C is for... Cutting for Bieber.

Hadn’t really scheduled this post, but since it’s current…

I don’t know how many of you noticed the #Cut4Beiber or #cuttingforbeiber trend on Twitter on Monday? It seemed that following the release of photos suggesting that Justin Bieber was smoking marijuana at a party…


…the hashtag #cuttingforbieber started showing up all over Twitter suggesting a protest against the star's alleged drug use by way of self-injury.


Initially, it appeared as if teens were cutting themselves as a way to voice their disapproval of Bieber's stoner habit, but later the the hashtag's origins were traced to 4Chan and suggested the posts, and the photos (yes, there were photos) were all a hoax.


All kicked off though anyway… The hashtag began trending nationally within just a few hours, and the response was highly dramatic. Some tweeters who thought the trend was real made jokes about people who cut (hilarious?), while others deemed the act of fans cutting to protest Bieber's supposed actions disturbing (more normal).

Insensitivity aside, it’s not like this is 4Chan’s first absurd stunt, is it?

4Chan has messed with Bieber fans in the past. In October, users put out information suggesting the pop star had cancer so that fans would shave their heads in support. Which they did:


The hashtag #baldforbieber took off on Twitter after 4Chan sent out a Tweet from the verified Twitter account of Entertainment Weekly. Clever folks.

They also put “Justin Bieber Syphilis” on the Google’s Hot Trends list, redirected his YouTube videos to pornography, lead people to believe he had died in a car crash, and rigged a poll regarding his next tour destination to put North Korea in the number one spot.

But Bieber aside, let’s take a look at 4Chan in more detail…


4chan was started in 2003 by Christopher Poole — you may know him by his alias: ‘moot’ (he insists on the lower case ‘m’) — as an English language version of a Japanese imageboard. It's basically a forum where you can post images. It has many boards, most of which are more commonly known by their destinations than their names. Anime & Manga is /a/ and Otaku Culture is /jp/.

4Chan requires no registration and can be used completely anonymously.

So, most boards are cool; most boards... except board /b/

The site has become notorious for the random imageboard known as /b/, a place where users exchange foul language, violent images and sexual content freely, under the cover of anonymity. This is the board that was responsible for the Bieber pranks.

They don't just hate Bieber though... /b/ has been at the centre of some of the biggest controversies of the last decade.

Ever get your MySpace page hacked into? Probably 4Chan.

Surf YouTube and suddenly find yourself watching an old Rick Astley music video? You were "rickrolled" by 4chan.

Enjoy gandering Sarah Palin's personal e-mail? Yeah, 4chan.

Hear someone shout out the ending of the latest Harry Potter book while you're in line at Barnes and Noble? 4chan.

In a nutshell, /b/ is a place for people who lack a social conscience. Because of /b/ 4Chan has become a surreptitious cultural powerhouse.

I mean, /b/ has created some good stuff, i.e. the "lolcats"! Know those photos of cats accompanied by captions written in 4chan dialect, phonetically-spelled words using terrible grammar? Think: a hungry-looking feline with the words "I Can Haz Cheezburger?".

But niceties aside, the darker side is trolling, suicide threats and child pornography. Uses write the word "moar" which is a challenge to other users to post further loathsome material throughout the day and long into the night. MOAR!

Users refer to themselves as /b/tards. Lolz.

So, what have they done?

They've replaced people's MySpace profile photos with pornographic images. /b/tards have even gathered together to drive past bookstores with megaphones, shouting the ending of new Harry Potter books (personally, I think this is the worst)!

This was bad though… they invaded the hip-hop website SOHH.com in June 2008, and replaced much of the site's content with racist photos and slurs after a messageboard battle got out of hand. “Some Ni**** ft Some Nappy Headed Ho” and “Ni****and pals” were just two of the video titles. The battle started after members of SOHH’s Just Buggin’ Out community taunted 4chan users. The discussion quickly escalated and resulted /b/tards taking down SOHH for about a half hour and plastering swastikas around its homepage.

They like swastikas actually…

On July 12, 2008, /b/tards made the symbol of the Nazi regime hit the top of Google’s Hot Trends lists after simple post on 4chan told users to search for 卐 - a shortcode built into most operating systems. 4chan users played along, and a controversial symbol shot to the top of Google’s trending list and forced the company to issue a statement apologizing to anyone who may have been offended.


