2ch

The "old Dvach", 2ch.ru, was launched in February 2006 by Vikentiy Fesunov (kentturbo) and allegedly administered by Konstantin Grusha (Zoi), who also co-owned several other Russian websites, such as ru:Bash.im and anime.ru. Its userbase were mostly anime fans, influenced by 4chan, 2channel and Russian communities popular at the time, especially LiveJournal bloggers.

2ch.ru was the first Russian-language imageboard. Later in 2007 some other websites were created, including Iichan, a heavily moderated imageboard, a "polite and non-toxic" alternative to Dvach, and now defunct 0chan, an imageboard for tech geeks, which later developed in a refugee for Dvach users.

In January 2009, 2ch.ru was closed. The domain name was still owned by Vikentiy so that nobody would claim it. Some of the users went to 0chan, but numerous copies of Dvach were also launched, most notable being 2-ch.ru, known as Tirech (from тире "dash"), run by Vitalik and his moderation team.

In November 2010, Vitalik resigned as an administrator, and a user Abu succeeded him. He would later reveal in an interview to his former classmate, a Russian YouTube blogger Ilya Varlamov, that he had bought 2-ch for 10 000 dollars. Abu tolerated some of the derogatory and mocking names given to him and the board by the users, like Macaque or Sosach. He used images of Abu from the Disney cartoon as avatars.[6]

Abu changed the moderation team and banned some of the former moderators for their abuse of tripcodes and avatars. He also repressed many in-site user communities, such as Rozen Maiden and My Little Pony fans, child porn posters, anime fans posting outside of /a/ board, etc.

Unlike previous owners and copy-cats, who tried to preserve the original image of Dvach, Abu introduced many innovations. The welcoming message was changed to Добро пожаловать. Снова. ("Welcome. Again."), becoming an informal slogan of 2ch.hk. The site started using Macaba, a custom version of widespread Wakaba engine. Abu gained users' criticism for promoting the imageboard in social networks such as Twitter and VK. When the board was advertized in MDK, one of the largest VK communities, the 2ch thread discussing this fact was deleted by Abu, who received moderator's position in the community.

Abu also introduced subscriptions to the site, "passcodes", which allow users who have bought them to avoid captcha and attach up to eight images to their posts instead of default four.[7][8]

In 2011, Abu was doxxed. His identity was revealed as a 27 years old SEO-specialist from Moscow, an ethnic Azerbaijani Nariman Namazov (Russian: Нариман Намазов). Initially, Abu tried to ridicule and dismiss the revealing, but in 2013 it was confirmed. Since then he would officially represent 2ch.hk in media and even address the users with annual New Year speeches.

In September 2016, during alleged DDoS-attacks on 2ch.hk, a state-affiliated company Mail.Ru, which owned a popular e-mail service, as well as VK, the largest Russian social network, provided its services to defend the website. It's widely believed that 2ch.hk was sold to the company, facing major criticism of the users. The speculated deal raised concerns about disclosure of the users' data and violating anonimity principles. Many users have left the website, and a large part of them migrated to Lolifox, a Brazilian imageboard, later abandoned by its original users and completely taken over by Russians.[2][3]

After accidents such as terrorist attacks or mass shootings, 2ch users pranked people on social networks with fake epytaphs featuring the site owner Nariman Namazov or former porn star Sasha Grey as victims or perpetrators. Compare it to Sam Hyde hoaxes of 4chan.[18][19]

In 2015, Sasha Grey reacted to it, denying the rumor that she was murdered during the War in Donbass.[20][21]

Sometimes even major Russian media fall for the pranks. In January 2019, Novaya Gazeta reported that according to its sources, the perpetrator of 2018 Magnitogorsk gas explosion was "Norimonov Namazjon Wakabliyevich", later refuting this information.[22][23]

In September 2017, a 2ch user placed a large poster with the Sisyan meme on a railway bridge during a Navalny demonstration in Novosibirsk.[13][24]

In November 2018, three activists installed a Putin doll with inscription "War criminal Pynya V.V." in Perm. All of them were arrested.[25][26]

In August 2015, the /g/ ("naked girls") board was blocked in Russia for alleged posting of child porn.[27]

In May 2017, 2ch was blocked in Ukraine, along with other services hosted by Mail.Ru.[28][29]

In November 2019, Russian Internet regulator demanded 2ch to delete posts degrading state symbols, threatening it with blocking.[30]

Official Twitter account of 2ch was blocked on 14 March 2020. In their new account, 2ch representatives said it was due to copyright infringiment, but users speculated that it was related to a conflict with Russian feminist activists.[31]

In March 2020, 2ch was temporarily blocked due to COVID-19 misinformation.[32]

Back in 2011, 2ch users were accused in DDoS attacks against opposition websites[33]/

After Kerch school shooting incident the accounts of the perpetrator Vladislav Roslyakov were hacked, and his direct messages were posted on 2ch. He gained a lot of fans on the site. Threads about him are still thriving on /fag/ ("faggotry") board among the threads about Internet celebritites.[34][35][36]

In July 2019, hackers stole 7.5 TB of data from the SyTech company, an FSB contractor. They have also defaced the company's website with Yoba meme.[37]

In October 2019, a 2ch user hacked the website of NATO Rapid Deployable Corps – Italy. He replaced the info about the corps commander with a mocking biography of Nariman Namazov. He also placed a link to 2ch.hk, accompanied by the Yoba meme.[38]

2ch is often criticized for their attitude towards women.

In April 2016, 2ch users massively deanonymized Russian porn actresses, outing them to their friends and families. They used FindFace, a face recognition service that searched in the photos uploaded on the VK.[39][40]

In early 2020, 2ch users doxxed Russian women who participated in a porn-horror video by Till Lindemann, a Rammstein vocalist. The users criticised them for "degrading the image of Russian women". Russian feminist activist Zalina Marshenkulova, who stood up for the women, accused 2ch users of death threats and cyberbullying against her.[5][41]

Users from the site often attack Russian celebrities.

In October 2019, Russian comedian Garik Kharlamov was claimed "cuckold" after his wife Kristina Asmus was filmed in an erotic scene in the Text movie. The couple later divorced, they said it was not related to the 2ch trolling.[42][43][44]

In March 2020, a TV host Andrey Malakhov was called "the chief scavenger" in the official 2ch Twitter for hyping on tragedies and deadly incidents.[45]

Despite being described as toxic and harmful community, 2ch has many times helped with finding criminals.

In October 2016, 2ch doxxed two teenage girls from Khabarovsk who bragged about torturing animals and offending homeless people in their social networks. They got prison sentences.[46][47]

In February 2019, users disclosed a child porn studio in Kyiv, Ukraine. The officials arrested its organisers.[48]

In February 2020, a 2ch user posted photos from a hospital, claiming to be a male nurse, and said that he "loves disabling the ventilators and watching the agony of dying old (World War II) veterans". He said that he had already killed more than ten people. Then the 2ch users doxxed him. Sergey Kalinin, 26, from Perm apologized and said that it was just a prank and he actually didn't kill anyone. He was fired from the hospital.[49][50]