Complete anonymity on 4chan powered both internet joke culture and antisocial cruelty.

Evidence

4chan’s policy of complete anonymity made it a free-for-all—and an even more powerful laboratory for the internet’s in-jokes. Rickrolling, a bait-and-switch meme linking users to Rick Astley’s cheesy 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up,” was born there, along with countless other internet tropes. … Yet 4chan’s lack of accountability also unleashed darker forces: “Trolling” for “lulz” (a slang term for laughs) often crossed into harassment and cruelty. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 181

Categorization

• SHARE: The ‘moot”/4chan origin of rickrolling is exactly the kind of tidbit a specific internet-culture friend would enjoy.
• XREF: connects to: Online trading memes from Reddit and 4chan shaped offline neopopulist politics — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 391