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Downloaded from
YTS.MX
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[somber music playing]
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX
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[mouse clicking and scrolling]
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[man 1] You can fix code.
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You can't fix people.
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I always like to say
that the weakest part of any system
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is the people that put it together.
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Fifteen years ago,
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we were just dumbass kids
having a good time
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- sharing jokes and memes on the internet.
- [sound distorting]
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{\an8}Do we even know?
Who is this 4chan person or website?
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[Alex Trebek] 4chan.org
is a collaborative community
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known for posting these on the net. Tom?
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- What are photographs?
- [Trebek] Yes.
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[man 1] We were using subversive humor
to make fun of the world.
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[newscaster 1] Their name comes
from their secret website.
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[man 1] Not understanding
that the jokes we made
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would turn into conspiracy theories.
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[creepy, distorted music]
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[man 1] And next thing you know,
the entire world
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turned into this disinformation-pumping
gigantic chanosphere.
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[newscaster 2] Conspiracy theories
saturate the internet.
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[newscaster 3] This misinformation
has reshaped our society.
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{\an8}[man 1] We started something and
never intended for it to end up this way.
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[people shouting]
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[protestors chanting] USA!
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[man 1] And now I'm just trying to
clean up what I see as my old mistakes.
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[music ends]
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[digital distortion rises and fades out]
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[wind gusting]
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{\an8}[purring]
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[man 2] I was about ten years old
when I first got into computers.
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{\an8}- [pensive synthesizer music playing]
- I would start playing sick at home
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{\an8}to get out of school.
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The only phone line in the house
was in the living room,
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but my computer was upstairs.
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I would take one of my parent's checks,
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open up an AOL account,
and go online on AOL all day.
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[modem dialing, staticky burst]
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And then an hour before my mom and dad
were gonna be coming home from work,
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I would get on the phone
with AOL to cancel the account.
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[staticky burst]
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[Fuxnet] I felt like
the coolest criminal child in the world.
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I think I was 12
when we first got the internet.
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{\an8}I definitely was super curious,
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{\an8}looking up stuff
I probably should not have been.
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I specifically remember one instance,
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my stepdad approached me
after dinner one night.
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He's like, "Why did you look up sex.com?"
[laughing]
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- And I got in so much trouble.
- [erotic moaning]
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I wasn't allowed online
for like a week after that. [chuckles]
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[cell door slamming]
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{\an8}From my perspective, as a kid, you know,
there was always just internet.
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- Chat rooms, forums, bulletin boards.
- [pensive synthesizer music continues]
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Having an online persona
as a way to get outside myself.
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Kirtaner is loud, brash,
take-no-prisoners.
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It was an inverse
of how I was in real life.
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[crying echoing]
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[Fuxnet] I didn't understand that
I had anxiety, but I knew that I felt
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strange being in groups of people.
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So, the internet became a place for me to
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be comfortable.
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I would just go online,
see what other people were talking about,
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attempt to join in.
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There was this whole other world
of people that I could talk to.
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[upbeat synthesizer music]
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I would talk to people
about video games, anime.
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At the time, Japanese anime
was blowing up in a big way.
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American children's entertainment,
it's pretty lame for the most part.
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The Japanese stuff was just cooler than
all the other stuff on TV at the time.
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[all] Power Rangers!
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[Kirtaner] Throughout the '90s,
it felt like Japanese culture
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was taking over the world.
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- [crowd cheering faintly]
- [music fades out]
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[passersby chattering]
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[man] I'd always wanted to live in Japan.
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{\an8}To us Gen-Xers,
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{\an8}Japan was the place that made all the cool
stuff that we so desperately wanted.
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- [ambient digital music playing]
- In the '90s and early 2000s,
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Japan was a Petri dish for all sorts
of technological innovations.
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[crowd cheering]
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[Alt] Most Japanese accessed
the internet not off of PCs,
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but on cell phones,
which had really limited bandwidth.
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It starts to create strange new systems
for communication, like the emoji.
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And 2channel
was yet another example of this.
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2channel is an anonymous
bulletin board system.
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Being totally anonymous gave young people
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the opportunity to vent
their thoughts and opinions
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without fear of being judged for it.
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It was pretty primitive looking,
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but, you know, connecting people,
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being able to find your tribe,
it was absolutely revolutionary.
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[high-pitched tinkling]
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[Alt] And it was
instantly popular with otaku.
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Otaku are adults who had no interest
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in any of the traditional trappings
of adulthood.
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2channel let them
dive deeper into their fantasy lives.
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The visual aspect also made it
a lot easier for Westerners to access.
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One of them was a mysterious figure
who went by the handle "moot."
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[ominous synth music playing]
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[Alt] He downloaded
a copy of 2chan's software
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and then he launched it
under the name 4chan.
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4chan.net,
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an English version of 2chan.net.
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[distorted digital burst]
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[Kirtaner] First time I saw 4chan
was the first day it was online.
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- [lighter flicking, bong bubbling]
- [Kirtaner] If I'm remembering correctly.
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[giggling, coughing]
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It was like a hodgepodge
of anything you could think of.
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{\an8}[meowing]
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{\an8}[Amanda] Things that you would not see
anywhere else online except for there.
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There was definitely a lot
of stuff that was... super edgy.
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{\an8}[straw sucking]
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[Fuxnet] To my young brain...
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- [8-bit video game sounds]
- ...it was really cool. [chuckling]
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[Kirtaner] You could say whatever you want
and it was not associated with you.
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Nobody knew who you were,
you were anonymous.
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{\an8}[8-bit video game music playing]
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{\an8}Being able to post things anonymously,
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{\an8}with an image, didn't exist
anywhere else on the internet.
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During the summer of 2004,
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a friend hits me up and is like,
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"Hey, do you want to
come on as a programmer?"
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And I'm like, "Okay."
I like programming. So, why not?
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Moot was very mysterious.
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No one knew what he looked like.
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No one knew his real name,
or where he lived.
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But he created something we all wanted.
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Like, this is what the internet should be.
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You can communicate with anyone all over
the world, in any way you want.
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[upbeat music playing]
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[Kirtaner] It was a glorious time,
those early first few years.
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Like, we ate, breathed, slept that shit.
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We formed our own language, our own lingo.
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[dog barking]
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Most of it, not exactly culturally
acceptable in this day and age.
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{\an8}- [mouse clicking]
- [chiming]
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{\an8}[The Fonz, distorted] Ey.
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{\an8}4chan loved making these inside jokes
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{\an8}that people outside
the community wouldn't get.
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{\an8}"For the Lulz" was a term.
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[Fuxnet] "The lulz" is a bastardization
of "laugh out loud."
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You would make a funny meme,
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post it, you refresh,
all of a sudden, you've got 100 replies.
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Everybody's laughing,
joking, modifying it.
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You've got that dopamine rush.
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You just wanted another hit,
another taste.
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Viral imagery blasting in your eyeballs.
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You didn't want the party to stop.
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[chaotic overlapping sounds]
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The site worked in this Darwinian way,
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{\an8}where the most interesting posts,
the posts that got the most replies,
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{\an8}would be bumped to the top of the site,
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and all the other ones
would fall away and die.
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[man screaming]
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{\an8}[Beran] The game was
to post something interesting,
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that was funny,
that people would reply to,
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that would essentially survive
on the site more than a second.
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[Fuxnet] You're constantly getting
new content, and it just keeps you hooked.
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That was the beginning of the format
of what became social media nowadays,
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what they call the endless scroll.
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[digital whooshing]
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[Kirtaner] We were just watching
this thing grow and evolve
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and slowly take over all of our minds.
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[dark, distorted music playing]
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[Alt] What the 4chan users didn't know
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was that 2channel's effect
on Japanese society was profound.
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2channel spawned
all sorts of extreme behavior.
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[dark music continues]
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[Alt] Like the Neomugicha incident,
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where a kid who had been egged on
by 2channel users
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hijacked a city bus,
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and he actually killed
one of the passengers with a knife.
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It sparked a whole lot of debate
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about the impact of having
a totally anonymous website.
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[speaking Japanese] Undoubtedly,
the internet is a hotbed of crimes.
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People are posting irresponsible comments
because it's anonymous.
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[Alt, in English] The things
that we saw happening in Japan
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were about to come to the West,
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but we just didn't know it
yet at the time.
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- [upbeat music playing]
- [crowd cheering]
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Ladies and gentlemen,
boys and girls, otaku of all ages,
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welcome to the 2005 Otakon show.
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[crowd cheering]
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[man 1] Otakon is an anime convention
that started in Baltimore.
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At the time, it was one
of the largest in the country,
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and where the very first
official 4chan panel happened.
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Going from spending so much time on 4chan
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to being in a physical space with
thousands of people was pretty surreal.
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Growing up, I lived a very sheltered life.
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{\an8}I was bullied in grade school,
my parents weren't supportive,
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{\an8}no one cared about what I was
interested in and what I was into.
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{\an8}And I'm just like, I gotta
find some way of dealing with this.
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And so, going into the anime scene
was kind of an escape for me.
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I can drop the pretense. I don't have
to pretend. I can be who I am.
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[crowd cheering]
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00:12:00,803 --> 00:12:03,889
[Will] And I actually did
this whole comedy skit,
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but as soon as it was over,
walked all the way downstairs,
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and I sat in the front row
of the first 4chan panel in 2005.