"moot" has made rules though, and if /b/tards stick to them, he makes sure they don't get in trouble with the outside world.

The rules are few and simple: Invasions of other sites are not tolerated, the SOHH incident notwithstanding, child pornography and illegal material are prohibited, and no one under 18 is allowed.

Users tend to push the boundaries as far as they can without breaking the site's rules — including a vague "rule" known on /b/ eloquently coined, "Don't mess with football."

That rule was made famous in 2005 when 23-year-old Jake Brahm posted bomb threats to major football stadiums across the country during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on 4chan.““[T]he death toll will approach 100,000 from the initial blasts and countless other fatalities will later occur as result from radioactive fallout,” Brahm wrote
What resulted was a media storm — and what may have began as a practical joke turned into Homeland Security's arrest of Brahm. He was sentenced in June to six months of prison and $26,750 in restitution.

"If you want to post illegal things to 4chan, I would highly discourage it, unless you want to end up in federal prison," moot said at a Web conference.

Another controversy to hit 4chan was the "invasion" of the teen-centric online social site Habbo Hotel. At this online "hotel," users create avatars that walk into various virtual rooms and chat with other users.

In 2006, /b/tards swarmed the site, created avatars of men with Afros and Armani suits and blocked the hotel's swimming pool and shut it down, due to "AIDS in the water." That’s when moot added "no invasions" to the rules.

Also, in November 2010 a /b/tard plead guilty to threatening to shoot up a college… to avoid being charged with possession of child porn. I mean, if you’d been accused of distributing 25 images of child pornography and threatening to massacre a college, which one would you take the hit for? For 19-year-old Ali Saad, the choice was pretty simple. Saad took a plea deal in February for threatening on 4chan to shoot up a Michigan community college with an AK-47 he got at a gun show.

The list goes on…

In May 2012, a white supremacist hacker named Klanklannon hacked a black 17 year old who had been murdered as a result of racial hatred, and posted screengrabs of emails and Facebook messages to 4chan’s politics board to show that the guy “somehow deserved to be killed”. Err… right.

The incidents are endless… a Washington high school was shut down last September after a /b/tard promised to take his fathers submachine gun to school and “open fire on the people in the commons until I am taken down by our schools police officer, or until I run out of mags”.

I mean, the list is so horrid that I think I need to bring this post back to the ‘lolcats’….

But why cats?

"At the end of the day, /b/tards are still human," says moot. "Cute cat pictures appeal to most people." Awww!

And, apparently in an environment where anything goes, the only thing that really seems rile a /b/tard is the abuse of a cat…

In February 2009, a user documented abuse to his pet cat, Dusty, as a friend rolled tape. The video surfaced on YouTube and was viewed over 30,000 times.

In a rare 4chan moment, /b/tards created an alliance to do good and tracked down the cat abuser, Kenny Glenn, and alerted police!



Whilst we’re on good 4Chan news, remember Anonymous who I mentioned in my last post? Well yes, they originated on 4Chan, and they took on Scientology!

It all began in January of 2008 after the Church of Scientology tried and failed to purge the Web of a leaked Tom Cruise promotional Scientology video. Anonymous members, often wearing masks depicting the main character from "V for Vendetta," protested across the country, claiming the religion endorses Internet censorship. Which is really the least of my worries about Scientology, but I covered that in a previous post...

Anyway, it’s impossible to predict what the /b/tards may do next. I mean, as moot says, if he had an idea for the next idea, he certainly wouldn't tell the media.

"4chan, both the site and its memes, has touched the lives of tens of millions of people from around the world, in one way or another, for better or worse,' he says. "I'd say that's culturally powerful."

Being culturally powerful is great, but 4Chan again, not dissimilarly to Hunter Moore’s efforts, has created an environment where people with disturbing thoughts can collaborate and have a massively negative impact on other’s lives.

You can’t deny the intelligence of the /b/tards, but one can’t help but wonder about their social interaction issues. It actually seems to be indicative of Asperger's in my opinion, but is probably more likely to be herd mentality, hidden behind their anonymous alias.

In any case, Bieber’s still alive, does not have cancer, is no longer linking to porn and apparently he's just hanging around at parties smoking doobs; So, no need to cut yourself or shave your head,'kay?

...Anyone had any experiences with the /b/ board?

L.