Executive Summary
This report deals with the question of free speech on the Internet. We will look into online bulletin board systems like 4chan, Reddit, GaiaOnline and Something Awful. The issue concerning these BBS, in particular 4chan, lies in their ability to moderate content on their site leading to the reputation 4chan has now. Evaluating the benefits of 4chan, we came up with a solution involving the addition of more moderators and an automated system using Optical Character Recognition. We concluded that tampering with 4chan’s nature will endanger the last frontier of Internet freedom of speech hence it should be left alone.
An Intro To The Issue
In today’s society, the Internet has become an increasingly popular method for people to express their ideas and opinions. Additionally, online bulletin board systems make it easy for online communities to congregate and share their views to the world. This report will focus on free speech and how it is enforced within these communities. In particular, the focus will be on how 4chan moderates the content of their board in comparison to other bulletin board systems like Reddit, Gaia Online, and Something Awful.
Furthermore, in the past few years, 4chan has been gaining a notorious reputation from the media and the general public. They were subject to various news articles who describe 4chan as online pranksters “known for spreading porn and hacking into mainstream websites and social networks”[1] As occasional users of 4chan, this label piqued our interest because we see this image-board as a place that also promotes creativity, comradery, cooperation and activism. We do not deny that 4chan has had its share of controversy, with its boards blamed for multiple DDoS attacks and invasion into websites, however, is the reputation they have now an accurate description?
As it stands, the issues our report will address is whether or not 4chan is doing enough to moderate the content of their board and whether or not they really deserve the reputation seen by the public eye.
4Chan
4chan is an image board that is based off of the Futaba channel [2chan].[2] There are different subjects [boards] where people go to post -- subjects can range from Japanese culture, video games, to random. Users start a post by inserting an image so that others may comment on it and thereby bumping it. The posts are based on how many comments it receives with the most popular being the first post on the front page. After a post reaches its comment limit, it will slowly decay and eventually be deleted. In addition to the comment limit, users may type “sage” to prevent the post being bumped so that the deletion rate will be faster.[3]
The types of posts that are in the /b/ (random) board are categorized in this table from a MIT study on 4chan: [4]
| Type | % | Description | Example |
| Themed | 28% | Setting theme, often with an exemplar image. | ITT [“In this thread”] we only post stuff we have laughed at so hard we had tears |
| Sharing content | 19% | Offering content for the community to enjoy or critique. | This guy is a hero. :) http://www.youtube.com/[xxxxx] |
| Question, advice and recommendation | 10% | Asking for suggestions or, often quite intimate, life advice. | Soup /b/ Recently I’ve been hanging out with a girl a lot, we’re both in college. I spend the night at her place all the time and we kiss and whatnot. Problem is, she just broke up with her ex [...] and I know she’s not over him. I really like her but I dunno what to do, so what do /b/? |
| Sharing Personal Information | 9% | Sharing or requesting content with personal information. | U JELLY? [“You jealous?”] This is me suiting up at my formal looking fucking brilliant, then there is you fags sitting back and watching. |
| Discussion | 8% | Calling for discussion, debate or some back-and-forth over a topic. | Hi Anonymous! So ive started this game called League of Legends a few days ago. [...] Is there anyone here who also plays it? Lets talk about it! |
| Request for item | 8% | Requesting information about previously seen images, or other valuable information such as credentials for pay sites. | anyone has a pic of that star wars battle tank with the german insignia shooped [“photoshopped”] on it? in return tits [a misogynous but common mechanism for “paying back” a favor with pornographic images] |
| Request for action | 7% | Intending to agitate for real-life action, like harassing another website | Make a group saying [name] is awesome on face book. DO IT FAGGOTS |
| Meta | 5% | Discussing /b/ itself or playing with the site’s mechanics (e.g., post numbers) | Heidi Ho there /b/ I’m a Newfag and now that i’ve been here all Summer I was wondering if i need a letter of recommendation From a Registered OldFag? |
| Other | 6% | Unable to categorize. | excuse all the blood |
As we see from the table above, 7% of posts on the /b/ board are requests for action. Within this percentage is the possibility of discussing harassment and invasions of other sites as described in its description; a violation of the board rules. Another part of the table that might garner interest is the sharing content field: 19% of all /b/ posts share content – content that may be illegal under copyright or child protection laws. Unfortunately, this does not give much indication of how many posts that do infringe on such laws.
