The online community 4chan has found itself in the spotlight ever since its users launched an amateur investigation into the Boston Marathon bombings, bringing their technological savvy and dedication together in an unauthorized and unofficial effort to identify who was behind the terror attack.
Over the past four days, the anonymous 4chan message boards have seen a seemingly endless stream of photographs of possible "suspects," news items and tips, but one post in particular refuses to go away.
The item in question was posted at 6:42 p.m. EDT Monday, within hours of the attacks, along with a well-known press photo of the one of the explosion sites, and it lays out a detailed series of predictions about how the federal investigation into the attacks will proceed, and what the anonymous poster believes will happen once it concludes.
“I work on a security commission and I’ve just received word to start campaigning on a campaign we’ve been working on for the last two months and now it all makes sense.”
“They’re going to pin this event on a male late teens to early 20′s and say he did it because he’s unstable. They are going to find firearms and a NRA book in his home. They are going to say he used reloading powder for the explosion and that reloading powder shouldn’t be for sale to the public. They are then going to say that because the powder in ammunition can be used for explosions that the number of rounds you can buy should be limited and taxed to help pay for these events.”
“I can’t do anything or I’ll lose my job and possibly face criminal charges. Please don’t let them get away with it. They won’t find the suspect till later this week and the raid is issued to occur on Friday. This was a staged event. The people hurt are real but the event was planned. Don’t let them hurt our rights.”
There is no way to verify who posted the message, and the claims' veracity or lack thereof will only be revealed via the passage of time, but the assertion is not going away. A screenshot of the original post continues to pop up periodically on 4chan's various message boards dedicated to political and news topics, and it has slowly spread via Facebook, and Twitter as well.
But the original post itself is gone forever as 4chan does not archive its content, as explained on the community's Frequently Asked Questions page:
"Threads expire and are pruned by 4chan's software at a relatively high rate. Since most boards are limited to eleven or sixteen pages, content is usually available for only a few hours or days before it is removed," one FAQ answer reads, while another adds that, "content that expires is removed from our system, and archives are not available. Please do not e-mail us requesting content that has been pruned, for it is impossible for us to assist you."
So the identity of the poster behind the "false flag" conspiracy theory that has gone semi-viral in the days since the Boston Marathon terror attack will most likely never be revealed, but Friday will be the first indication of whether his or her predictions have any truth to them.
http://s2.ibtimes.com/4chan-false-fl...friday-1202073
Bookmarks