The infamous internet forum 4chan fell victim to a cyberattack on Tuesday.

As of the time of composition, 4chan's website was inaccessible, and users on social media indicated that the site had been experiencing intermittent outages for several hours.

Messages on a competing message board, reviewed by TechCrunch, lauded the cyberattack, with one individual asserting the perpetrator of the breach had been within 4chan's system "for over a year."

Several screenshots that seem to show 4chan's backend were shared online. These screenshots allegedly revealed the site's internal structure, source code, and templates used to ban users. Only the site's moderators would be able to access these. The leaked information also included a list of people who are supposedly 4chan moderators and 'janitors.' Janitors are users who can delete posts and threads, but they have fewer rights than moderators. For example, moderators can see users' IP addresses.

Because 4chan is known for its connections to political violence, this cyberattack might show who manages these forums, which are now very important for alt-right groups.

TechCrunch contacted multiple leaked email addresses and engaged with an individual associated with one of these addresses. A 4chan moderator, who wished to remain anonymous, expressed certainty regarding the authenticity of the leaked data and screenshots.

"I have no cause to consider it otherwise," the janitor responded.

I'm quite surprised. 4chan's moderation team has had leaks before, but this is clearly a bigger problem," the janitor told TechCrunch. "I'm not happy about this. I'm sure most other people aren't either. But many of us have been doing this for a long time. Doxxing is something people have done on 4chan for a long time, and we've always known we could be exposed.

"I've been most worried about the leaked information, for clear reasons," said the janitor. "I would guess that the fact that 4chan was basically taken over by a hacker or hackers is probably 'worse' than just screenshots, at least if you think about the site continuing to work."

According to the janitor, it seems the hacker acquired the personal data of 4chan Pass subscribers, individuals who compensate the site for unrestricted posting and entry to a VIP forum.

4chan did not provide a response to an email seeking comment directed to the platform's press contact.

4chan is an ostensibly anonymous internet forum that operates as a darker, less visible part of the web. Primarily an image board, it appears to be frequented by users seeking to provoke reactions, often through the dissemination of highly offensive material. Occasionally, however, content originating from 4chan permeates mainstream culture, manifesting as harmless memes or, more disturbingly, as hate speech that has incited right-wing violence.

Memes like Pepe the Frog, rage comics, and wojaks started on 4chan but are now everywhere online. However, 4chan's biggest impact is on its political forums. Here, alt-right ideas can make young people believe in white supremacist views. QAnon, a group of far-right conspiracy theorists who support President Donald Trump, also began on 4chan.

The individual responsible for the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, which claimed 51 lives, was a long-standing user of the 4chan platform from his teenage years. Similarly, in 2022, an 18-year-old perpetrator of a mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York grocery store, targeting ten Black individuals, incorporated language and ideas from the Christchurch shooter's online writings into his lengthy manifesto.