Coleman's theory of Anonymous (and associated groups such as 4chan) as the trickster has moved from academia to the mainstream media.
Minutes prior to the attack, a message was posted on 4chan about threats of a shooting that would take place at the exact location.
On the morning of September 11, 2007, a teenager in Pflugerville was arrested in connection to terrorist threats made against Pflugerville High School that were posted on the website 4chan.
4chan |
In June 2012, the hacker group UGNazi attacked CloudFlare partially via flaws in Google's authentication systems, gaining administrative access to CloudFlare and using it to deface 4chan.
In January 2013, the GNAA collaborated with imageboard 4chan to start a "#cut4bieber" trend on Twitter, encouraging fans of pop singer Justin Bieber to practice self-harm.
In 2009, Astley wrote about 4chan founder moot for Time magazine's annual Time 100 issue, where he thanked moot for the rickrolling phenomenon.