The rules of 4chan are strictly enforced and moderators will ban those who violate them. Each board contains a specific set of rules and an additional set of global rules which apply to all the different boards.[5] The only exception is the /b/ board where there are no rules except for a selected few in the global rules.
4chan global rules: [5]
Only rules that are bolded are enforced in the /b/ board
1 | Do not upload, post, discuss, request, or link to, anything that violates local or United States law. This will be severely punished and strictly enforced. |
2 | If you are under the age of 18, or it is illegal for you to view the materials contained on this website, discontinue browsing immediately. |
3 | Do not post the following outside of /b/: Trolls, flames, racism, off-topic replies, uncalled for catchphrases, macro image replies, indecipherable text (example: "lol u tk him 2da bar|?"), anthropomorphic ("furry"), grotesque ("guro"), or loli/shota pornography |
4 | The posting of personal information or calls to invasion is prohibited. |
5 | All boards that default to the Yotsuba B or Burichan (blue) theme are to be considered "work safe". Violators may be temporarily banned and their posts removed. |
6 | The quality of posts is extremely important to this community. Contributors are encouraged to provide high-quality images and informative comments. |
7 | Submitting false reports or otherwise abusing the report system will result in a ban of indeterminate length. |
8 | Complaining about 4chan (its policies, moderation, etc.) on the imageboards can result in post deletion and banishment. The administrator will address your questions, comments, complaints, and concerns via e-mail. |
9 | Ban evasion will result in permanent bans. No exceptions—DO NOT EVADE YOUR BAN. Instead, wait and appeal it! |
10 | No spamming or flooding of any kind |
11 | Advertising (all forms) is also not welcome—this includes any type of referral linking, "offers", etc. |
12 | Impersonating the 4chan administrator, moderators, or janitors is strictly forbidden. |
13 | The use of scrapers, bots, or other automated posting or downloading scripts is prohibited. |
14 | Remember: The use of 4chan is a privilege, not a right. The 4chan staff reserves the right to revoke access and remove content without notice |
Other Bulletin Board Systems
Reddit
Reddit, pronounced as “red it” is a social news website that is similar to 4chan. Users may start a post by either inserting/linking an image or typing anything original in the comment box. Each post may be commented on by others and there is a voting system where they can vote up if the users like the post and down for disliking. Unlike 4chan, Reddit contains more subjects [known as subreddits] so that each post the user makes must fall into a correct category. This eliminates a “random” subject. Some examples of subreddits are: “TODAYILEARNED”, “TREES”, “TECHNOLOGY”, and “STARCRAFT”.
There are guidelines for Reddit which are written by the community. As the section states “It's not meant to be a list of commandments, but really more of a collection of guidelines;”[6] users do not have to necessarily abide them. However, those who repeatedly do not follow the guidelines may be subjected to a ban. An example would be posting personal information or links to personal information in any of the posts.
Gaia Online
Gaia Online is the largest forum (ranked by number of posts) on the internet.[7] It is a social networking and forum based website. Users may post on forums under certain topics. The topics range from “Welcome to Gaia” to “Test Forum”. Each post [thread] can be commented and the thread containing the most comments appears on the front page. Over time if the post is inactive [no more new comments], it will slowly sink to the next page.
Rules on Gaia Online are strict in a sense that it protects those who are under 18. Notable rules include:
- “Mature material: Any material that is sexually explicit or pornographic, or depicts excessive violence or gore is not permitted. Tasteful nudity in the art forums is allowed on a case-by-case basis, but on the whole, it is a good idea to cater to a range of audiences. Keep in mind that some members may be as young as 13”[8]
- “No Cybering: Soliciting or engaging in cybersex (exchanging descriptions of sexual experiences) or mature content role play is not allowed on Gaia Online. Making sexually suggestive or explicit posts can result in them being removed, and action being taken against your account.”
