Christopher Poole, who was the founder of the controversial site, 4Chan, has been recently hired by Google. It is speculated that Poole will attempt to help Google with its social media aspects, an area where the company is greatly lacking and Poole stated through a post of Tumblr that he would like to contribute his experience from a dozen years, creating online communities. Although Google announced in November 2015 that they will release a social network that will be similar to pinterest and reddit, this announcement did not receive much attention. Poole's involvement may possibly turn the audience around for the better.
- Described by Rolling Stone as the “Mark Zuckerberg of the online underground”
- Poole founded 4chan in 2003 when he was just 15 years old.
- Today the site claims to attract 22 million unique visitors per month.
- 4chan has also gained a reputation as a breeding ground for abuse, trolling and online harassment.
- In January 2015, Poole retired from running 4chan, and in September 2015, the site was sold to a Japanese entrepreneur.
Google being a massive, leading institution, will greatly benefit from Poole's involvement to help them increase their reputation in terms of social media. However, since Poole is notorious for running a site that is a hub for online abuse and harassment, if there is a negative outcome from any of Poole's future projects, Google will also be greatly damaged and will become mistrusted.
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