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[man 2] This will be
on BitTorrent tomorrow.
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[man 3 laughing]
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[Alt] Up at the front of the room
you have the 4chan guys,
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who are giving this
PowerPoint presentation, or trying to...
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00:12:22,283 --> 00:12:25,995
about this new website that they'd made.
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[Amanda] Despite everyone
being completely anonymous,
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it felt like there were these people
that were kind of celebrities.
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It was funny because we hadn't
even posted our photos before,
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no one knew what we looked like.
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{\an8}People didn't really think
moot was actually a person.
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Come up here.
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Moot is in this room,
and he's coming up on stage right now.
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Oh my God!
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[man 4] That's not moot.
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Bullshit.
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Hi. I'm known as moot.
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- [crowd cheering]
- [man 4 boos]
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[Snacks] Moot was this teenage boy wearing
a blue Polo shirt, with chubby cheeks,
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00:13:00,279 --> 00:13:02,490
and a New York Yankees hat.
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00:13:02,490 --> 00:13:04,200
I don't know what I was expecting,
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00:13:04,200 --> 00:13:07,411
but moot definitely wasn't
what anyone was expecting.
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00:13:07,411 --> 00:13:09,163
[upbeat synthesizer music playing]
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00:13:09,163 --> 00:13:12,750
[Fuxnet] There was a little bit
of a celebrity to it, you know?
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This was moot, the guy who created 4chan.
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00:13:14,794 --> 00:13:20,341
And then we browsed over three million
pages a day, and that's a lot of porn.
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00:13:20,341 --> 00:13:22,468
- [crowd laughing]
- [moot] Elsewhere...
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00:13:23,677 --> 00:13:27,223
[Snacks] I think the most exciting thing
about doing a panel with our users
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00:13:27,223 --> 00:13:30,935
was realizing that this is bigger
than we thought it was.
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00:13:30,935 --> 00:13:34,146
- [crowd chattering]
- [man 5] Wrong way!
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00:13:34,146 --> 00:13:37,900
You can see thousands of posts
per day from all over the world,
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but not realize
how you are affecting these people.
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We weren't really seeing ourselves
as anything special.
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We were just a bunch of kids having fun
234
00:13:48,494 --> 00:13:52,456
{\an8}that somehow made something
that was bigger than us.
235
00:13:52,456 --> 00:13:54,708
{\an8}[distorted laughter]
236
00:13:54,708 --> 00:13:59,088
[Beran] 4chan establishes itself
as this goofy, creative place,
237
00:13:59,088 --> 00:14:00,840
and these jokes they're creating,
238
00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:03,425
they start to make
their way outside of 4chan.
239
00:14:03,968 --> 00:14:08,347
An early popular meme was linked to
something someone really wanted to see.
240
00:14:09,557 --> 00:14:11,016
["Never Gonna Give You Up" playing]
241
00:14:11,016 --> 00:14:14,728
And instead, it would link to Rick Astley
singing "Never Gonna Give You Up."
242
00:14:14,728 --> 00:14:16,814
- People got "Rickrolled."
- [song distorting, ending]
243
00:14:16,814 --> 00:14:18,566
[newscaster] A friend sends you a link,
244
00:14:18,566 --> 00:14:22,069
but when you click on the link,
up pops this instead.
245
00:14:22,069 --> 00:14:24,113
["Never Gonna Give You Up" playing]
246
00:14:24,113 --> 00:14:25,364
You've been Rickrolled.
247
00:14:25,364 --> 00:14:26,490
[whimsical music playing]
248
00:14:26,490 --> 00:14:29,493
[Fuxnet] We were
essentially trolling people.
249
00:14:30,286 --> 00:14:32,288
Trolling is like performance art.
250
00:14:35,291 --> 00:14:39,253
The idea is to digitally pants someone
and have everyone point and laugh.
251
00:14:41,338 --> 00:14:43,549
At least, that's the fun spirit of it.
252
00:14:44,049 --> 00:14:44,967
[creepy laughter]
253
00:14:44,967 --> 00:14:47,887
So, they got together and wanted
to do these collective pranks,
254
00:14:47,887 --> 00:14:51,098
and they would all say,
"Let's go mess with this person."
255
00:14:51,098 --> 00:14:53,142
"Let's go and ruin other websites."
256
00:14:53,142 --> 00:14:54,643
[whimsical music continues]
257
00:14:54,643 --> 00:14:57,688
[Fuxnet] Habbo Hotel was
an online browser-based game.
258
00:14:57,688 --> 00:14:59,607
It was a chatroom essentially,
259
00:14:59,607 --> 00:15:03,611
but you could go
to different virtual spaces.
260
00:15:04,570 --> 00:15:06,864
There was a rumor that Habbo Hotel
261
00:15:06,864 --> 00:15:09,950
was removing users
who were using Black avatars.
262
00:15:10,743 --> 00:15:12,870
The 4chan users decided,
263
00:15:12,870 --> 00:15:16,957
hey, we're going to create
Black characters with Afros and suits,
264
00:15:16,957 --> 00:15:18,584
and we're going to go en masse
265
00:15:18,584 --> 00:15:22,880
onto Habbo Hotel
and just block access to entire areas.
266
00:15:24,048 --> 00:15:26,592
[Kirtaner] We were blocking
the entrances to the pool.
267
00:15:26,592 --> 00:15:30,638
The infamous phrase
"Pool is closed due to AIDS."
268
00:15:31,555 --> 00:15:35,392
Other hijinks. We would take all of
our characters and form a swastika.
269
00:15:36,268 --> 00:15:39,104
- Yeah, I know. We were dumb kids.
- [music ends]
270
00:15:39,104 --> 00:15:43,359
Maybe, looking back on it,
it probably was not as innocent as
271
00:15:43,359 --> 00:15:45,736
people catching onto it
might have assumed,
272
00:15:45,736 --> 00:15:47,237
but it didn't feel like that.
273
00:15:47,237 --> 00:15:49,281
It felt like people
were just being stupid.
274
00:15:49,281 --> 00:15:53,994
But then it did start to shift to people
actually, like, trolling in real life.
275
00:15:54,578 --> 00:15:58,165
[woman] My six-year-old and eight-year-old
half-Black grandchildren
276
00:15:58,165 --> 00:16:00,542
are not welcome in my subdivision's pool.
277
00:16:00,542 --> 00:16:03,504
[newscaster] Some try to explain it away
as part of an internet phenomenon,
278
00:16:03,504 --> 00:16:06,090
and those who don't know of it
are left out of the joke.
279
00:16:06,090 --> 00:16:07,800
Didn't feel inherently mean.
280
00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:11,345
It just felt like, okay,
everyone's doing this. This is funny.
281
00:16:11,345 --> 00:16:12,304
[somber music playing]
282
00:16:12,304 --> 00:16:14,390
[woman] A joke is when two people laugh.
283
00:16:14,932 --> 00:16:16,016
I'm not laughing.
284
00:16:16,016 --> 00:16:17,601
[newscaster] During our interview,
285
00:16:17,601 --> 00:16:19,728
Altorfer learned
of a second flyer at the pool.
286
00:16:19,728 --> 00:16:22,022
It's a picture of me with an afro?
287
00:16:22,773 --> 00:16:27,236
{\an8}And I tell myself it's just a bunch
of racist, homophobic geeks.
288
00:16:27,236 --> 00:16:30,155
{\an8}[Fuxnet] People started recreating
Habbo Hotel in person
289
00:16:30,155 --> 00:16:32,825
and this culture spawned out of it.
290
00:16:32,825 --> 00:16:36,704
We were growing up online together,
291
00:16:36,704 --> 00:16:38,330
figuring things out.
292
00:16:38,330 --> 00:16:41,583
We didn't know necessarily
what was right or wrong.
293
00:16:41,583 --> 00:16:44,586
{\an8}We didn't know what kind
of culture we were building.
294
00:16:44,586 --> 00:16:48,549
{\an8}We weren't really aware of those things,
but we were building them.
295
00:16:48,549 --> 00:16:50,592
[somber music continues]
296
00:16:50,592 --> 00:16:54,388
[Fuxnet] And that became a problem
for the people who ran 4chan.
297
00:16:55,681 --> 00:16:58,267
So moot banned raids.
298
00:17:00,144 --> 00:17:02,646
{\an8}[Kirtaner] We were all having
so much fun, and
299
00:17:03,897 --> 00:17:06,525
it got clamped down on really quickly.
300
00:17:06,525 --> 00:17:09,778
And we weren't having any of that.
301
00:17:10,988 --> 00:17:14,074
[Snacks] I think the Otakon meetup
really inspired moot
302
00:17:14,074 --> 00:17:17,494
to try and make 4chan
more of a social thing,
303
00:17:17,494 --> 00:17:19,038
like Facebook or something,
304
00:17:19,038 --> 00:17:22,166
than like the anonymous culture
that he began with.
305
00:17:22,166 --> 00:17:23,584
I disagreed,
306
00:17:23,584 --> 00:17:27,921
we argued about it, and then I did have
my server access removed by moot.
307
00:17:29,548 --> 00:17:31,300
That was that. I was gone.
