Netflix fans divided over new documentary about 4chan

Netflix has dropped a new documentary that examines how 2chan turned into 4chan, and 4chan descended into chaos and spawned the QAnon movement, but it’s left viewers divided. 

The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem gives context to America’s internet culture, looking at how 4chan went from being a simple imageboard to a far-right wasteland, and how meme culture evolved into the conspiracy theorists who stormed the Capitol. 

Just as the origins of 4chan and its users aren’t straightforward, so too are opinions on the forum. An online debate was started after hundreds of people took to the comments section of the documentary’s trailer to make in-jokes and problematic remarks. 

Redditor u/shittymoviedetails shared a screenshot of one of the problematic comments, writing sarcastically: “The comments on Antisocial Network’s, a documentary about 4chan’s antisemitic and real life negative effects, trailer is massively disliked, as 4chan is obviously not antisemitic or racist in any way. (Please ignore that comment).”

In response to the thread, one person wrote: “I know logically that there are people who use 4chan, but like… it boggles me that there are people who use 4chan. I don’t know why anybody would voluntarily go to 4chan and start browsing it, because literally the only context in which I have ever seen people talk about it is ‘4chan is the literal worst place on the internet’.”

“Are people still using 4chan? All my friends that I knew on it have grown out of it by now. I didn’t know if young people were getting into it,” asked another, to which the OP replied, “No it’s just kids on YouTube who think 4chan are epic hackers and not just incels and porn addicts.”

A third, who sits more in the middle of the debate, said: “Some of the niche boards aren’t really much worse than any other place on the internet. I spent a fair amount of time on the traditional games board when I was younger. But most of that place is enough of a cesspool that I do not wish to be associated with 4chan in any way.”

But a 4chan native took to the thread to suggest that the documentary isn’t well done. “Having been on 4chan since 2008 and seeing stuff firsthand, the opening about 2006-2008 trolling is fun but shallow. The rest is just pure political propaganda,” they commented. “It’s an absolute worthless doc.”

On the opposite side of the fence, an X user stated, “Y’all have GOT to watch The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem documentary on Netflix ASAP,” adding, “I had NO IDEA that Anonymous was birthed from 4chan!”

If you’d like to form your own opinion, The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem is streaming on Netflix now. You can find more documentaries to watch here, and check out the best movies heading to streaming this month here.