“Image Credit: Getty Images 4chan, an online forum mainly used by young males and gamers, went down in April 2025. The outage came months after multiple other social media platforms went down for a variety of issues. Shortly after 4chan’s outage started, users speculated about a possible hacking scenario. So, is 4chan still down, and was”, — write: hollywoodlife.com
Image Credit: Getty Images 4chan, an online forum mainly used by young males and gamers, went down in April 2025. The outage came months after multiple other social media platforms went down for a variety of issues. Shortly after 4chan’s outage started, users speculated about a possible hacking scenario. So, is 4chan still down, and was it hacked?
Find out more about the online forum below.
What Is 4chan? 4chan was founded in 2003 by entrepreneur and internet developer Christopher Poole. At the time, Poole was still just a teenager. 4chan began as a forum to share anime and manga discussions among specific fandoms, but it morphed into an image board where far-right users have shared controversial posts. Most of the controversial images and memes shared were deleted by moderators.
Additionally, 4chan is mainly used by young males. Among the most controversial instances on the platform was 2014’s “Gamergate” when male users shared a slew of misogynistic messages and campaigns against women. As a result of Gamergate, the separate platform 8chan was created, but it’s not owned by the same group as 4chan.
Why Is 4chan Down? Reports about 4chan being down rose to more than 1,100 in the evening hours on April 14, 2015. The following day, reports decreased, but the site was still down for many through the afternoon of April 15.
At the time of publication, 4chan has not publicly revealed the reason behind its website’s outage. However, as most internet users know, multiple technology and social media platforms have experienced widespread outages in recent months, including Meta’s Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and X (formerly known as Twitter). In March 2025, X’s owner, Elon Musk, claimed the platform fell victim to a cyber attack.
Was 4chan Hacked? It’s unclear if 4chan was hacked, but rumors quickly spread across social media about the shutdown. On Reddit, one user wrote that while unconfirmed, the website’s “source code, user’s names, emails, and possibly even IP addresses have been exposed.”
4chan has not publicly addressed the hacking rumors at the time of publication.