308
00:17:33,218 --> 00:17:35,012
Moot ain't the boss of us.
309
00:17:35,012 --> 00:17:37,639
We want to do what we want,
and we're going to have some fun.
310
00:17:38,390 --> 00:17:42,186
And in that moment
an identity started to form.
311
00:17:42,186 --> 00:17:45,272
We all collectively started
referring to ourselves,
312
00:17:45,272 --> 00:17:48,859
and our merry band of chaos-stirrers...
313
00:17:48,859 --> 00:17:50,569
Anonymous.
314
00:17:50,569 --> 00:17:52,696
[ominous music playing]
315
00:17:52,696 --> 00:17:55,866
It coalesced into an identity, ironically.
316
00:17:55,866 --> 00:17:59,661
You know, you think "anonymous,"
you don't think of an identity,
317
00:18:00,370 --> 00:18:04,416
but an identity formed
around this one single word.
318
00:18:04,416 --> 00:18:07,961
[ominous music continues,
overlaid with distorted digital sounds]
319
00:18:10,089 --> 00:18:11,590
[creepy high-pitched giggling]
320
00:18:14,676 --> 00:18:16,470
[childlike voice] Ah-ahh.
321
00:18:17,846 --> 00:18:19,348
[screaming]
322
00:18:19,973 --> 00:18:21,975
[digital distortion effects]
323
00:18:22,476 --> 00:18:24,478
[echoing, distorted laughter]
324
00:18:25,896 --> 00:18:27,356
[music fades out]
325
00:18:31,151 --> 00:18:35,823
[Kirtaner] Habbo Hotel showed
that you could enact retribution
326
00:18:35,823 --> 00:18:39,576
towards someone or something
that we felt deserved it.
327
00:18:40,744 --> 00:18:45,541
And this obviously attracted people
that wanted to join in the fun and chaos.
328
00:18:48,585 --> 00:18:49,878
The big breakout raid.
329
00:18:49,878 --> 00:18:53,966
There was a neo-Nazi radio show host.
His name was Hal Turner.
330
00:18:53,966 --> 00:18:56,301
{\an8}- Welcome to The Hal Turner Show.
- [intense music playing]
331
00:18:56,301 --> 00:19:00,305
{\an8}For some reason or another,
all these lower cultures and lower races
332
00:19:00,305 --> 00:19:03,475
{\an8}are more important.
And I find that disgusting.
333
00:19:03,475 --> 00:19:07,187
{\an8}[Kirtaner] He made himself a target
just by being who he is.
334
00:19:07,187 --> 00:19:08,981
He had a phone number you could call.
335
00:19:08,981 --> 00:19:10,440
{\an8}[Turner] Where you calling from?
336
00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:12,025
[Kirtaner] We did a lot of prank calls...
337
00:19:12,025 --> 00:19:13,360
[Turner] Thomas, you're on air.
338
00:19:13,360 --> 00:19:16,780
[Thomas] Well, I was born
and raised in West Philadelphia,
339
00:19:16,780 --> 00:19:19,449
- played b-ball outside the school and all.
- [Turner] Right.
340
00:19:19,449 --> 00:19:22,369
[Thomas] Just one little fight
and my mom got scared,
341
00:19:22,369 --> 00:19:24,663
sent me to live with some
relatives down in Bel-Air.
342
00:19:24,663 --> 00:19:28,625
[Turner] And he's out
of here too! Another asshole.
343
00:19:29,126 --> 00:19:30,794
...and drove him into an absolute frenzy.
344
00:19:30,794 --> 00:19:33,130
[Turner] "Hal Turner was right.
I should've paid attention,
345
00:19:33,130 --> 00:19:36,383
but I was too busy being
a fucking moron on the radio!"
346
00:19:36,383 --> 00:19:39,052
Hal Turner Show.
Who are you? Where you calling from?
347
00:19:39,052 --> 00:19:42,848
He would always react and escalate things.
348
00:19:42,848 --> 00:19:45,434
[Turner] You sit there
like a stupid motherfucking asshole...
349
00:19:45,434 --> 00:19:50,772
I don't want to imply that all the people
that were trolling Hal Turner
350
00:19:50,772 --> 00:19:52,733
{\an8}were anti-racists.
351
00:19:52,733 --> 00:19:55,527
{\an8}A lot of them
just wanted to fuck with people.
352
00:19:55,527 --> 00:19:58,113
We trolled him mercilessly for months.
353
00:19:58,113 --> 00:20:02,492
- Hello, this is Kirt. I run 420chan.
- [Turner] You've had a lot of fun with me.
354
00:20:02,492 --> 00:20:04,536
[Kirtaner] We kept
his show offline for 10 weeks.
355
00:20:04,536 --> 00:20:08,665
[Turner] You are not going
to kick me off my own server.
356
00:20:08,665 --> 00:20:13,378
We hacked into his email account, found
emails between him and his FBI handler,
357
00:20:14,254 --> 00:20:16,131
outed him as an informant.
358
00:20:16,131 --> 00:20:19,259
He got ostracized from
the white supremacist community,
359
00:20:19,259 --> 00:20:21,678
- his wife filed for divorce...
- [intense music ends]
360
00:20:21,678 --> 00:20:24,598
...and in the end
he was the one that went to jail.
361
00:20:24,598 --> 00:20:27,935
[Turner] I'm in Essex County jail.
Internet tough guy and all,
362
00:20:27,935 --> 00:20:30,562
{\an8}but I got to tell you,
I am not cut out for where I am.
363
00:20:30,562 --> 00:20:31,480
{\an8}[music restarts]
364
00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:35,567
If something drew the ire of Anonymous,
it suffered.
365
00:20:35,567 --> 00:20:36,652
- [clicking]
- [music ends]
366
00:20:37,361 --> 00:20:38,987
[keyboard clacking]
367
00:20:38,987 --> 00:20:40,739
[dog barking in distance]
368
00:20:43,283 --> 00:20:45,619
[man] A lot of times when
you do something groundbreaking,
369
00:20:45,619 --> 00:20:48,789
you only know it was groundbreaking
when you look back at it.
370
00:20:48,789 --> 00:20:51,792
But while you're doing it,
it's just the thing that's happening.
371
00:20:51,792 --> 00:20:53,627
[gentle music playing]
372
00:20:53,627 --> 00:20:56,672
[man] During the Hal Turner raids,
I did some of the phone calls.
373
00:20:56,672 --> 00:20:58,799
The content of them,
I'm not proud of anymore,
374
00:20:58,799 --> 00:21:02,552
{\an8}but at the end of the raid,
you look back, and you start questioning.
375
00:21:02,552 --> 00:21:04,388
{\an8}We put a white nationalist in jail.
376
00:21:04,972 --> 00:21:08,558
Well, that was a good thing.
What... What else can we do?
377
00:21:09,851 --> 00:21:12,896
{\an8}[Beran] So, they looked for someone
they can test their strength against,
378
00:21:12,896 --> 00:21:15,607
{\an8}and they settle
on the Church of Scientology.
379
00:21:15,607 --> 00:21:18,694
[distorted digital effects]
380
00:21:18,694 --> 00:21:21,113
[Fuxnet] Scientology
was a relatively new religion.
381
00:21:21,113 --> 00:21:24,992
It was started by a science fiction
author, L. Ron Hubbard.
382
00:21:24,992 --> 00:21:28,537
And they used celebrities to make
the church into a global powerhouse.
383
00:21:28,537 --> 00:21:29,913
[mysterious music playing]
384
00:21:29,913 --> 00:21:33,959
[Fuxnet] There was an internal
Church of Scientology video
385
00:21:33,959 --> 00:21:38,046
that leaked to the internet
of Tom Cruise being over-the-top.
386
00:21:38,046 --> 00:21:39,256
[laser blast effects]
387
00:21:40,132 --> 00:21:42,134
[narrator] There is a worldwide arena
388
00:21:42,134 --> 00:21:45,554
where the game is played
for the fate of whole populations,
389
00:21:45,554 --> 00:21:50,475
but there's someone advancing
Scientology on a fully epic scale.
390
00:21:50,475 --> 00:21:56,898
{\an8}[in increasingly dramatic voice] He is IAS
Freedom Medal of Valor winner Tom Cruise!
391
00:21:56,898 --> 00:21:58,483
[electronic music playing]
392
00:21:58,483 --> 00:22:01,069
There's nothing part of the way for me.
393
00:22:01,069 --> 00:22:02,821
- [laughing]
- [rock music playing]
394
00:22:02,821 --> 00:22:04,656
It's just... [mimicking blast off]
395
00:22:06,158 --> 00:22:07,242
[music fades out]
396
00:22:07,242 --> 00:22:10,871
Watching this video,
it's hilarious how crazy he sounds.
397
00:22:10,871 --> 00:22:14,541
It was supposed to only exist in a way
where it gets shown to Scientologists.
398
00:22:14,541 --> 00:22:17,461
So, it's internal,
and they do not want the world to see it.
399
00:22:18,086 --> 00:22:19,629
[Fuxnet] And then, all of a sudden,
400
00:22:19,629 --> 00:22:24,092
the Church of Scientology
got it removed from all over the internet.
401
00:22:24,092 --> 00:22:27,888
Oh, they're trying to control
the flow of information on the internet?