Something Awful
Something Awful (SA) is another example of an online bulletin board system. However, unlike the others, users in this forum have to pay a membership fee to post. The creator of 4chan Christopher Poole (moot) was an avid participant in this forum.[9] The topics on this forum are similar to the online communities described above with the exception of the “FYAD” [F*** You and Die] topic. The reason we chose to discuss Something Awful is solely due to the existence of this topic. It is the most comparable to the 4chan’s /b/ board.
The moderators on Something Awful are “elitist” and “strict”[10] individuals. The rules are strict where posts by users have to contain a grain of intelligence. The rule: “…write as if you were speaking in real life to another human being. Do not use any catchphrases, memes, Internet slang, or any other crap that makes you look like a 12-year old”, forces the poster to formulate proper English sentences when posting.
Comparisons between different BBS
| thanks | Anonymity | Trolling | Explicit Content (ie.gore, porn) | Hate Speech | Archives |
| 4chan | yes | only in /b/ | only in /b/ | only in /b/ | no |
| no | yes | certain subreddits | certain subreddits | yes | |
| Gaia Online | no | no | no | no | yes |
| Something Awful | no | only in FYAD | only in FYAD | only in FYAD | yes |
The table above is an illustration of the differences between the online communities. Note that only 4chan allows users to post anonymously (without an username). Because of this and the absence of archives, users who post content that violate U.S. law cannot be tracked easily. However, because the other online communities are not anonymous and have the ability to archive their posts, tracking and catching violators who post illegal content is much easier than it is on 4chan.
Proposal
To combat posts that violate U.S. law as stated in the Rules page, we propose that 4chan should implement a better automated filtering system to flag inappropriate posts and to hire more moderators.
Arguments for allowing 4chan to continue
4chan promotes creativity
With over ten different boards on things that deal with creativity, including the “Oekaki,” “Photography” and “Artwork/Critique” boards, 4chan is a centre for originality and creativity. Users are able to post, critique, and ask for advice on their work on their respective board, similar to other sites. With Poole’s envisioning of the website’s purpose coupled with the community’s drive in creating original content, 4chan has been linked to many popular Internet memes today, including Pedobear, Rickrolling and LOLcats.
4chan promotes comradery
Users would often distinguish themselves with a name associated with their board, calling themselves “/b/ros,” or “/b/tards” for those who post on the /b/ board. Though defaulted to anonymous posting, users identify themselves with these groups through the anonymity using “textual, linguistic and visual cues”,[4] and a sense of /b/rotherhood is established, with advice and requests granted. Threads associated with this phenomenon are “bawwww” threads, where users post their sad stories looking for support.
4chan promotes cooperation and activism
Though there are many news reports of 4chan’s exploits and pranks, users of the image-board have also cooperated for activist ideals such as the non-violent “Project Chanology,” a movement against the Church of Scientology involving both an Internet and physical means of protest. Started as a small group on the Internet against the removal of Tom Cruise’s YouTube video by the Church of Scientology, this small protest culminated into a worldwide phenomenon, with protestors on the streets in over 100 cities on multiple days. Over 7000 people protested on more than one occasion, many of them wearing a Guy Fawkes mask to protect their anonymity.[11][12]
Many associate 4chan with lawlessness and anarchy, but the website has also taken part in acts of Internet vigilantism. In one case, a YouTube video of a user abusing a cat caused an uproar within the Internet community leading 4chan users (among others) to track the criminal’s name and location to report to the authorities.[13]
Another example is the highly televised story of a British woman caught on CCTV throwing a cat in a trash bin. Vigilantes were eventually able to identify the perpetrator and report her to the police.[14]
4chan promotes Freedom of Speech:
Although the content within the image-board can be questionable at times, the lenient rules of the /b/ board bring in a very unrestricted form of Freedom of Speech, a surprisingly rare thing on the Internet. The most asinine and discriminatory opinions are allowed in this corner of the Internet, where trolling, racism, and whatever distasteful opinion is allowed to be expressed. Coupled with anonymity, users are allowed to say whatever they desire, with judgment only on the post itself and not on the poster. This results in a community where content and expression is shared with less inhibition and less concern of judgment on self.[4]
Anonymity is authenticity; it allows you to share in a completely unfiltered way. It allows you to play in ways you might not if people knew who you are.
