[jmcgough]

I've been really surprised how influential /pol/ has been this election, which has been really weird and a little scary. It's not uncommon to post something on 4chan stating that you have inside information on events that are going to happen over the next few days (which is fiction 99.9% of the time). Posts like this in /pol/ have been getting screenshotted and spread elsewhere on the web, where alt-right conspiracy nuts are latching on to them.

I've tried explaining to a few people that it's 4chan and you can't take it seriously, but they're convinced that these posts are real.

[Tsugumo]

In the words of one /pol/ poster:

"/pol/ is winning because it's funnier than the people that despise it, it's that simple. Being authoritarian isn't funny. Tumblr, leddit, they're funny like a commercial is funny, they can be clever, they can be witty, but they'll never be gut-laugh, -holy shit- funny, because they never confront anything they're not supposed to, they never color outside the lines. They talk like they're resisting something, but all they do is agree with each other. They slay the sacred cows they've been conditioned to hate, and they ignore the elephants in the room they're conditioned not to see, and they'll always be like that because they're clever, educated pussies.

/pol/ is full of angry racist conspiracy theorists, but it's fucking hilarious. /pol/ might not always tell you the truth, but it will tell you the closest thing to an honest truth it can see, and it will laugh at you for being offended by it. The fact that /pol/ is starting to influence 4chan in general means that the sacred cows we're slaying are actually sacred, and people are laughing in spite of themselves. It's stupid and weird and it's too simplistic and old-fashioned to be true, but you're laughing anyways.

That's how it begins."

[alva]

Indeed a couple of posts made in the last few months have been prescient of serious and highly secretive information. The motivation behind such posters is likely explained below.

I think what a lot of people don't get about /pol/'s influence in the last year is it's mechanism. It is easy to browse the site as an outsider and think it is just shitposting 9000, with no real influence outside. However /pol/ unconsciously and without formal direction has an extremely effective strategy for disseminating information.

Once the essence of some information has been distilled users start disseminating it to the 'normies' via Reddit and Twitter. Twitter is where the real influence comes as they inevitably target journalists in large numbers. As most know, journalists and politicians are extremely engaged in Twitter. Stories frequently then cross the barrier into the mainstream.

Targeting of journalists and politicians, largely but not always via Twitter, is where most of the huge power is derived. People targeted don't necessarily have the internet experience to realise when these things are directed. A lot of what most of them see is a flurry of regular public concern which needs to be addressed.

When a story from /pol/ reaches the mainstream, it goes into a glorious frenzy. It is a powerful feeling when something you have created/discovered and disseminated in a 4chan thread becomes international news because of the boards collective action.

Summarised: when a very large group of people with political leanings on a story/topic informally organise, the effort can take the view mainstream. important to note is the demographic includes a diverse group of users who are highly skilled in programming, social media and politics.

edit: If I was a highly placed politician and wanted to disseminate secret information without attribution, I would run it through the tumbler that is 4chan.

[hulahoof]

Thanks for the edit I was reading this tired and the edit tied the post together

[colordrops]

/pol/ uncovered the Paul Combetta posts on Reddit. So it's not all bullshit. Its crazy that they had enough of an effect to get the head of the FBI grilled by a house committee.

[AvenueIngres]

/pol/:/sg/ helped the Russian airforce identify rebels positions in Syria and destroy them. It is not all bullshit at all; there is a significant proportion of it that is undeniably childish garbage but there is the occasional gem as well.

[cryoshon]

source? if true, this would be a troubling precedent in the use of third party analysis in conducting military operations

[AvenueIngres]

I occasionally lurk on 4chan (in particular /sg/ since they aggregate lots of data regarding the Syrian civil war) and I witnessed this one particular event first hand. Now I understand that this is not a verifiable source but I found this as well, that sums-up the whole thing: http://2static.fjcdn.com/pictures/4chan+pol+sg+orders+an+air...

I don't think you will be able to find anything better than that to "prove" it happened.

[astrodust]

Giving military "intel" from 4chan is absolutely insane. These were the same people that thought they'd conclusively identified the Boston Marathon bomber, but were totally wrong.

[niftich]

I'm pretty sure that was Reddit [1]

[1] http://wayback.archive-it.org/3649/20130422194045/http://www...

[AvenueIngres]

It's not like they could send UAVs to verify if the claims are legit? It's literally written on the screenshot that the Russians sent drones; and Ivan is obviously a Russian intelligence officer. Breathe!

[konart]

https://www.reddit.com/r/4chan/comments/4deu8r/pol_helps_coo...

Can't find a better source. But this was the second time RuAF bombed the rebles camp after third party analysis (might be a coincidence ofc). There was a different image with Russian MoD's report on the matter.

[v64]

Not sure how much of this, if any, has been corroborated, but this [1] is a description of the events.

[1] http://www.vocativ.com/326039/how-one-4chan-board-is-trying-...

[gragas]

I was in the original thread and got screens of Combetta's history before he deleted it. I see /pol/ as one of the last bastions of political discussion that's not flooded with liberal propaganda, though that has been changing lately with CTR.

[rfrank]

/pol/ is fast on a lot of international news that gets picked up slowly in the states too. they were on the us' accidental bombing of syrian troops last month [1] pretty much instantly.

1. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/18/did-the-u-s...

[jmcgough]

That's part of the frustration for me - 0.1% of the time they uncover something of real value that no one else noticed. It's just that 99.9% of the time it's just noise, memes and conspiracy theories. I guess that's why people keep coming back to the forum.

[Freak_NL]

It's fascinating to see how feasible it is to get something — anything — recognized as fact or actual trend by employing social media and excitable media. The 'bikini bridge' phenomenon comes to mind.

[awesomerobot]

That's kind of the crux of 4chan — you can't take it seriously, but it's very serious.