402
00:22:27,888 --> 00:22:29,306
Oh, we can't have that.
403
00:22:29,306 --> 00:22:30,432
[mysterious music playing]
404
00:22:30,432 --> 00:22:33,060
[Housh] But Scientology
was not an easy target.
405
00:22:33,060 --> 00:22:35,312
Back in, I believe, 1991,
406
00:22:36,063 --> 00:22:41,860
they sued Time magazine for a article
that was titled "Cult of Greed."
407
00:22:42,444 --> 00:22:45,822
And so most media were not
talking about Scientology,
408
00:22:45,822 --> 00:22:47,616
no matter what Scientology did wrong.
409
00:22:47,616 --> 00:22:50,660
[Fuxnet] There were rumors
of people leaving the church
410
00:22:50,660 --> 00:22:52,537
who were then being harassed,
411
00:22:53,288 --> 00:22:55,832
or mysteriously committing suicide.
412
00:22:55,832 --> 00:22:58,877
Secrecy surrounded Scientology.
413
00:22:59,586 --> 00:23:02,255
[Housh] So, what if we, as a group,
414
00:23:02,255 --> 00:23:06,718
could make this so outlandish
and so large of a thing
415
00:23:06,718 --> 00:23:09,721
that the media would have
no choice but to cover it?
416
00:23:09,721 --> 00:23:11,223
That would be a win.
417
00:23:11,223 --> 00:23:12,182
[music ends]
418
00:23:12,182 --> 00:23:16,103
[distorted electronic voice speaking]
419
00:23:26,446 --> 00:23:29,616
[Housh] So, we uploaded
the message onto YouTube,
420
00:23:29,616 --> 00:23:33,370
and went to sleep not expecting
it to do too terribly much.
421
00:23:33,370 --> 00:23:34,996
{\an8}[phone ringing]
422
00:23:36,623 --> 00:23:41,628
{\an8}[Housh] I wake up the next morning
to a phone call from my girlfriend,
423
00:23:41,628 --> 00:23:43,338
{\an8}and she's like, "It's on CNN."
424
00:23:44,798 --> 00:23:49,094
{\an8}So, I turn on the damn TV, and they play
the video twice while I'm watching.
425
00:23:49,094 --> 00:23:51,555
{\an8}[distorted electronic voice]
We are Anonymous. We are legion.
426
00:23:51,555 --> 00:23:54,433
{\an8}We do not forgive. We do not forget.
427
00:23:54,433 --> 00:23:57,978
[Housh] Suddenly, everyone online
was expecting direction.
428
00:23:57,978 --> 00:23:59,729
[rhythmic electronica playing]
429
00:23:59,729 --> 00:24:02,983
[Housh] We came up with
the name Operation Chanology.
430
00:24:02,983 --> 00:24:06,570
The idea was, they've got buildings
in every major city on this planet,
431
00:24:06,570 --> 00:24:11,324
hundreds of them, so what would
the internet look like if it went outside?
432
00:24:11,950 --> 00:24:14,911
[Kirtaner] But we also needed
an image that sticks with people.
433
00:24:16,079 --> 00:24:17,581
[in robotic voice] This goddamn guy.
434
00:24:17,581 --> 00:24:19,249
[wheezing laughter]
435
00:24:19,249 --> 00:24:22,419
[in regular voice] V for Vendetta
was a hot film at the time.
436
00:24:22,419 --> 00:24:23,795
These masks were everywhere.
437
00:24:23,795 --> 00:24:26,465
The aesthetic that was defined
by the Habbo Hotel raids,
438
00:24:26,465 --> 00:24:28,800
the suit and the tie, and the afro,
439
00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:32,721
then melded with the Guy Fawkes mask.
440
00:24:32,721 --> 00:24:36,183
[rhythmic electronica rising]
441
00:24:36,183 --> 00:24:40,562
We assumed that worldwide
200 people would show up outside.
442
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:44,858
We start watching Sydney,
the first city to go live.
443
00:24:44,858 --> 00:24:48,570
And within an hour,
there's 200 people on the ground there.
444
00:24:49,154 --> 00:24:52,032
{\an8}Then Perth and Adelaide and Melbourne,
and all them start going.
445
00:24:52,032 --> 00:24:56,161
We thought, 'cause they were smaller than
Sydney, we would end up with 20 people.
446
00:24:56,161 --> 00:24:57,662
No, they all get hundreds.
447
00:24:57,662 --> 00:25:02,709
{\an8}By the time we get to Germany,
we're up over like 4,000 people.
448
00:25:02,709 --> 00:25:04,878
So, we're just losing our minds.
449
00:25:04,878 --> 00:25:08,215
We're here with a protester.
He's known as...
450
00:25:08,215 --> 00:25:09,174
Anonymous.
451
00:25:09,174 --> 00:25:13,220
A web-based group called Anonymous
has been picketing and protesting
452
00:25:13,220 --> 00:25:16,223
in front of the Church of Scientology
in Boston and elsewhere.
453
00:25:16,223 --> 00:25:19,392
[newscaster] The virtual protest came
to life in cities around the world.
454
00:25:19,392 --> 00:25:22,771
And today, dozens of those people
put on masks in downtown Toronto
455
00:25:22,771 --> 00:25:24,147
in an unusual standoff.
456
00:25:24,147 --> 00:25:28,777
{\an8}Their goal is to shut down what they call
a cult of misinformation and greed.
457
00:25:29,653 --> 00:25:33,031
We are Anonymous.
We are legion. Expect us!
458
00:25:33,031 --> 00:25:35,534
- [protestors] Expect us!
- [rhythmic electronica continues]
459
00:25:35,534 --> 00:25:38,703
[Housh] By the end of the day, we're
counting somewhere near 10,000 people
460
00:25:38,703 --> 00:25:40,956
have shown up worldwide to our protests.
461
00:25:40,956 --> 00:25:42,666
[protestors] ♪ Never gonna give you up ♪
462
00:25:42,666 --> 00:25:45,085
{\an8}♪ Never gonna let you down ♪
463
00:25:45,085 --> 00:25:48,672
[Kirtaner] Anonymous was,
from that point forward,
464
00:25:49,965 --> 00:25:53,009
a globally recognized force for good.
465
00:25:54,636 --> 00:25:56,388
[mysterious music playing]
466
00:25:56,388 --> 00:25:57,639
{\an8}[Beran] That's absurd, right?
467
00:25:57,639 --> 00:26:01,560
Like, this weird anime website
that kind of morphs into this other thing
468
00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:04,563
decided to have a semi-ironic street
protest against, like,
469
00:26:04,563 --> 00:26:07,440
a celebrity science-fiction cult.
470
00:26:11,236 --> 00:26:15,824
{\an8}Chanology really showed
an entire generation of people that
471
00:26:15,824 --> 00:26:18,034
you could organize something anonymously
472
00:26:18,034 --> 00:26:20,078
that would have a real-world effect.
473
00:26:20,078 --> 00:26:21,371
[dark, distorted effects]
474
00:26:21,371 --> 00:26:24,374
[Kirtaner] Putting forward an idea online,
475
00:26:24,374 --> 00:26:27,294
having it manifest in the world,
476
00:26:27,294 --> 00:26:29,796
- it's a powerful feeling.
- [creepy distorted laughter]
477
00:26:29,796 --> 00:26:32,215
[Kirtaner] You start to enjoy the feeling
478
00:26:32,215 --> 00:26:35,885
of inflicting that pain
that you feel on others.
479
00:26:35,885 --> 00:26:39,514
It's a way to escape it,
to take control of it.
480
00:26:39,514 --> 00:26:42,267
It's ultimately harmful to everyone.
481
00:26:42,267 --> 00:26:46,187
- [dark, distorted effects end]
- Things started out very centralized,
482
00:26:46,187 --> 00:26:47,939
and then after Chanology
483
00:26:48,523 --> 00:26:52,277
it became a formless, shapeless beast.
484
00:26:52,777 --> 00:26:56,615
For a while, in the invasion community,
485
00:26:56,615 --> 00:27:01,578
I was perhaps one of the only voices who
would chime in every now and then and go...
486
00:27:01,578 --> 00:27:05,040
[reading]
487
00:27:08,001 --> 00:27:10,295
[Kirtaner] We were just trying
to have fun, have our kicks.
488
00:27:10,295 --> 00:27:14,215
All these rah-rah good guys and stuff.
No, we are not good fucking people.
489
00:27:14,215 --> 00:27:16,343
We are goddamn monsters...
490
00:27:16,343 --> 00:27:19,512
[reading]
491
00:27:20,889 --> 00:27:24,643
So, at the same time that they're
doing these very earnest protests,
492
00:27:24,643 --> 00:27:28,188
they're still spinning these
crazy nihilistic pranks on the world.
493
00:27:28,188 --> 00:27:30,273
They post on Oprah's message board.
494
00:27:30,273 --> 00:27:33,193
Let me read you something
that was posted on our message boards
495
00:27:33,193 --> 00:27:36,613
from someone who claims to be a member
of a known pedophile network.
496
00:27:36,613 --> 00:27:40,575
Oprah reads that to her entire audience
of seven million moms.
497
00:27:40,575 --> 00:27:42,202
He doesn't forgive.
