During a keynote speech today at SXSW, 4chan founder Chris Poole (or "moot" as he"s known online) addressed two things: for one, he spoke about his currently upcoming new venture, Canvas; and secondly, he called out Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, on privacy.
4chan is notoriously known for going against the grain during this digital age and keeping its users anonymous. In accordance with that, or not, it has become one of the most popular image boards on the Internet and is credited, or blamed, for countless of Internet memes — all of which are now part of pop culture.
Poole agreed that the reason for that is because "we value content over creator," according to The Telegraph. So it"s no surprise that Poole doesn"t exactly see eye to eye with Zuckerberg on privacy. In fact, in an interview for The Facebook Effect in 2009, Zuckerberg said that the idea of having different identities for yourself "is an example of lack of integrity."
Poole spoke back today: "Anonymity is authenticity; it allows you to share in a completely unfiltered way. It allows you to play in ways you might not if people knew who you are,” as reported by MSNBC. As for Zuckerberg correlating anonymity with cowardice, Poole said he was "totally wrong."
He continued that anonymity allows people to make mistakes and losing that is "a kind of loss of the innocence of youth." He said that if you ever make a mistake on the Internet, it"s with you no matter where you go. However, on 4chan, if you make a mistake, it"s forgotten an hour later and everyone just moves on.
Ironically enough, Poole closed by saying Canvas will use Facebook Connect, though your profile won"t be shared with anyone else. As for what Canvas is, Poole stated that it isn"t 4chan.