4chan sprays Google with "scientology" and a nasty insult

4chan's directions for the Hot Trends prank. This formulation,  where a set of steps end with "???" and then "profit" is itself an oft-used meme.

Last week it was a swastika topping Google's Hot Trends. Now it's the phrase "scientology is a cult," and, even more flattering for the search engine company that's having its feature bombed by ne'er-do-wells: now we see an upside-down and backwards taunt: "ǝlƃooƃ noʎ ****", only the asterisks are, in this case, a four letter word that rhymes with truck.

In the case of the swastika, we couldn't prove that users of the popular image board 4chan were behind it (their discussion threads can pass out of existence within minutes), but this time there can be no doubt. 

As of this writing, several active 4chan threads were devoted to the mass Googling of the "scientology" phrase as well as the upside-down truck insult, all as 4chan users congratulated themselves for having propelled the two phrases to the top of the list (see image at bottom). They were even planning to start with a third: "LOL".  A 4Chan moderator has not yet returned a request for comment.

(Just before this post was published, both entries were removed from the Trends list.)

4chan is enjoying much spotlight after being featured in two major media profiles in the last few days, as well as in the writeup I did on the swastika situation. 4chan is home to a group of Internet trouble makers, or "griefers." (Julian Dibbell detailed the practice in this excellent Wired article from January.)

4chan users revel in causing controversy -- and there's nothing like race or religion to get tempers flaring. Just yesterday the group staged a "raid" on the popular online childrens' game Habbo Hotel, flooding the game's world with avatars made to look like black men wearing Armani suits. Among 4chan's favorite raid flourishes, it turns out, is the 'swastiget' -- where invaders line up in the shape of a swastika. All for the lulz, of course.

A 4chan poster declares the prank a "win"

It seems that with Google Trends, the group has found a new toy to slam on the sidewalk until it breaks, and because this one is owned by the biggest Internet company on the block, no wonder these young fellows are so gleeful.

It remains to be seen how easily the Google Trends team can make their product "grief" proof.

Comments

[Sigh]

Close but missed a MAJOR point.. 4chan is where many different people post about different things! Hell check out the forum! The posts don't last but for a few hours or minutes, as the pages are not stored in history. It's constantly different.

As to the culture jamming, usually groups of hackers under some flag, do these 'raids'. It's a erroneous to say all of chan did it. Insurgents or /I/, a section of the forum did it.

When I read about the swastika in the news, after reading Jessie Jackson's comments about Obama, I knew it not chance that they rose on the same day, nuf' said.

[hypewagon.com]

I think you are obsessed with watching 4chan. When in fact 4chan is a site for kids, and google bombing is the most simple and beginner form of hacking and server wars.

This is just kids play and you write columns about it?

Kids need to experiment on the internet, learning how to destroy and rebuild the internet is part of learning computer science and many advanced high paying programming jobs.

Many kids go from spam and grief, to hacking, and then on to linux server administration jobs.

Writing a column about the Swastika only makes the kids pull more stunts, way to go!

[David Sarno]

Hypewagon: It's hard not to be interested in 4chan when they keep figuring out ways to get themselves in the news. As the recent articles in Time and WSJ note, they're one of the biggest hotbeds of online memes. It may be mostly rowdy young people, but that doesn't make what they do any less newsworthy, in my opinion. The younger, web-savvy demographics are the ones that, as you pointed out, will be in the Internet's driver seat in a few years. What they're doing has implications for everyone else.

[David]

4chan does not exist. Move along.

[ugh]

what is wrong with these people, shoving swastkas in little kids' faces. maybe they should be charged with a hate crime and those living in the US should be prosecuted. if that is their idea of fun, this might adjust their attitudes on the subject. after all, "free speech" only takes one so far these days...

[David]

I don't agree that it's a particularly "nasty" result.

Here's another article to provide some more context - http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article4173635.ece

[Anonymous]

No such thing as 4chan.

