Christopher "Moot" Poole, the man behind the controversial but undoubtedly influential site 4chan, has sold the anonymous message board to the person who helped inspire him to create the site almost 12 years ago. The new man at the helm of one of the darkest corners of the internet is Hiroyuki Nishimura, the founder of 2channel, a Japanese forum established back in 1999, according to the International Business Times.
The official announcement was posted on 4chan on Monday, with Poole stating that he was stepping down as administrator of the site. According to Poole, there is no better person to lead the site than Nishimura.
"He is one of few individuals with a deep understanding of what it means to provide a digital home for tens of millions of people for more than a decade. There is nobody more qualified than Hiroyuki to lead 4chan, and I can't think of a person better suited for the task," Poole said.
The details of the sale, such as the price agreed upon by the parties, has not been disclosed.
Established in 2003, 4chan was originally designed as a place where anime and manga fans can meet online. It's free and no-holds-barred approach, however, eventually made the site achieve legendary status in the internet.
It is also credited as the place where a vast amount of internet subculture originated from, including LOLcats and the practice of Rickrolling, which involves tricking internet users to click on a link that directs them to a YouTube video of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," a practice which practically rebooted the singer's career, reports The Guardian.
The online hacktivist collective Anonymous was also founded on 4chan, and it was also the center of last year's celebrity nude photo leak in 2014, otherwise known as "The Fappening."
The site currently claims 22 million unique users each month, with an average of a million new posts every day.
More news about the site and its previous exploits? Click here.
More news on the Fappening? Click here.
More Rickrolling? Click here.