498
00:27:42,202 --> 00:27:43,161
He does not forget.
499
00:27:43,161 --> 00:27:47,540
His group has over 9,000 penises,
and they're all raping children.
500
00:27:47,540 --> 00:27:49,334
[Beran] It's grotesque, right?
501
00:27:49,334 --> 00:27:53,046
[Fuxnet] People were
just being shitty, being mean,
502
00:27:53,046 --> 00:27:54,756
just for the fun of it,
503
00:27:55,256 --> 00:27:59,010
and trying to take it to its limits.
504
00:27:59,010 --> 00:28:01,638
I will readily admit
I was one of those people.
505
00:28:01,638 --> 00:28:03,306
[growling]
506
00:28:03,306 --> 00:28:05,809
{\an8}[Kirtaner] It's just jokes.
It's just edgy, subversive humor.
507
00:28:05,809 --> 00:28:07,435
{\an8}[electronic warbling]
508
00:28:07,435 --> 00:28:10,897
If you were in on the joke,
you were just laughing your ass off.
509
00:28:12,899 --> 00:28:16,361
[Beran] So, Anonymous really kind
of splits in these two directions.
510
00:28:16,361 --> 00:28:19,614
Half the group goes off
and becomes genuine activists,
511
00:28:19,614 --> 00:28:21,491
and the irony melts away there.
512
00:28:21,491 --> 00:28:26,287
And there's a section of Anonymous
that wants to be trolls still.
513
00:28:26,287 --> 00:28:28,957
["Never Gonna Give You Up"
playing on car stereo]
514
00:28:28,957 --> 00:28:31,292
- [driver] Ooh.
- [singing] ♪ Give you up ♪
515
00:28:31,292 --> 00:28:34,212
[Amanda] Otakon felt so different.
516
00:28:34,212 --> 00:28:36,506
The community was so much bigger.
517
00:28:36,506 --> 00:28:40,176
- [woman 1] The best day of my life.
- [woman 2] Look at all these costumes.
518
00:28:40,176 --> 00:28:46,516
[Beran] Instead of anime characters, you
had people dressed up as memes from 4chan.
519
00:28:47,809 --> 00:28:49,477
[man 1] 4chan's where it's at, man.
520
00:28:50,228 --> 00:28:51,938
[all] Fuck you!
521
00:28:52,939 --> 00:28:54,941
[Will] I was asked to host a panel.
522
00:28:54,941 --> 00:28:58,695
I'm friends with moot.
I just was folded into the entourage.
523
00:28:58,695 --> 00:29:01,656
- [Will] Any last words?
- We're gonna have a great time today.
524
00:29:01,656 --> 00:29:04,909
- All right, we'll take another question.
- [man 2] Hi, come on up here.
525
00:29:04,909 --> 00:29:08,329
I'm looking around, and I'm like,
yeah, these are my people,
526
00:29:08,329 --> 00:29:10,665
but there's something wrong with this.
527
00:29:10,665 --> 00:29:13,376
["1st of May" by Der Blaue Reiter playing]
528
00:29:13,376 --> 00:29:15,003
[woman 3] Aw!
529
00:29:15,003 --> 00:29:16,921
[scattered laughter]
530
00:29:17,797 --> 00:29:18,798
[music fades out]
531
00:29:18,798 --> 00:29:22,343
[Housh] Kids literally started throwing
Sig Heils, like, in real life.
532
00:29:22,844 --> 00:29:25,096
For the most part,
we just kind of brushed it off.
533
00:29:25,096 --> 00:29:26,389
These are the few.
534
00:29:26,389 --> 00:29:29,100
Maybe, they don't necessarily represent
all of us.
535
00:29:29,100 --> 00:29:30,393
[somber music playing]
536
00:29:30,393 --> 00:29:35,899
People felt more comfortable doing
or saying stuff than they had previously.
537
00:29:35,899 --> 00:29:40,487
Saying racially charged things,
just incredibly offensive stuff.
538
00:29:40,487 --> 00:29:42,947
Because they feel comfortable
with their little group,
539
00:29:42,947 --> 00:29:45,033
they feel like
maybe there's no consequence.
540
00:29:45,033 --> 00:29:46,242
[crowd chanting]
541
00:29:46,242 --> 00:29:49,162
[Beran] If I could go back in time,
and if you had told me that,
542
00:29:49,162 --> 00:29:51,331
"You're walking through
this anime convention,
543
00:29:51,331 --> 00:29:54,334
and this is a pivot point
upon which history will turn."
544
00:29:55,376 --> 00:29:58,922
Now, looking back at it,
it feels like a premonition.
545
00:29:58,922 --> 00:30:04,719
[Fuxnet] It was very stark contrast
to all the goodness that you saw,
546
00:30:04,719 --> 00:30:07,472
the community, the friendship
you saw at the convention.
547
00:30:07,472 --> 00:30:12,143
It made it more apparent that
there was some bad things happening
548
00:30:12,143 --> 00:30:14,896
and it was leaking over
into the real world.
549
00:30:15,396 --> 00:30:17,065
On the first day,
550
00:30:17,065 --> 00:30:19,275
- moot created 4chan...
- [crowd whooping]
551
00:30:19,275 --> 00:30:23,613
...and said,
"Lo, this is 4chan, bringer of pain."
552
00:30:23,613 --> 00:30:24,948
[woman 4] Hallelujah!
553
00:30:24,948 --> 00:30:27,033
[crowd cheering]
554
00:30:29,077 --> 00:30:31,788
On the second day, moot created Anonymous.
555
00:30:31,788 --> 00:30:33,873
[crowd cheering]
556
00:30:35,500 --> 00:30:38,962
[Will] I had to make a decision as to
whether I was going to participate or not.
557
00:30:38,962 --> 00:30:42,382
And me being part of this is endorsing it,
it's making it okay,
558
00:30:42,382 --> 00:30:44,300
and I don't want it to be okay.
559
00:30:45,051 --> 00:30:46,261
Thank you, Will.
560
00:30:46,261 --> 00:30:49,430
[man 3] I stopped going to conventions.
I stopped cosplaying.
561
00:30:50,807 --> 00:30:53,309
The long and short of this
is that I had to grow up.
562
00:30:54,394 --> 00:30:58,147
[Amanda] There was a huge shift in,
like, the greater part of the community
563
00:30:58,147 --> 00:31:01,067
felt more like it was...
564
00:31:01,067 --> 00:31:02,193
just trolling.
565
00:31:02,819 --> 00:31:04,737
Rape train! Rape train!
566
00:31:04,737 --> 00:31:08,366
It started to kind of
outweigh the funny stuff.
567
00:31:09,576 --> 00:31:11,452
It was kind of scary, honestly.
568
00:31:19,919 --> 00:31:21,588
[keyboard clacking]
569
00:31:21,588 --> 00:31:24,048
[Fuxnet] The older I got,
the more mature I got,
570
00:31:24,048 --> 00:31:28,303
I became interested in
disturbing the balance of power.
571
00:31:31,681 --> 00:31:34,225
You know, my hope was that
572
00:31:34,976 --> 00:31:38,062
this force would be able to be wielded
573
00:31:38,563 --> 00:31:39,689
for good.
574
00:31:39,689 --> 00:31:43,192
[distorted digital droning]
575
00:31:43,192 --> 00:31:44,527
[ambient music playing]
576
00:31:44,527 --> 00:31:49,240
[Beran] As this sort of decentralized,
anti-establishment collective is growing,
577
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:51,534
the political landscape is changing.
578
00:31:51,534 --> 00:31:55,288
Obama came in promising hope and change,
579
00:31:55,288 --> 00:31:57,206
but he didn't really deliver on that.
580
00:31:57,999 --> 00:32:01,461
So, that expectation that wars would end,
581
00:32:01,461 --> 00:32:03,671
that Wall Street would get punished,
582
00:32:03,671 --> 00:32:07,300
that something would happen,
melts into resentment.
583
00:32:07,884 --> 00:32:11,012
That's the moment people say,
"Now we have to go outside the system."
584
00:32:11,012 --> 00:32:13,097
[ripping]
585
00:32:15,767 --> 00:32:18,603
[Fuxnet] You started to see
a lot more people support the idea
586
00:32:18,603 --> 00:32:21,230
of vigilante justice online.
587
00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:24,984
[Housh] We could actually get some
change done if we wanted it.
588
00:32:24,984 --> 00:32:26,736
We had a hand to play in this.
589
00:32:26,736 --> 00:32:28,821
[shattering]
590
00:32:29,822 --> 00:32:31,699
[creepy digital warbling]
591
00:32:34,369 --> 00:32:36,371
[Housh] The hand we thought we had
was destructive.
592
00:32:36,371 --> 00:32:39,999
We thought we were going to just start
laying waste to the things that existed
593
00:32:39,999 --> 00:32:43,670
in order to force them to
build something else up in the ruins.
594
00:32:44,671 --> 00:32:48,925
[Fuxnet] And Occupy Wall Street
seemed like a vehicle for that.
595
00:32:53,262 --> 00:32:54,597
{\an8}[music fades out]
596
00:32:54,597 --> 00:32:57,976
{\an8}Occupy Wall Street was being pushed
by a group out of New York,
597
00:32:57,976 --> 00:32:59,644
and it wasn't going anywhere.
