher Poole has run the site since he was 15, but is ‘retiring’ and handing on responsibilities to a new team
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
The founder of controversial website 4chan is to step down from the site and has handed responsibility for it to a new team.
The site, best known for malicious and offensive jokes as well as its role in the ‘Fappening’, was set up by American Christopher Poole in 2003, when he was 15. He has managed it, largely alone, ever since.
As the site has grown in popularity, Poole has begun to feel that the site should be passed on to a team of volunteers, he said.
In a post announcing his retirement, he wrote: “Team 4chan is also at its largest, and while I've still been calling the shots, I've delegated many of my responsibilities to a handful of trusted volunteers, most of whom have served the site for years.”
4chan has strong finances and recent server and site upgrades have left it stronger than ever, he said.
During the almost 12 years that the site has existed, it received 42 billion pageviews from a total of 1 billion visitors.
Poole will host a livestreamed question and answer session on Friday, where he said he will “hold court with the community for one last time”.
He said that he hopes to return to the site in the future, potentially as “Admin Emeritus” or an anonymous user, but that he would first take time to “decompress and reflect”.
Poole initially posted pseudonymously under the ‘moot’ username, by which he is still often known. He has recently been involved in other internet ventures, including the establishment of picture-sharing site Canvas in 2011 which went out of business last year.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments