4chan made world news by playing an international game of capture the flag with Shia LeBeouf’s “He Will Not Divide Us” flag intended to protest Donald Trump. Before 4chan made Shia LeBeouf’s stunt into a worldwide reality show, Reddit and 4chan were altering the way we communicate, advertise and interact. Here are six ways Reddit and 4chan changed the world.
Crowdsourced Charity
Reddit has millions of very involved supporters, and when a cause goes viral on the site, it can have worldwide repercussions. A wall around the Faraja Children’s Home in Kenya was built after a Reddit user posted a photo of a man attacked by intruders breaking into the orphanage. A second invasion attempt was discussed online, generating so much international attention that local police started patrolling the roads to the orphanage.
Reddit’s “Good without God” allows atheists to raise money for various charities, having more impact than if a few donated on their own. Reddit’s Secret Santa involves tens of thousands every year.
Internet Justice Both Right and Wrong
Reddit and 4Chan introduced the concept of internet justice to the broader public and organized campaigns on these sites which made it possible for the average visitor to get involved in what seems like taking down the mighty. Then there are the absurd cases like Reddit attacking a charity fundraiser by Maya Gilsey and a sexual assault victim using the handle “theoculus”.
However, not all social justice warrior “mob justice” turns into evil trolling (like sending death threats to an 11-year-old) or unfairly disproportionate punishment (getting creators of programming languages fired for private beliefs or sexual practices). Martin Shkreli made the news when he raised the price of a life-saving drug from $13.50 a pill to $750. Online outrage and humiliation caused his company to lower the price. A similar campaign after the price of Epipens skyrocketed led not only to the prices coming back down, but generic versions of the Epipen getting approved by the FDA. Then there are the more mundane cases of tracking down and stopping people posting videos of animal abuse, enabled by 4Chan.
Anonymous may have begun as a centralized prank squad, but it morphed into more on 4Chan in 2003. The community has targeted and leaked information about the Church of Scientology, child molesters, ISIS and other targets.
Sometimes, internet justice efforts end up backfiring. While 4Chan seeking to shame the Steubenville rapists and get justice for them was worthwhile, the same collective mob searching for any information to use against the assailants ended up leaking the victim’s name. Now, any Google search of her name ends up linking her to the worst time of her life; potentially making it impossible for her to enter a relationship or apply for a job without being associated with the event. Then there’s the identification of the wrong person as the Boston Marathon bomber. The bombers were finally identified as the Tsarnaev brothers.
Bronies and Furries
Reddit and 4Chan allow people with very niche interests to find each other and create a community. Adult men who are fans of “My Little Pony,” or Bronies, are one.
Throwback Thursday shows up on sites from Facebook to Myspace, and it can be traced to Reddit. Each day of the week had a different theme, starting with LOLcats on Saturday. Caturday was a response to Furry Friday. However, yes, we can blame sites like Reddit and 4Chan for enabling furries to become a “community”.
Redefining Culture
4Chan and Reddit allow people to connect with one another; over the most niche of topics. There are no rules; however, this does produce some disturbing subreddits. This freedom of speech may be great for some, altering the world and people’s perceptions; yet, some content may not be suitable for younger audiences unless there is adult supervision.
One of the most notable memes is Pepe the Frog, a longstanding meme which became associated with bigoted behavior and the followers and supporters of Trump. This readily adopted symbol happened via 4Chan, and because it had such an impact on the world, the creator of Pepe the Frog recently killed him off in the hopes of ending its ties to racism.
Destroying Internet Polls
Sites like Reddit and 4Chan have killed most online polls as well as the respect for them. 4Chan took control of a vote for a new Mountain Dew name, with “Hitler Did Nothing Wrong” and “Diabeetus” ranking near the top. The British research vessel of Sir David Attenborough would have been named Boaty McBoatface due to popular feedback if the British hadn’t decided to reject the poll results and go with a more dignified title. Taylor Swift’s poll on where to perform was overwhelmed due to a 4Chan prank that won after Reddit picked up on it. The outcome was a school for the deaf. She had the dignity to decline to perform, but donate money to the school instead.
Let Publicly Paid Data Be Public
Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz committed suicide in 2013 when the Obama administration threatened to prosecute him for connecting to the MIT network and downloading academic journal articles to distribute to the public. He had done something similar in 2008, downloading nearly three million federal court records to make them available to the public instead of forcing people to access them through the expensive PACER service.
How brilliant was Aaron Swartz? He helped develop RSS at age 14. Before his suicide, he’d been active in online activism such as fighting the SOPA act and supporting Chelsea Manning, a contributor to WikiLeaks. Reddit continued to share data from Wikileaks even after sites like Facebook censored it.
Conclusion
Reddit, in particular, has enabled crowdsourced charity on a massive scale. Reddit and 4Chan have allowed many to gather to enact mob justice, though it sometimes targets the wrong victim and is escalating to insane proportion.
However, we can thank Reddit and 4Chan for the rise of Bronies and Pepe the Frog. Both sites have led to the destruction of internet polls, and Reddit is helping information reach the public that other social media sites are censoring.