[lishnetzy]

I don't see why this is a big idea. The internet is suppose to be a public forum, a virtual community if you will. Google's search engine is nothing more than a record of that community, and Google Trends could be likened to a Best Seller list. It's only purpose is to describe the activity of the larger community at a given time in history. To be angry at anyone for propelling something up the list on Google Trends makes about as much sense as saying Oprah Winfrey is causing trouble by promoting her book club. She is, in effect, influencing her audience to go out and purchase that book. An action that has propelled more than one novel up the NY TImes Best Seller List. It's just a record, quit crying about it. People have a right to be people, you can't control every action, and sometimes people are offensive, so what?

[Anon]

4chan did not do it, it was ebaumsworld.

[Terryeo]

Indeed! As we enjoy a more free communication, so too with schoolyard bullys, semi-literates and disruptive elements. In days gone past it took great effort to rouse a demonstration. Today it takes only a few phrases on a disruptive website, a few minutes of discussion, and a few dozen computers running dedicated software. People dedicated to disrupting normal communication have found their comfort zone on the internet.

[anonymous]

ugh, the swastika is actually a symbol of piece to.

I'm just assuming your trolling actually, the whole comment makes no sense.

[David]

How exactly is this news? You live a very sad life if you sit on 4chan all day just to write ignorant and ill-informed article stubs about things that happen every day.

Get a life. You're not insightful or edgy because you just discovered a website that's been around for 4 years.

[John Doe]

Wow, your writing about a website that no one really cares about when there are more interesting topics at bay. You sir need to turn off your computer go outside and then take a nice breath of fresh air, then realiese its not fresh and do something about world pollution.

Google is a big boy now it can defend itself, also if google didn't change it sure than means they don't like the majority of people "CARE".

[David]

INTERNET IS SERIOUS BUSINESS

[D. David]

who gives a s**t*?
This is the internet, not real life.

[anonymous]

For the lulz, boys. For the lulz.

[Anna]

Once again some newspaper is watching 4chan.
4chan is just a picture board where ANYTHING can be posted. Everyone seems to have it in their heads that 4chan is this "internet hate machine" when really it is just a bunch of teenagers having fun. Let them have their fun, they'll soon grow out of it.
All this news on 4chan is getting old. So give it a rest.

[anonymous]

4chan is a lie

[Shacklebolt]

Scientology may indeed be a cult, but these anonymous mask-wearing website-hacking "kids" (and I use that term loosely - many of these 4chan troublemakers are middle aged and living at home) are far more dangerous. Committing vandalism and hate crimes are NOT just "kids' play"!

[DV]

The Habbo Hotel raid was a tribute to a very similar raid that happened a few years back.

[David]

Searching for a swastika on Google is now "vandalism" and "hate crimes" - what? Harly like spraying it on the wall of a synagogue, now is it? Reminds me more of the musical The Producers.

[Jeremy]

David Sarno, you are very new to the internet and you don't really understand it. I say get another job or write about something else.

[anonymous]

$cientology is a cult

[anonymous]

For everyone that has called these acts vandalism, remember that they are only as permanent as people's memories. This is not a wall or someone else's property that they then have to repair. It removes itself.

For everyone complaining about their children being exposed to "hate", you may consider actively participating in their lives and education. Seeing a swastika means nothing to child that doesn't understand it, and evokes nothing if you take the mystique away from it. Don't raise your children to have their feeling prayed upon by strangers.

[Mary]

This is article reeks of conspiracy theory and little substance.. Big deal if "Scientology is a cult" got on the list. It's not as if it's a lie. Meanwhile, by adding ayour comment about 'the case of the swastika' story ( which seems to have been the work of one prankster and not intentional), you make it look like Chan4 is some evil group basing religions. How much did the Church of Scientology pay you to write this story? I ask because it's fiction, just like the fiction they put in that Pinellas County, FL injunction request against the nongroup they called Anonymous, an injunction request the judge wisely threw out.

The prankster who got many others to post the code without them knowing it would put the word 'swastika' on the google trends list did what I would call a terrible thing because the intention was to hurt the feeliing of Jews and others who know what the symbol really means. Comparing that to a bunch of people doing a search for 'scientolgy is a cult' to get the word out before another worldwide protest was to commense it what I would call smart marketing at the expense of a weak google system. These kids should be acknowledged for being smart enough to get a truthful message out about a fraudulent organization' at Googl's expense. The prankster issue is a separate, individual unrelated matter to this. Shame on you and the LA Times.