4Chan down UPDATES: Website inaccessible for thousands after ‘hacking’ reports

Reports surge again

More people are continuing to report 4Chan’s outage, according to Downdetector.

The problems have persisted for over a day.

Error message

Users trying to use the 4Chan website are reporting seeing an error message.

The banner says “content unavailable.”

Dozens still reporting outage

More than 115 people are still reporting problems with 4Chan, according to Downdetector.

The majority of issues are to do with the website, while some are having trouble with server connection and posting.

4chan controversies

4chan has been linked to several real-world violent incidents.

Brenton Tarrant – the shooter who killed 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand in 2019 – had been a frequent member of the forum.

Tarrant posted a manifesto titled The Great Replacement and a link to a livestream of the attack on 8chan, which splintered from 4chan but shares a similar culture.

Payton Gendron killed ten Black people at a Buffalo, New York, grocery shop in 2022.

Gendron was heavily active on 4chan and cited the forum in his 180-page manifesto.

4chan is also the birthplace of QAnon, a group of far-right conspiracy theorists that support President Donald Trump.

Elon Musk linked to 4Chan racist posts?

Rumours started swirling online that Elon Musk could be behind a shadowy 4Chan user called the Antichrist.

Wild claims on Reddit state that the mysterious account – which has been active for years – hinted at the billionaire with cryptic tech babble and far-right rants.

One post even read: “You use my tech every day”, adding fuel to the speculations.

Some users online believe it could be a twisted joke designed for attention.

But others believe that the account could belong to someone high-profile.

Last post on 4chan before the outage

Users have shared the last post that was seen on 4chan before the website went down.

‘We might see the end of 4chan’

Wired has reported that the ramifications of the hack could be significant if the breach is confirmed.

According to Emiliano De Cristofaro, a professor of computer science and engineering at UC Riverside who has studied the effects of 4chan on the internet, the platform might never fully recover.

He told Wired: “It seems true that 4chan hasn’t been properly maintained and patched for years, which might indicate that a hack would have definitely been a possibility.

“There might be some ‘high profile’ users exposed as moderators—traditionally, 4chan users hate them, so they might be targeted.

“It might be hard or at least painfully slow and costly for 4chan to recover from this, so we might really see the end of 4chan as we know it.”

The site’s biggest controversy

4Chan users infamously leaked intimate nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence, pictured below, and other celebs.

What is 4Chan?

4Chan is an anonymous online forum.

The controversial website is known for being associated with harmful content and radicalization.

The site was launched by Christopher Poole in 2003.

Most reported problem

Here is the latest report from Downdetector in the US, with the majority of users experiencing issues with the website (74%).

Latest report

Over 120 users are still experiencing issues with the 4chan outage.

Revenge plot

Alleged 4chan hackers might have been motivated by revenge.

According to some online posts, the hackers were banned from 4chan forum for “bullying” and had their accounts removed.

This prompted them to take revenge on the platform by hacking their system.

Fans are ‘mourning’ 4chan

Some fans took to X, former Twitter, to express their disappointment if the controversial website disappears for good.

Users speculated that the forum might not survive the alleged hack attack and will be deleted.

‘Old code – time to update’

4Chan users are calling for the code to be updated to prevent any further hacks.

Hacker was in for ‘over a year’

Speculations surrounding the hacking rumours continue online.

According to one post, a hacker had been in 4chan’s system “for over a year”.

Screenshots that have been shared on Soyjak.party seem to depict someone accessing 4chan’s internal systems.

These consist of statistics about users on different parts of 4chan, a page displaying deleted posts and the IP addresses from which they were created, pictures of someone with administrator access to a 4chan backend database, and other internal documentation.

Some reports also claim that hackers stole 4chan’s source code.

Data leak

4Chan allows users to post anonymously but the website collects their IP address and other information.

The reported leak could expose data that was intended to stay private, said Ian Gray, director of analysis and research at the security firm Flashpoint to Wired.

“4chan is an anonymous message board that enables often offensive and hateful content. The content leaked, if genuine, would remove some of the anonymity from 4chan administrators, moderators, and janitors.

“The image board’s billing as an ‘anonymous’ platform may have given users a false sense of security.

“Some users may have registered their email addresses years ago when they were less aware or concerned about their operational security.”

4Chan admins ‘exposed’

4Chan admins and moderators have reportedly been exposed by Soyjak.party.

The rival forum posted screenshots with showing 4chan’s backend as well as a list of email addresses of admins and moderators.

Following this post, Soyjak users began posting alleged images and personal information of the leaked email address owners.

Anonymous ‘janitor’ speaks out

The allegedly leaked data included a list of the site moderators and “janitors” – users who can delete posts and threads.

One 4chan janitor spoke to TechCrunch about the leaked information.

They said: “I’m somewhat taken back. 4chan’s moderation team has had leaks in the past, but this is obviously an issue of greater magnitude.

“I’m not happy about the situation. I’m sure most others aren’t, either. But many of us have been doing this for a long time.

“Doxxing is a longstanding pastime on 4chan, and the possibility that we could be exposed has always been there.”

“I’ve been most concerned with the leaked information, for obvious reasons.

“I’d wager that the fact that 4chan was effectively taken over by a hacker(s) is probably ‘worse’ than screenshots, at least from the perspective of the site’s continued operation.”

Rival forum takes credit

An anonymous user of Soyjak Party, which is another website similar to 4Chan, allegedly hacked the site.

The hack appeared to give the user source codes and user logins, according to Gizmodo.

Outage spikes again

Reports of 4Chan going down have spiked again, according to Downdetector.

At around 4 pm, reports surged up to about 300 again after dropping below 250 an hour earlier.

Problems with website

Over 250 4Chan users are still having issues with the website as of 2:30 pm, according to Downdetector.

While the majority of users have issues with websites, some are reporting problems with server connection.

Problems drop in the UK

While issues persist for hundreds in the US, the outage has mostly dropped off in the UK.

Only dozens of 4Chan users were having problems with the site as of Tuesday afternoon.

Users slam platform

4Chan users are blasting the website for its outage.

“Realistically, how does 4chan recover from this and how do they make it up to us for messing up this badly?” one wrote on Downdetector.

“Why does the fixing take that long?” another asked.

Outage continues

Over 200 users are still reporting issues with 4Chan as of 12:30 pm, according to Downdetector.

The outage has persisted for over two hours.

Welcome to the Sun’s 4Chan down blog

Thanks for following us; here’s what we know so far:

• The latest report shows problems started at about 4am (ET).
• At its peak, more than 1,200 users were reporting issues.
• According to some posts, the hacker – or hackers – leaked all the lead admin and janitor emails … and chat logs.
• One X user claims zero work has been done on the site since founder Christopher Poole – aka “Moot” – left in 2015 to join Google as an adviser on its new social products.
• 4Chan users infamously leaked intimate nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence and other celebs.
• We’ll keep you posted here with all the latest updates – and best user reaction.