598
00:33:01,187 --> 00:33:03,606
They were gathering
in Zuccotti Park to protest.
599
00:33:03,606 --> 00:33:05,525
They wanted to take on
the financial industry,
600
00:33:05,525 --> 00:33:08,069
and get some of these
people arrested who deserved it.
601
00:33:09,529 --> 00:33:12,365
We stepped up with the large megaphone
that we had and said
602
00:33:12,365 --> 00:33:14,617
{\an8}Anonymous is standing behind these people.
603
00:33:14,617 --> 00:33:17,036
{\an8}We started putting out material for it.
604
00:33:17,036 --> 00:33:20,832
{\an8}The media were like, "Great, Anonymous
is involved. Now we'll talk about it."
605
00:33:21,416 --> 00:33:24,836
We begin this morning with the protest
movement that began near Wall Street
606
00:33:24,836 --> 00:33:27,046
- and is gaining strength.
- [newscaster 1] Anonymous.
607
00:33:27,046 --> 00:33:29,465
Now, they're evolving into this
movement of social change.
608
00:33:29,465 --> 00:33:32,552
A real driving force
behind the Wall Street occupiers.
609
00:33:32,552 --> 00:33:35,888
- [man] Tell me what democracy looks like!
- [all] This is what democracy looks like!
610
00:33:35,888 --> 00:33:40,268
[Fuxnet] Right off the rip, Occupy
Wall Street was a big hit with Anonymous.
611
00:33:40,268 --> 00:33:44,772
It was regular
people occupying public space.
612
00:33:44,772 --> 00:33:46,065
[mysterious music playing]
613
00:33:46,065 --> 00:33:49,819
{\an8}It's an attractive story for the media
to see a vigilante group
614
00:33:49,819 --> 00:33:52,530
{\an8}that can't be identified,
can't be tracked down,
615
00:33:52,530 --> 00:33:55,158
but anyone can be in Anonymous.
616
00:33:55,158 --> 00:33:56,659
[man 2] People have had it.
617
00:33:56,659 --> 00:33:59,954
They know that their country
is headed in the wrong direction.
618
00:34:00,997 --> 00:34:05,293
[Beran] It felt like there was no way to
say what Occupy Wall Street was saying.
619
00:34:05,293 --> 00:34:08,838
That these big power structures
that are over people's heads,
620
00:34:08,838 --> 00:34:12,050
that no one really likes,
there are actually ways to attack them.
621
00:34:12,050 --> 00:34:15,053
Maybe there's ways to dismantle them.
Anonymous was part of that.
622
00:34:15,887 --> 00:34:19,640
[newscaster 2] Today thousands of union
workers marched in solidarity.
623
00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:24,103
[newscaster 3] It's in every US state
and more than 100 cities.
624
00:34:24,103 --> 00:34:28,691
It was a global effort, and a lot
of people were riding that wave.
625
00:34:28,691 --> 00:34:32,236
[protestors chanting] We are the 99%!
626
00:34:32,236 --> 00:34:35,948
I was watching
the live streams constantly.
627
00:34:35,948 --> 00:34:37,241
Tax the rich!
628
00:34:37,742 --> 00:34:40,953
[Fuxnet] The energy around Occupy
629
00:34:40,953 --> 00:34:45,041
definitely made people feel like
a change could be around the corner.
630
00:34:50,046 --> 00:34:52,048
[distant police sirens]
631
00:34:54,175 --> 00:34:59,806
And the response by the state
was as aggressive as possible.
632
00:34:59,806 --> 00:35:04,185
{\an8}[protestors chanting] Shame on you!
Shame on you! Shame on you!
633
00:35:05,603 --> 00:35:08,815
If you refuse to leave the park,
you'll be subject to arrest.
634
00:35:09,732 --> 00:35:12,276
{\an8}[Beran] The state felt
they had to destroy them,
635
00:35:12,276 --> 00:35:15,696
and really rip apart that idea,
which they perceived as a threat.
636
00:35:16,906 --> 00:35:20,284
They're treating us like we're
some kind of violent people.
637
00:35:20,284 --> 00:35:23,412
- This is so sad. This is America.
- [protestors screaming]
638
00:35:23,412 --> 00:35:25,498
[somber music playing]
639
00:35:37,844 --> 00:35:41,013
[man] It was a period of time when
I think the world was in uproar.
640
00:35:41,013 --> 00:35:43,558
{\an8}I'd heard about it
and the things Anonymous had done.
641
00:35:43,558 --> 00:35:47,395
{\an8}And so I wanted to be there
to offer my experience and skills.
642
00:35:47,895 --> 00:35:51,607
But I was just kind of attracted to
hacking 'cause it was anti-authoritarian,
643
00:35:51,607 --> 00:35:54,193
and those ideals kind of spoke to me.
644
00:35:54,193 --> 00:35:56,279
[people clamoring]
645
00:35:57,113 --> 00:36:00,616
Because the police brutally repressed
these protest movements in the streets,
646
00:36:00,616 --> 00:36:04,203
I escalated things a little bit
by going after the police and government.
647
00:36:04,203 --> 00:36:08,416
A group of online pranksters has
embarked on a type of hacking payback.
648
00:36:08,416 --> 00:36:10,751
[newscaster 4] Retaliation
for what it called brutality
649
00:36:10,751 --> 00:36:13,254
against Occupy Wall Street protesters.
650
00:36:13,254 --> 00:36:15,631
[Hammond] To be honest,
there's a point in time when I had
651
00:36:15,631 --> 00:36:17,550
more targets than the time to work with.
652
00:36:17,550 --> 00:36:19,844
[reporter 5] Hacking
the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office...
653
00:36:19,844 --> 00:36:22,054
{\an8}DPS breached by a group of hackers...
654
00:36:22,054 --> 00:36:25,516
{\an8}A notorious hacking group has targeted
Rupert Murdoch's newspapers.
655
00:36:25,516 --> 00:36:29,312
They were just having a good time
doing these high-profile crimes.
656
00:36:29,312 --> 00:36:32,106
{\an8}The CIA's website,
for the US Senate's website...
657
00:36:32,106 --> 00:36:36,569
[newscaster 6] Law enforcement websites
in Birmingham, Boston, were also hacked.
658
00:36:37,153 --> 00:36:39,447
[Hammond] There was kind of,
like, "I have nothing to lose."
659
00:36:39,447 --> 00:36:43,284
{\an8}They were able to take down
FBI.gov for a brief period of time.
660
00:36:43,284 --> 00:36:45,661
[newscaster 7] Now Anonymous
is taking a victory lap.
661
00:36:45,661 --> 00:36:51,083
I was hacking at night, and then waking up
and going to work and school.
662
00:36:51,083 --> 00:36:54,420
We had the momentum and the power.
663
00:36:54,420 --> 00:36:56,047
We were in control.
664
00:36:56,047 --> 00:36:59,550
[newscaster 8] The agents didn't know
there was a third party on the line.
665
00:36:59,550 --> 00:37:02,553
The target of the call,
Anonymous, was listening in.
666
00:37:02,553 --> 00:37:05,556
[Housh] I would be happy
taking down the entire system.
667
00:37:05,556 --> 00:37:07,016
Burn it all to the ground.
668
00:37:07,016 --> 00:37:08,851
It seems that a week doesn't go by
669
00:37:08,851 --> 00:37:12,104
without a significant story
about hacking or cyberattacks.
670
00:37:12,104 --> 00:37:14,398
And the Pentagon is now
singling out Anonymous
671
00:37:14,398 --> 00:37:18,486
as an example of the serious
new cyber threats facing the country.
672
00:37:20,863 --> 00:37:24,033
[Fuxnet] This one night,
it's like 3:00 in the morning.
673
00:37:24,033 --> 00:37:26,118
[suspenseful music playing]
674
00:37:26,702 --> 00:37:29,997
[Fuxnet] And all of a sudden,
I got a private message...
675
00:37:30,581 --> 00:37:33,876
from an alias of Jeremy Hammond.
676
00:37:34,710 --> 00:37:36,712
He had a sense of urgency.
677
00:37:38,005 --> 00:37:40,216
He needed help with hacks
678
00:37:40,216 --> 00:37:44,387
and was literally giving me
specific targets to go after
679
00:37:44,387 --> 00:37:49,767
and giving me all the information
I needed to compromise those targets.
680
00:37:50,601 --> 00:37:52,228
Which is kind of unheard of.
681
00:37:52,228 --> 00:37:54,438
It's like somebody
giving you the keys to a car
682
00:37:54,438 --> 00:37:56,565
and saying,
"Hey, can you steal this car for me?"
683
00:37:56,565 --> 00:37:58,317
[car tires screeching in distance]
684
00:37:58,317 --> 00:38:01,028
[Fuxnet] It was unlike
any kind of conversation that we had
685
00:38:01,028 --> 00:38:02,655
prior to this point.
686
00:38:02,655 --> 00:38:04,991
That left me feeling very uneasy.
687
00:38:07,159 --> 00:38:08,995
[suspenseful music continues]
688
00:38:08,995 --> 00:38:10,621
[Fuxnet] The next morning,
689
00:38:11,163 --> 00:38:14,417
I had an opening shift at my job,
690
00:38:14,417 --> 00:38:17,586
and I get a text message from
a friend of mine.
