The dissemination of hateful memes online has adverse effects on social media platforms and the real world.
These results suggest that whiledeplatforming may precede a reduction in targeted discussions within a specific platform, it can incentivize users to seek alternative platforms where thesediscussions are less regulated and often more extreme.As these alternative spaces are often more political and extreme than their mainstream counterparts, deplatforming may drive single-platform improvements at the expense of the larger information ecosystem. Third, examining the language in these spaces, toxic discourseincreased briefly on Reddit and Twitter but returned to normal after the deplatforming, while Gab became more toxic. Second, focusing on platforms that were created to be alternative, anti-censorshipspaces, deplatforming preceded a sustained increase in engagement with Gabacross Twitter, Reddit, and Google search, while Parler saw a steep decline inengagement. We identify three key patterns: First, in studyingthe platforms that emerged among users seeking alternative spaces, we see highfrequencies of users bridging these communities announcing their intent to joinnon-mainstream platforms to their audiences on mainstream platforms. At thesame time, alternative platforms like Gab, BitChute, and Parler welcomed thesedeplatformed individuals. Following theattack, several major platforms banned thousands of accounts, ostensibly tolimit misinformation about voter fraud and suppress calls for violence. We study changes in social media usage following the ‘Great Deplatforming’ inthe aftermath of the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol. We describe alternative mechanisms that /b/ participants use to establish status and frame their interactions. Our sec-ond study is an analysis of identity signals on 4chan, finding that over 90% of posts are made by fully anony-mous users, with other identity signals adopted and dis-carded at will. We find that most threads spend just five seconds on the first page and less than five minutes on the site before expiring. Our first study uses a large dataset of more than five million posts to quantify ephemerality in /b/. We begin by describing /b/ and performing a content analysis that suggests the community is dom-inated by playful exchanges of images and links. Although re-searchers and practitioners often assume that user iden-tity and data permanence are central tools in the design of online communities, we explore how /b/ succeeds de-spite being almost entirely anonymous and extremely ephemeral. We present two studies of online ephemerality and anonymity based on the popular discussion board /b/ at : a website with over 7 million users that plays an influential role in Internet culture.
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