What is 4chan, who created it and which scandals has the controversial site been involved in?
This illusive website, and its army of anonymous users, have been behind dozens of scandals in recent years
HOW does a seemingly harmless anonymous forum created by one 15-year-old insomniac become one of the most controversial, yet hugely influential sites on the web?
That's the debate 4chan has sparked, after being connected to scandals, far-right radicalisation and murders. Here's everything you need to know about the notorious website.
According to 4chan, most of its users are young men with a university education - but the site has a much darker side
What is 4chan?
4chan is an image-sharing board set up in 2003 to discuss Japanese comics and anime, which is now used by 27 million people every month.
On the surface, it's not hugely different to sites like Reddit - except users never need to create an account, even under a random name.
This means people can post virtually anything with absolutely no threat of accountability.
Much of the content is harmless memes - the 'cat lols' photos originated on the site - but it also has a darker underbelly.
4chan posts tend to be deleted after a few days, to make space on the site, but they often go viral before this happens.
The anonymous posting website has strong links to internet activism - most notably the group Anonymous.
Its users have been behind dozens of high profile pranks, coordinating attacks against other websites, and posting threats of violence.
Sarah Manavis, digital culture and tech writer at the New Statesman, warned earlier this year that radicalisation online has been "exponentially increasing for several years, with many popular website being particular hubs of violent extremist language.
"Sites such as 4chan, 8chan, YouTube and Reddit are the home to forums and channels dedicated to encouraging young white men to sign on to a variety of new age, far-right ideologies."
Who uses 4chan, and who created it?
Its creator, New York based Christopher Poole, used the alias "moot" until he was unveiled by The Wall Street Journal in 2008.
A year later, he was voted the world's most influential person of 2008 in an internet poll created by Time magazine.
Automated voting programmes and manual ballot shuffling were thought to be behind the bizarre outcome, with most people pointing the finger at 4chan.
After Poole announced his retirement from the site in 2015, he joined Google to advise on its new social products.
According to the site's own stats, the majority of its users are university-educated men aged 18-34, with interests in Japanese culture and video games.
The bulk of their users come from the United States (47%), with the UK coming second and making up 8 per cent of its demographic.
Which scandals has the controversial site been involved in?
Cops in America said that a 21-year-old in New York allegedly killed an Instagram influencer, 17, and posted photos of her body online.
Gruesome images of slain teen Bianca Devins were shared on platforms like Instagram and 4chan.
Officers were trying to find Bianca when 21-year-old Brandon Clark called 911 himself to report what he'd done, Utica's public safety department said in a statement.
On July 15 this year, police said that her alleged assailant was being held on a second-degree murder charge.
In 2017, David Kalac was sentenced to 82 years behind bars after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder, for throttling his ex-girlfriend Amber Coplin in Washington State.
Her killing was called the "4chan murder" - as it was named after the internet forum where Kalac posted grisly photos in November 2014.
Did it predict the attack on the Houses of Parliament?
In the aftermath of the deadly terror attack on Parliament on March 22, 2017, bizarre claims that the a post on the website had predicted the atrocity.
Some users on social media users believe the attack was flagged by a post shared on one of the forums on the site at around 3pm the day before.
It made no explicit references to the date or nature of the terror attack, but internet users were quick to make a connection between the post and the horrific attack after the news broke.
One user who followed the code wrote “Big Ben?” minutes after the post went live, a full day before the attack.
The user behind the post was believed to be located in Denmark, but may have obscured their location using a virtual private network (VPN).
Was 4chan involved in the Donald Trump dossier scandal?
When one anonymous user posted a bogus theory about Donald Trump's dirty dossier, the President-elect's supporters were quick to jump on the bandwagon.
The unknown poster claimed he made up false information and passed it onto Trump-hating Republican strategist Rick Wilson, who then handed it over to a spy contact.
His post reads: “So they took what I told Rick Wilson and added a Russian spy angle to it.
“They still believe it. Guys, they’re truly f*****g desperate – there’s no remaining Trump scandal that’s credible.”
But Wilson has slammed the bogus claims that he handed the widely discredited document to the intelligence services.
Since the story has developed, the 4chan theory has now been completely discredited.
What else is 4chan known for?
The nude photo scandal: It wasn't until 2014, and the now infamous celebrity naked picture scandal, that the world really learnt 4chan's name.
Users suddenly dumped intimate pictures of numerous celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton onto the site - and the images quickly spilled onto Reddit.
Apple Wave: The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) were so horrified that 4chan users were telling people to microwave their iPhones that they were forced to dismiss the rumour.
The internet jokers' viral prank suggested iPhone upgrades meant people could charge their phones by microwaving them. Needless to say, doing this didn't have the desired outcome.
Sabotaging Google trends: Searching for the same terms en masse, to get a controversial topic to trend artificially. 4chan users once successfully got the swastika to trend on Google.
Fake bomb threats: A common 'joke' is for multiple users to post the same bombing and shooting threats on 4chan, prompting panicked evacuations and arrests.
#cutforbieber: This sick twitter hashtag encouraged young Justin Bieber fans to self-harm under the front of a public demonstration of love for the performer.
Emma Watson threats: After the Harry Potter actress gave a rousing UN speech about feminism, she became a target of 4chan.
In the wake of the Jennifer Lawrence scandal, the threats to leak Emma's nude photographs seemed all too real.
Luckily, the "Emma You Are Next" message, and accompanying countdown clock, never led to anything.
Bikini bridge: A fabricated beauty trend that encouraged women to lose enough weight to create a gap between the bones of their hip and pelvis.
The trend was picked up by pro-anorexia forums, and used to further encourage eating disorders.
Ebola-chan: Somewhere in between the world of a politically incorrect joke and a vile act of racism comes the Ebola-chan scandal.
4chan users portrayed the deadly virus which was sweeping West Africa as a sick shrine.
This thread saw users thanking Ebola for its supposed attempts to wipe out Africa, and 'remove... (the) subhumans', as one individual wrote.