691
00:38:18,879 --> 00:38:21,048
A news story had just dropped.
692
00:38:21,048 --> 00:38:23,759
[newscaster 1] Some members
of the computer-hacking organization
693
00:38:23,759 --> 00:38:25,761
known as Anonymous
are no longer anonymous.
694
00:38:25,761 --> 00:38:28,723
[newscaster 2] Jeremy Hammond
is one of five suspected hackers
695
00:38:28,723 --> 00:38:30,016
arrested by the FBI.
696
00:38:30,016 --> 00:38:31,058
[camera clicking]
697
00:38:31,058 --> 00:38:34,562
They had been watching me, like,
come and go out of my apartment.
698
00:38:34,562 --> 00:38:35,646
[camera clicking]
699
00:38:35,646 --> 00:38:38,024
[newscaster 3] Hammond was arrested
at his Bridgeport home.
700
00:38:38,024 --> 00:38:40,651
He remembers smoking
marijuana with friends
701
00:38:40,651 --> 00:38:44,155
when heavily armed federal agents
tossed in a flashbang grenade.
702
00:38:44,155 --> 00:38:45,281
[man shouting]
703
00:38:45,281 --> 00:38:49,118
They are already in the front door.
They were also busting in my window.
704
00:38:49,827 --> 00:38:52,038
The cops were
definitely looking for my laptop.
705
00:38:52,038 --> 00:38:54,749
They wanted to seize
my laptop while it was running,
706
00:38:54,749 --> 00:38:57,752
and I had it set up to where
if you close the lid of the laptop,
707
00:38:57,752 --> 00:38:59,337
it would require a password.
708
00:38:59,337 --> 00:39:01,047
So that would deter them from being
709
00:39:01,047 --> 00:39:03,424
able to recover
the contents of my hard drive.
710
00:39:04,884 --> 00:39:09,096
So, I walked two steps towards my computer
and shut the laptop just in time.
711
00:39:11,140 --> 00:39:13,142
[Fuxnet] I was scared for myself.
712
00:39:14,018 --> 00:39:18,356
I realized that it wasn't
Jeremy that was messaging me,
713
00:39:18,356 --> 00:39:22,234
it was the FBI,
and they were trying to entrap me.
714
00:39:22,234 --> 00:39:24,320
[sirens sounding]
715
00:39:25,571 --> 00:39:30,785
[Fuxnet] When I got home, I immediately
started wiping all of my hard drives.
716
00:39:32,203 --> 00:39:33,704
And left the next day.
717
00:39:36,415 --> 00:39:39,543
[Kirtaner] I have nothing to do
with any of this, but I freaked out,
718
00:39:39,543 --> 00:39:43,589
and anything that I could find on
the first five to ten pages of Google,
719
00:39:43,589 --> 00:39:45,049
I blew it all away.
720
00:39:46,050 --> 00:39:49,303
If there was a Wiki article
that named me, I wiped it.
721
00:39:51,389 --> 00:39:54,141
That's the moment
that I made myself disappear.
722
00:39:55,810 --> 00:39:58,854
Tried to bury the past as much as I could.
723
00:40:00,398 --> 00:40:03,275
Just completely exited that world.
724
00:40:04,902 --> 00:40:06,821
For a long, long, long time.
725
00:40:08,572 --> 00:40:10,741
[music fades out]
726
00:40:11,992 --> 00:40:15,162
[digital distortion effects]
727
00:40:17,164 --> 00:40:19,542
[Beran] The FBI
effectively broke up that group.
728
00:40:23,587 --> 00:40:26,799
And when they did that,
the Anonymous bubble collapsed.
729
00:40:28,426 --> 00:40:30,428
[dot-matrix printer printing]
730
00:40:32,179 --> 00:40:35,599
[Hammond] Unfortunately, they brute forced
the password to my laptop.
731
00:40:36,475 --> 00:40:37,601
It took them six months.
732
00:40:37,601 --> 00:40:42,565
My password was named after my cat.
Chewy12345. It was at least 10 characters.
733
00:40:42,565 --> 00:40:43,482
[cell door closing]
734
00:40:43,482 --> 00:40:46,652
[Hammond] In the end, I was sentenced
to 10 years, the statutory maximum.
735
00:40:46,652 --> 00:40:49,655
Those who wrote letters,
visited, attended court dates,
736
00:40:49,655 --> 00:40:51,490
- I appreciate you.
- [melancholy music playing]
737
00:40:51,490 --> 00:40:54,869
[Fuxnet] There was definitely
this feeling of disappointment.
738
00:40:54,869 --> 00:40:59,540
You know? I mean, I think a lot of us
had high hopes for Anonymous
739
00:40:59,540 --> 00:41:02,084
and what could come next.
740
00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:09,675
I spent the next months, uh, on trains,
741
00:41:09,675 --> 00:41:12,511
Greyhound buses,
742
00:41:12,511 --> 00:41:15,806
taxis going all over the country.
743
00:41:16,474 --> 00:41:20,811
I was afraid to talk to my friends and
family because that might lead to me
744
00:41:20,811 --> 00:41:22,438
being compromised in some way.
745
00:41:22,438 --> 00:41:26,817
It was one of the loneliest experiences
I've had in my life.
746
00:41:27,485 --> 00:41:28,944
[melancholy music continues]
747
00:41:28,944 --> 00:41:31,572
After Anonymous left 4chan,
748
00:41:32,198 --> 00:41:34,116
the people who were left there
749
00:41:34,116 --> 00:41:38,996
were a great deal of young people
who were more despairing than ever.
750
00:41:38,996 --> 00:41:41,457
[distorted digital burst]
751
00:41:46,253 --> 00:41:50,257
[man] 4chan was appealing because
I was very angry at my living situation.
752
00:41:52,468 --> 00:41:55,846
{\an8}It was a place where there were a lot
of very angry kids, for many reasons,
753
00:41:55,846 --> 00:41:57,139
{\an8}and angry adults too.
754
00:41:57,139 --> 00:42:00,142
{\an8}And the board became,
like, depression central.
755
00:42:01,936 --> 00:42:04,021
We're all kind of losers, right?
756
00:42:04,021 --> 00:42:06,690
- [pensive music playing]
- That doesn't have to be such a bad thing
757
00:42:06,690 --> 00:42:09,360
and you can kind of make
a community out of that.
758
00:42:09,360 --> 00:42:13,906
You started to see users
one-upping each other
759
00:42:13,906 --> 00:42:16,325
in terms of who has it worse in life.
760
00:42:17,743 --> 00:42:21,413
I felt like I could usually win those,
even though I was pretty young,
761
00:42:21,413 --> 00:42:23,499
because I have this crippling disease.
762
00:42:24,291 --> 00:42:26,168
[whooshing]
763
00:42:27,253 --> 00:42:31,632
[Beran] That feeling of powerlessness
that launched Occupy Wall Street,
764
00:42:31,632 --> 00:42:32,967
that didn't go away.
765
00:42:33,676 --> 00:42:38,472
It just sunk into this new, dark,
766
00:42:39,598 --> 00:42:40,975
nihilistic place.
767
00:42:40,975 --> 00:42:43,060
[ominous music playing]
768
00:42:56,490 --> 00:42:57,908
[music fades out]
769
00:42:57,908 --> 00:43:00,995
One of the things that I really liked
about going on 4chan was that
770
00:43:00,995 --> 00:43:02,705
I was not supposed to be there.
771
00:43:02,705 --> 00:43:06,667
{\an8}Both culturally,
it was sort of designed to repel me,
772
00:43:06,667 --> 00:43:09,086
{\an8}and, literally, they said there
were no women there.
773
00:43:09,086 --> 00:43:10,963
[apprehensive music playing]
774
00:43:12,006 --> 00:43:14,592
[Alexander] These young men
were experiencing
775
00:43:14,592 --> 00:43:17,011
this profound mass alienation,
776
00:43:17,011 --> 00:43:21,807
and coping with it through extreme humor
and sexual and violent imagery.
777
00:43:22,516 --> 00:43:24,685
It became really clear that
778
00:43:24,685 --> 00:43:29,231
there was a desire to cultivate
a space that was hostile to women.
779
00:43:33,360 --> 00:43:37,323
At the time, I was a full-time journalist
writing about the world of video games.
780
00:43:37,323 --> 00:43:39,241
A game developer called Zoë Quinn
781
00:43:39,241 --> 00:43:42,119
had made an independent game
on living with depression.
782
00:43:42,620 --> 00:43:43,871
Depression Quest.
783
00:43:43,871 --> 00:43:48,375
It was a text-based game that didn't
have conventional production values.
784
00:43:48,375 --> 00:43:52,338
The game made Zoë controversial as
a developer because Zoë was, like,
785
00:43:52,338 --> 00:43:56,342
bringing new voices and new subject matter
to the world of video games.
786
00:43:56,342 --> 00:44:01,013
A little while later, Zoë had
a disgruntled ex-boyfriend
787
00:44:01,013 --> 00:44:03,724
publish a blog post
788
00:44:04,350 --> 00:44:08,020
about Zoë having a relationship
with a games journalist.
