It’s not only journalists who don’t get 4chan, lawyers are baffled by it too

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By Thomas Connelly on

Court transcript of lawyer’s questioning of 4chan founder re-emerges following Jennifer Lawrence photos leak

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Message board 4chan has been thrust into the media spotlight this week after one of its users allegedly breached Apple’s iCloud and posted intimate pictures of celebrities including actress Jennifer Lawrence onto the site.

For the uninitiated, 4chan is an image-based bulletin board that allows users to post anything anonymously — hence why it has become synonymous with hackers and the sharing of riskier content.

This previously relatively unknown site has caused confusion in media circles in the wake of the celeb photos scandal, with CNN incorrectly suggesting that 4chan was actually a person — much to the amusement of 4chan users.

Investigative Journalism

This isn’t the first time 4chan has caused confusion — with testimonial resurfacing on Imgur this week of the site’s founder, Christopher Poole (pictured above), being questioned by lawyers back in 2010. The exchange (screen-shotted below) is from the trial of a student charged with hacking the email account of US politician Sarah Palin and posting the password on 4chan.

With one of the celebrities hit by the iCloud hack, US TV star Victoria Justice, announcing yesterday that she is to take legal action against the hackers, and Lawrence indicating that she may follow, expect further similarly awkward courtroom exchanges in the coming months.

Lawyer is baffled by 4chan: transcript

4chan founder Christopher Poole is questioned by prosecuting lawyer Mark Krotoski about the unique language adopted by the site’s users — including terms such as “OP” and “lurker”.

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Questioning takes a strange turn when Poole is asked about the significance of “new fags”, a term given to new users of the site, and the more commonly known “troll”.

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Finally Poole is asked about the term “Rickroll” — causing much confusion to the lawyer. Rickrolling is where the user clicks on content they wish to view but is redirected to a video of Rick Astley singing ‘Never gonna give you up’

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Read the full transcript below:

Christopher "Moot" Poole Testimony in Palin Email Trial by TheBusinessInsider