- Christopher Poole [15]
Arguments against allowing 4chan to continue:
Tied in to many cases of harassment and pranks:
Rumours surrounding 4chan’s exploits are unfortunately true; though not advocated by the site, members of community often take part in online mischief with real world consequences. A rather benign prank linked to 4chan users was the online poll for Justin Bieber’s next tour location. Armed with bots, users successfully voted North Korea to be the next country the singer was to perform in.[16]
A prank that was more harmful was the hoax report of Steve Jobs’ heart attack that was submitted using CNN’s iReport website. Intended as a user-submitted news website, iReport unfortunately did not have a good screening process at the time which led the hoax report to be published. This led to other popular blogging websites to republish the story which eventually resulted in a drop of around 10 percent in Apple’s stock.[17]
Tied in to DDoS attacks and hacks:
More directly malicious acts were also linked to 4chan, including attacks and invasions of other websites. After hiring Aiplex Software to DDoS attack The Pirate Bay as an act against piracy, the RIAA and MPAA websites (along with Aiplex Software) were counter attacked by a DDoS as well.[18] The attack on the RIAA, MPAA and Aiplex was linked to 4chan users, among others. [19]
A hack on the email of the former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, was also linked to a user on 4chan. Though the perpetrator acted alone to gain access to the email, he was said to have leaked the password and information onto 4chan.[20]
Was a place where the sharing of illegal materials took place:
Although specifically stated that sharing materials that violate U.S. law is prohibited, such activities sometimes take place regardless. Though moderators take action to remove these posts and ban such individuals who violate this rule, the speed at which posts are created can sometimes overwhelm moderator control. Sharing of child pornography, cracked or illegal software and stolen personal information are only a few examples of items that are prohibited. Fortunately, the community will at times police itself and report such posts to be moderated especially when child pornography is being shared.
Ethical Evaluation
Aside from looking at the argument for and against 4chan with respect to moderation and content of the image board, we can also use the four workable ethical theories[26] to defend our proposal. By analyzing the scenario that will derive from our proposal -- adding more moderators and implementing the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system --, we will show that both those actions are morally correct.
The Scenario:
The users of 4chan will see no change in what they are allowed to post; the rules currently in effect will remain the same. However, on the administrative side, 4chan will now have more moderators to better detect and remove illegal content like child porn and personal information. In addition, the OCR system is also put in place to flag posts that are deemed suspicious on the account that it might incite future criminal activity like DDoS attacks.
Kantianism:
According to Kant, there are two categorical imperatives that can decide if an action is good or not. The first states that a moral rule is good if it can be applied universally without logical contradiction. The second states that an individual must not treat others as a means to an end, meaning you cannot use others to get what you want without their permission. If we are to look at the situation using the first formulation, the proposed moral rule might be: "A user may exercise their right to freedom of speech so long as they don't violate any laws." In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights[21], article 19, it states that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." Therefore is everyone followed this rule, more people would be given the right to freedom of speech and hence it is good.
The second formulation can also be used to analyze the scenario. Because Kantianism focuses on the will behind the action, posts that border on being offensive may be viewed as a post made by someone who simple wanted to express their truthful take on the subject. Taking this into account, it is right for 4chan to only use its moderators to delete posts containing illegal content but not offensive content.
Act Utilitarianism:
This method of utilitarianism is based on the Principle of Utility. The principle focuses on the total amount of happiness gained or lost by the affected parties. In this case, the affected party is the 4chan community. Here are the consequences that might arise from our proposal.
1. Freedom of expression is a right all humans are entitled to. Maintaining this right on 4chan lets their users have this freedom to what they want in an unrestricted manner. This is good.
2. Although we propose more mods and the use of OCR technology, both these options are fallible. Mods are not likely to clear all illegal posts immediately after they are made. OCR technology is imperfect and cannot flag every post with illegal content. Since users can still be exposed to content they do not want to see, this is bad.
