Google Hires Christopher Poole Of Notorious Website 4chan, Home Of Anonymous And The Fappening

Google has hired Christopher Poole, the founder of notorious website 4chan — a forum that is seen as one of the darkest corners of the internet. Poole, who is known as “moot” online, announced the news of his new position on blogging site Tumblr Monday.

"When meeting with current and former Googlers, I continually find myself drawn to their intelligence, passion, and enthusiasm — as well as a universal desire to share it with others,” Poole said. "I'm also impressed by Google's commitment to enabling these same talented people to tackle some of the world's most interesting and important problems.”

Poole, who created the 4chan site in 2003 when he was 15 years old, also said: “I can't wait to contribute my own experience from a dozen years of building online communities, and to begin the next chapter of my career at such an incredible company."

According to reports, Poole will be working closely with Bradley Horowitz, the head of "streams, photos and sharing" at the search giant's floundering social network, Google+.

Horowitz took to his Twitter account Monday to welcome Poole.

Poole announced last year that the website has been sold to the person who inspired him to create it almost 12 years ago — Hiroyuki Nishimura.

The site, 4chan, was created by Poole for fans of anime and manga to meet online, and its more than 22 million users are allowed to post anonymously in threads covering everything from cooking and video games to the paranormal and graphic pornography. The forum also made internet memes like Lolcats, Caturday and Rickrolling popular.

Soon after Rickrolling became popular, the Anonymous hacking collective used 4chan as a platform to attack the Church of Scientology in 2008, the group’s first major demonstration. The hacking collective took its name from the “Anonymous” nature of 4chan’s posting system.

The online bulletin board gained more mainstream attention in 2014 after naked images of celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence, Kim Kardashian and Vanessa Hudgens appeared on it after they were stolen from users' iCloud accounts — an incident known as the Fappening.