4chan founder Chris Poole has joined Google

9 months ago

The man behind one of the world’s most infamous websites, 4chan, has announced he has joined Google.

Chris Poole created the website from his New York bedroom in 2003, when aged just 15. He’s become known as the “Zuckerberg of online underground”.

Based on the Japanese imageboard sites such as 2chan, from which it draws its name, 4chan quickly became a place for discussing manga and anime.

Since then, though, it has also become the birthplace of some of the internet’s most popular memes and pranks. Rickrolling and lolcats both stemmed from here.

But it has also been the source of controversy, with continued reports the site has links to internet activism, most notably the hackivistm group Anonymous.

On a far darker note the site has also been linked to arrests in child pornography cases, with images said to have been taken from 4chan. Images of animal abuse have also been found on the site. 4chan was also linked to the Gamergate scandal, and was used as a posting point for images stolen as part of the iCloud celebrity photo hack.

The precise nature of Poole’s role at Google remains unclear, though it is believed he will be involved with the company’s social side – namely Google+.

Poole’s reference to “online communities” in his announcement, as well as a tweet from Google+ founder Bradley Horowitz, certainly seem to back up this claim.

Poole stepped down from administrator of 4chan over a year ago, but his appointment at Google has been called “unexpected” by some commentators.