3. The anonymity of 4chan and the added benefit of free speech will appeal to users who are afraid to truthfully express themselves due to fear of judgement or personal attacks. This is a good thing.
4. Anonymity can also be a negative aspect. Because users are able to post so freely, what they say might be considered controversial or offensive by some even though there is truth behind it.
However, it is difficult to use act utilitarianism to gauge the correctness of our proposal because there are many factors to consider when dealing with the largest English image-board on the Internet. There over 1 million posts made per day and over 10 million unique visitors per month. Such a large scale makes it hard to give accurate weights to each of these situations. Additionally, the weights may also vary by individual analyzing the scenario. Hence act utilitarianism is not a reliable method for determining the morality of our proposal.
Rule Utilitarianism:
Previously, we saw how act utilitarianism might not be the best ethical theory to use when analyzing our proposal. Rule utilitarianism will give us a better understanding of the morality behind our proposal. Firstly, rule utilitarianism incorporates the same Principle of Utility as act utilitarianism. The difference between the two is that rule utilitarianism applies the principle to a moral rule instead of an individual action. In a way, this is similar to Kantianism, however a moral rule gets adopted universally because doing so will result in the greatest amount of happiness for everybody.
The appropriate moral rule that applies here is the continued existence of freedom of speech on the 4chan boards, where anything goes with the exception of content violating US laws. The universal adoption by a rule utilitarian point of view will expand this moral law to cover all bulletin board systems. Will this result in a greater benefit for everybody? As discussed in the previous sections, many bulletin boards impose additional rules apart from simply banning illegal content in posts. The users of those boards would benefit from the increased freedom to post what they really think.
But on the contrary, would having this much freedom bring harm to those same users? Most users will probably abide by the same rules of their particular board before they were given the right to post freely (within the law). This assumption is made on the basis that users visit that board because they enjoy the posted content. It would be counterproductive to introduce offensive, though legal, content and therefore ruining the purpose of that site and sullying the user experience.
In conclusion, the ability to fully exercise the right to freedom of speech across all bulletin board systems is ethical. The temptation to post offensive material will the outweighed by users who wish to keep the experience of viewing their board enjoyable for both themselves and others.
Social Contract Theory:
Similar to both Kantianism and rule utilitarianism, social contract theory looks at the universal adoption of moral rules. It defines morality as rules people in a society will follow in the interest of mutual benefit and on the condition that others will also do the same. Taking this definition, it appears a social contract theorist would approve of letting users at 4chan continue posting in an nonrestrictive manner. After all, society has been given the right to freedom of expression in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 19. [21]
Solution
Implement an automated system to flag inappropriate posts
To alleviate the amount of posts each moderator must scan, an automated system that detects keywords associated with illegal content can easily be implemented. A more sophisticated system could use a large database of keywords that can increase or decrease an index depending on the word in question. When the index reaches a certain threshold, the post would be flagged for moderator action. Use of the “sage” function by the community can be further considered for the system.
As 4chan is an image-board, images are sometimes used to bypass systems like the one described above. To combat images that deal with illegal content, an optical character recognition system can be used to decipher the image into text. The decoded text can then be subjected to the filtering system above.
A widely circulated image to incite users to participate in a DDoS attack on tumblr.
Sample keywords that may add to the index include “TAKE DOWN,” “attacks,” “DDoS,” LOIC” (“Low Orbital Ion Cannon,” a popular DoS tool that takes over the volunteer host computer) and “PROXY.”
Increase the number of moderators:
Currently 4chan only has 30 volunteers as stated by moot.[22] This means that the moderators have to monitor 800 000 posts a day. With such a high number of posts, it is impossible to catch all of the users posting illegal content. Hence we will need to increase the number of moderators.
