The Aftermath of the Nido Shutdown: Understanding Imageboards
The following was originally published in the Spanish-language zine Descuartizadora, which Guerrilla Translation is translating into English as part of our first Lovework Open Call. Individual articles, stories and poems will be translated and posted here one by one until all the content has been completed, at which point an English-language version of the zine will be formatted and made available in its entirety. We hope that this account of the world of imageboards sheds light on different ways that violence and patriarchy threaten online spaces.
When Nido went viral, so many urban myths started spreading about the site. It all began with the supposed kidnapping network. Some people also accused the site of tracking user IP addresses. Considering the complexity of internet culture, to start to understand this whole topic we need to begin with the basics. What are imageboards? 4chan? /ah/ boards? They’re a kind of forum that is unique in that it doesn’t require a user account, unlike other platforms. As a result, anonymity becomes a really important aspect in how it works. Depending on the context, it is possible to use a unique nickname, tying that name to one single user via a system of passwords. But that’s already the advanced stage of imageboard usage.
Another characteristic that’s important to mention is the use of images. If you want to create a new thread you have to put a picture with it, any picture. This particularity stems from the original design of channels like 2ch or Futaba Channel, an important Japanese forum that served as the home of otaku culture. Because anime fans don’t have a great reputation in Japan, they needed a platform where they could communicate with each other without giving away their real identities.
Under the umbrella of “otaku” 4chan emerged, an imageboard made by a guy nicknamed “moot” who decided to copy Futaba Channel and create a western version of the platform. Thus was born the most popular imageboard to date, which in turn was replicated many times, appearing in different versions such as 7chan, hispachan, tf2chan (already associated with a certain fandom) among others.
There were several instances that brought notoriety to 4chan, thanks to the behavior of its users. One of these cases happened in 2009, when users interfered with Time magazine’s vote for “person of the year”, crowning “moot” – the creator of 4chan – as the most relevant person of 2009. Another example occurred in 2010, when they swayed an online vote and managed to get Justin Bieber to choose North Korea as his next tour destination.
6-chan and the need for a Chilean imageboard
During the early 2000s there was a forum called Animeippai. Many of its users were also on 4chan, which at the time was still a fairly new platform.
It is in this context that Gabriel appeared, better known as Takato (yes, just like the Digimon Tamers character), a native of Temuco. He saw the need to replicate the 4chan formula, but specifically for Chile, and that was how we got 6-chan, the first ever Chilean imageboard. Its first users, and probably many later ones, were also active on Animeippai, but as years went by, 6-chan distanced itself from the anime forum. Likewise, Takato stopped associating with the site as well, and turned leadership over to other administrators.
The “anonymous ultra-poor girl” and the end of 6-chan
One particular characteristic that arose on imageboards was that people would take advantage of anonymity to abuse power. A kind of anti-political correctness ensued, where users would commit crimes and abuse without repercussions or penalization of any kind. That’s why so many stories and urban legends have popped up around these imageboards.
One of the small “achievements” of the first Chilean imageboard was that it managed to organize its users en masse to troll Facebook when Daniella Campos’ newborn daughter died. They proceeded to harass and insult anyone who expressed sympathy and support for the former Miss Chile in her mourning process.
The most emblematic case related to V-chan involved the abuse and rape of an adolescent girl. A 6-chan user posted about his relations with “anonymous poor girl”, as she came to be referred to on the site. It turned out to be some guy from the Valparaíso region who had sex with a girl of very modest means, harassing her and taking intimate photos of her. The girl was given this nickname specifically because she lived in poverty.
In response, site moderators and users came up with a way to talk about this issue while also keeping it under wraps, and only those who knew the site really well and understood its inner workings were able to stay in the loop. It’s worth mentioning that, unlike platforms that spread memes worldwide, the inner workings of 6-chan didn’t have any portal for disseminating information. They tried to make a wiki to fit that purpose, but it didn’t last for very long.
Despite efforts to keep the “anonymous poor girl” incident under wraps, the guy from Valparaíso did not go unpunished for very long. The PDI (Investigations Police) eventually discovered 6-chan and the MO of the person, a teacher, who was abusing the girl. This is also how the imageboard was shut down. A while passed before a new site was launched, this time called Choroy Pride, named after a kind of parakeet endemic to Chile, and after that Nido, meaning “nest”, emerged at the beginning of 2019.
Choroy Pride + Nido: the rise and fall
As with other imageboards, Nido was a promising niche for perpetrators of online violence. Particularly well-known was its cosplay sub-forum, where people trash-talked Chilean cosplayers and non-consensually shared erotic photos of them.
Guys tend to assume that photos on social media are public property and feel free to use them as they please. This is very important to mention, since many social media users use this argument to defend the Nido website.
Things got out of hand, however, when users started spreading rumors about plans for kidnapping that they supposedly had in the works. Although the Nido kidnapping network never really existed, they did manage to use the Chilean imageboard as a platform to stir up fear among women and disseminate urban myths.
This was how Nido went viral in February 2019. Abofem (an association for feminist lawyers) responded by launching a call for legal complaints by those affected by the Nido situation. We should add that, due to a lack of relevant legislation, the PDI and the Carabineros (law enforcement police) handled the case very inefficiently, and failed to respond at all, even in instances where girls and adolescents were involved. Abofem received more than 300 such complaints in less than one week.
Meanwhile, one of the Nido administrators threw himself onto the Metro tracks in Santiago, thereby ending his own life. Seeing that the media was starting to pay attention to Nido, the site had to close down for “security reasons”.
First Choroy, then Nido, now 8chan
8chan is one of the most relevant image boards in recent years. It has become the main site for the digital alt-right movement, and because of this, you cannot find the site’s content through Google searches. It is important to talk about this site though, since according to a statement from The Clinic (a semi-satirical political newspaper in Chile), 8chan is now the preferred site of former Nido users.
The site arose out of the Gamergate movement and harassment campaign. This incident started with ‘accusations’ made by Eron Gjoni against his ex-girlfriend Zoe Quinn, creator of the indie game Depression Quest. He accused her of cheating on him and sleeping with editors of several video game websites in exchange for positive reviews. What began as Hollywood-style gossip, ended up being an absurd conspiracy of people “demanding” more ethical press coverage of video games under the hashtag #Gamergate.
Men started (anonymously) leaking Zoe Quinn’s personal details on 4chan – to such an extent that the imageboard’s admins started to ban people who even mentioned Gamergate. In response to this, 8chan was created out of the perceived need for a space of true “freedom of expression”, unbound by the moral filters of 4chan.
The Gamergate movement was a very complex issue, we recommend reading about it on RationalWiki. This information is also searchable on Google, though there are also many articles written from the perpetrators’ perspective, attempting to legitimize their fascist movement.
Conclusion:
As you can see, the geek world – from anime to videogames – has ended up being very fertile ground for fascism. The alt-right takes advantage of “depoliticized” spaces (in fact these spaces always are political, even if they’re not presented that way) and turns young men onto ideologies that threaten women, migrants, diversity, sexual dissidents and more. Adding to this a market-based approach to communications, anonymous sites pop up like new products – sites that seem initially inoffensive, but that later become disastrous for certain people. This doesn’t mean that anonymity is the problem, however. It is the patriarchy that seeps into this anonymity and delivers all of the power to men so that they can commit abuses. With this in mind, it is important to have a variety of strategies at the ready to combat the problem on many different fronts.
Produced by Guerrilla Translation under a Peer Production License
– Translated by Timothy McKeon
– Edited by Alex Minshall
– Original Spanish-language story published in Descuartizadora 1
– Image by @deusexmachinatattoo, taken from Descuartizadora 1