4chan Chronicle/Operation Payback

(Sept 2009–2012)

With /b/ delighting in its own decadence, there was little actual action or reaction from the community. The last major campaign on the board was February 2010's Operation Titstorm, the culmination of a series of bad vibes between the Internet and the Australian government that attempts to censor it, taking its origins from Operation Didgeridie.

From then on, almost all actions performed against any organization or government that attempted against free speech, piracy or relevant matter would be conducted by groups that called themselves "Anonymous". With Operation Payback 4chan would slowly fade from being the source of most Internet warfare, with various groups taking the spotlight. Since 4chan was constantly filled with spam, uninteresting threads, and trolls, the new groups migrated to their own communities to continue their campaigns. The new hacktivists, "Anonymous", would proceed to strike government sites, Visa, MasterCard and others in retaliation for censorship attempts during Operation Payback and WikiLeaks's loss of funding during Operation Avenge Assange.