4chan was created by Christopher “moot” Poole in 2003. Poole used the open source code of a similar Japanese site called 2chan, and translated the Japanese text to English using AltaVista’s Babel Fish online translator. 4chan was originally made as the unofficial English counterpart to 2chan. It’s first boards, which is what the subforums on 4chan are called, were created to post pictures and discuss anime. But, as an associated press on New York Post puts it, “the site grew well beyond anime and manga” (2014). The reason for that is because on 4chan the boards are used to talk about different things with complete anonymity. Which some people take advantage of to say absolutely anything and everything they want to say, be it debating what coffee is best, or asking what chainsaw brand cuts through turkey bones best. “Clicking on the… /b/ [board] will take you to a place very far from the polished vacation photos on Instagram and the adorable baby snapshots on Facebook” (Associated press 2014), and they are right for one big reason. The /b/ board allows one to do, and say, practically anything on it as long as it does not break the law, which is why the /b/ board is the most used board on 4chan. Since people use the /b/ board to discuss bizarre and inappropriate topics, it is the main reason lots of people hate 4chan and want it taken down. So in summary, what is 4chan? Caitlin Dewey describes it perfectly “4chan is a series of wholly anonymous, anything-goes forums” (2014).