To increase the number of moderators, it is possible to branch out from just volunteers and begin hiring moderators. Currently there is a position called a janitor between a moderator and user that also assist in moderating. It is stated that this position has been advertised before and should be started again to increase moderation.[23]
A general question against the increase of moderators is that it may alienate the users with excess policing of the boards. However with the speed a thread gets deleted naturally, coupled with the moderator option of hiding the post deletion notice, it can be very hard to detect moderation even occurring.[23]
Finances:
Donations at this moment cannot be accepted for 4chan. In their FAQ section, online payment processors consider the site’s content to be too risky thus denying any services to them.[24] Another reason could be the attacks staged on Paypal, Mastercard and Postfinance were linked to 4chan.[25] Therefore with no donations, a possible solution for 4chan to generate revenue is to host more advertisements.
Conclusion
Freedom of speech has been a much debated topic and it is no exception that freedom of speech on the Internet is becoming an increasingly interesting subject of debate. After discussing the pros and cons of 4chan and analyzing the ethical implications of our proposal, we have come to the conclusion that for the most part, 4chan should be left the way it is. With the addition of more moderators and the implementation of the OCR system, we feel that 4chan will now have the right tools to combat the problem of users posting illegal content. Finally, in response to critics who may question our motives for supporting 4chan, we say this: we believe that the anonymous and mostly uninhibited nature of 4chan promotes the freedom of speech in a way that is rarely found in society today.
References
- www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/22/chris.poole.4chan/
- http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2008/0502/1209632797289.html Source on what technology 4chan uses
- http://www.4chan.org/faq#sage Information on the sage function that is used to stop posts from self bumping
- Bernstein, Michael S, et al. "4chan and /b/: Analysis of Anonymity and Ephemerality in a Large Online Community." 2011. MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. 5 May 2011 Used their chart on the breakdown of 4chan posts
- http://www.4chan.org/rules Rules of 4chan (Copied the Global Rules section)
- http://www.reddit.com/help/reddiquette Guidelines of reddit (Quoted a section of it)
- http://www.big-boards.com/ Used their rankings to show the popularity of the boards
- http://www.gaiaonline.com/info/index.php?mode=rules Rules of Gaia Online (Quoted some parts of it)
- http://www.thestar.com/living/article/257955 Quotation of moot being once an user for Something Awful
- http://www.somethingawful.com/d/forum-rules/forum-rules.php?page=1 Rules of Something Awful - quoted some of the rules
- http://www.lisamcpherson.org/pc.htm Information about the anonymous and their stance on Project Chanology
- http://www.news.com.au/technology/scientology-site-gets-a-facelift-after-protests/story-e6frfro0-1111115845068 More information regarding the Anonymous vs Scientology
- http://www.inquisitr.com/18170/4chan-b-goes-after-cat-abusers-wins/ Case of Internet Vigilantism by the Anonymous of 4chan against cat abusers
- http://gawker.com/5622237/how-4chan-brought-the-evil-british-cat-lady-to-justice Another case for Internet Vigilantism where 4chan uncovers the identity of the lady who threw her cat into a bin
- http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/14/6264248-4chan-founder-zuckerberg-wrong-on-privacy Quotation of the description of anonymity from Christopher Poole
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10506482 Prank on sending Justin Bieber to Korea
- http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10058410-93.html Hoax reported on CNN’s iReport regarding death of Steve Jobs
- http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20016961-83.html Article on the DDoS attacks on the RIAA and MPAA website
- http://news.softpedia.com/news/4Chan-Coordinated-DDoS-Attack-Brings-MPAA-Website-Down-156944.shtml Accusations of 4chan’s involvement in the DDoS attack on MPAA’s website
- http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/09/4chans-half-hac.html Evidence of 4chan’s involvement in the Sarah Palin email scandal
- http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/ Universal Declaration of Human Rights used in ethical evaluations to defend proposal
- http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/one-on-one-christopher-poole-founder-of-4chan/ One-On-One interview with the founder of 4chan, Christopher Poole
- http://www.4chan.org/faq#administration Information on the administration team at 4chan
- http://www.4chan.org/faq#donations 4chan’s policy on donations and why they can’t accept it
- http://techie-buzz.com/tech-news/4chan-attacks-mastercard-paypal-and-more-in-defense-of-wikileaks.html Possible support for why 4chan does not accept paypal donations
- Quinn, Michael J. Ethics for the Information Age. 4th ed. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2011. Print. Used as a reference for the four workable ethical theories