789
00:44:08,020 --> 00:44:10,898
I thought that
can't possibly be controversial.
790
00:44:10,898 --> 00:44:14,151
But some gamers seized on this blog post
791
00:44:14,151 --> 00:44:19,031
as evidence of a conspiracy
that women and gender minorities
792
00:44:19,031 --> 00:44:21,617
were ruining the video games industry.
793
00:44:21,617 --> 00:44:24,411
[man] Depression Quest. [laughing]
794
00:44:24,411 --> 00:44:26,914
It's developed by
some dumb bitch named Zoë Quinn,
795
00:44:26,914 --> 00:44:30,417
who had to fuck five guys in gaming media
to get positive reviews.
796
00:44:30,417 --> 00:44:33,087
Hey, there's plenty
of stupid bitches like her.
797
00:44:33,087 --> 00:44:35,923
[Alexander] That games journalist
had never covered Zoë's work.
798
00:44:36,674 --> 00:44:40,344
{\an8}This conspiracy became
a harassment campaign against Zoë,
799
00:44:40,344 --> 00:44:42,805
against female video games journalists,
800
00:44:42,805 --> 00:44:46,350
and against anyone who spoke out
against the harassment.
801
00:44:46,975 --> 00:44:50,688
They said, you know, "It's about
ethics in video games journalism,"
802
00:44:50,688 --> 00:44:51,689
and it wasn't.
803
00:44:53,190 --> 00:44:57,403
{\an8}They were just trying to find a rationale
that explains their disenfranchisement.
804
00:44:57,403 --> 00:45:03,075
{\an8}Zoë Quinn,
you are the stupidest person alive.
805
00:45:03,701 --> 00:45:07,079
{\an8}[Alexander] There was this sentiment that
women are coming to take our toys away.
806
00:45:07,079 --> 00:45:10,541
This one place where it's supposed
to be safe to be a dork,
807
00:45:10,541 --> 00:45:12,710
is now under attack by women.
808
00:45:12,710 --> 00:45:17,047
GamerGate. It's a story about sexism
in the world of video gaming.
809
00:45:17,047 --> 00:45:20,259
[newscaster 1] Bomb threats,
rape threats, even death threats.
810
00:45:20,259 --> 00:45:24,763
It was nothing
but trying to get me to kill myself.
811
00:45:24,763 --> 00:45:27,224
Trying to get people to hurt me.
812
00:45:28,600 --> 00:45:32,479
{\an8}GamerGate is a war
on women in this industry.
813
00:45:32,479 --> 00:45:35,315
{\an8}[journalist] Ethics in journalism is not
what's happening in any way.
814
00:45:35,315 --> 00:45:39,778
It's actually men going after women
in really hostile, aggressive ways.
815
00:45:39,778 --> 00:45:41,196
That's what GamerGate is about.
816
00:45:44,283 --> 00:45:50,998
GamerGate established 4chan as this place
of extreme and misogynistic behavior.
817
00:45:51,582 --> 00:45:55,169
And moot was
obviously very troubled by this.
818
00:45:55,961 --> 00:45:59,506
He had sort of evolved
from that kid with the baseball cap
819
00:45:59,506 --> 00:46:02,342
hiding behind his laptop at Otakon,
820
00:46:02,342 --> 00:46:05,179
into a sort of internet celebrity.
821
00:46:05,721 --> 00:46:07,306
[man] You still live at home, right?
822
00:46:07,306 --> 00:46:09,433
I actually moved out recently.
823
00:46:09,433 --> 00:46:11,185
That's very cool.
824
00:46:11,185 --> 00:46:15,022
[Beran] Once GamerGate occurred
on the chans, moot decided to ban it.
825
00:46:16,064 --> 00:46:17,566
Moot said to the GamerGate coalition,
826
00:46:17,566 --> 00:46:19,401
"You're not allowed
to talk about this here."
827
00:46:19,401 --> 00:46:20,319
[music ends]
828
00:46:20,319 --> 00:46:22,237
[Brennan] Having seen
the Scientology movement,
829
00:46:22,237 --> 00:46:27,159
movements that grow out of chan boards
tend to be right in the end.
830
00:46:27,159 --> 00:46:29,995
It was like this
infallible belief that I had.
831
00:46:29,995 --> 00:46:32,456
So, when GamerGate happened...
832
00:46:33,207 --> 00:46:36,627
I was definitely a sympathetic audience.
833
00:46:36,627 --> 00:46:38,337
[pensive music playing]
834
00:46:38,337 --> 00:46:40,714
[Brennan] So, after Chris Poole
banned GamerGate,
835
00:46:41,298 --> 00:46:44,760
there were a bunch of users
that wanted to still talk about it.
836
00:46:45,260 --> 00:46:48,305
They searched on Google
"alternatives to 4chan."
837
00:46:48,305 --> 00:46:51,600
They eventually got
to, like, page three, which had...
838
00:46:52,434 --> 00:46:56,480
[reading]
839
00:47:00,818 --> 00:47:05,781
8chan, before GamerGate,
only had like 100 posts a day.
840
00:47:05,781 --> 00:47:11,912
But after, we had some days where
we were getting 7,000 posts in an hour.
841
00:47:13,288 --> 00:47:16,959
[interviewer] Fredrick, you and 8chan
are being likened to a hate group.
842
00:47:16,959 --> 00:47:18,544
How do you answer to that?
843
00:47:18,544 --> 00:47:21,547
[Brennan] Someone made
a GamerGate board on 8chan,
844
00:47:21,547 --> 00:47:24,341
but it was not founded
for the purpose of GamerGate,
845
00:47:24,341 --> 00:47:27,511
{\an8}and it will be around long
after GamerGate is over.
846
00:47:27,511 --> 00:47:30,722
[Brennan] The only sources
that were taking GamerGate seriously
847
00:47:30,722 --> 00:47:33,684
were very far right sources.
Like Breitbart.
848
00:47:34,184 --> 00:47:35,435
[newscaster] Breitbart News,
849
00:47:35,435 --> 00:47:39,731
a bomb-throwing site
favored by the so-called alt-right.
850
00:47:39,731 --> 00:47:45,112
A mixture of conservatives and populists,
white supremacists, and anti-Semites.
851
00:47:45,112 --> 00:47:49,533
[Brennan] Milo Yiannopoulos wrote
a whole bunch of articles about GamerGate.
852
00:47:50,033 --> 00:47:51,535
[Milo] Every community on the internet,
853
00:47:51,535 --> 00:47:56,331
{\an8}4chan, Reddit, or whatever,
has a dog in the fight in GamerGate.
854
00:47:56,331 --> 00:47:59,001
Conservatives have missed
a huge cultural opportunity.
855
00:47:59,001 --> 00:48:02,713
He knew he was writing this stuff
to, like, a 4chan audience.
856
00:48:03,297 --> 00:48:05,757
[Alexander] These gamers
were being courted.
857
00:48:05,757 --> 00:48:10,095
Like, "Yes, you are disenfranchised and,
yes, women are taking your toys away."
858
00:48:10,095 --> 00:48:14,683
"And, you know, that's happening to us
at all levels of government as well."
859
00:48:14,683 --> 00:48:17,144
{\an8}[Beran] Steve Bannon,
the owner and publisher of Breitbart,
860
00:48:17,144 --> 00:48:19,563
{\an8}who later became part
of the Trump administration,
861
00:48:19,563 --> 00:48:23,901
now understands
this group of young, disenfranchised men,
862
00:48:23,901 --> 00:48:25,986
who are angry, who are unhappy,
863
00:48:25,986 --> 00:48:28,196
and he says,
"They come in through GamerGate,
864
00:48:28,196 --> 00:48:30,866
then we get them turned on to Trump."
That was his idea.
865
00:48:30,866 --> 00:48:33,577
[crowd cheering]
866
00:48:33,577 --> 00:48:37,664
I will never let you be
the forgotten people again.
867
00:48:37,664 --> 00:48:39,124
We're the forgotten people.
868
00:48:39,124 --> 00:48:40,417
[crowd cheering]
869
00:48:40,417 --> 00:48:42,711
I will never let you down.
870
00:48:42,711 --> 00:48:45,672
I promise.
I will never ever let you down.
871
00:48:48,550 --> 00:48:51,428
[ominous distortion plays and fades out]
872
00:48:51,428 --> 00:48:55,223
{\an8}What would America look like
with an ascendant alt-right?
873
00:48:55,223 --> 00:48:57,100
{\an8}With a Trump in the White House
874
00:48:57,100 --> 00:48:59,895
{\an8}and a Mr. Bannon
as the chief of staff, and--?
875
00:48:59,895 --> 00:49:02,230
{\an8}[Milo] It would be so much more fun.
876
00:49:02,230 --> 00:49:05,734
{\an8}It would be full of joy
and mischief and laughter and memes.
877
00:49:05,734 --> 00:49:06,777
{\an8}More spontaneous.
878
00:49:07,361 --> 00:49:10,280
{\an8}[Alt] Steve Bannon knew a good thing
when he saw it.
879
00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:14,660
{\an8}And by activating what he called
the "rootless white males,"
880
00:49:14,660 --> 00:49:17,037
in his own words, of 4chan,
881
00:49:17,037 --> 00:49:20,040
he turned them into a political force
to be reckoned with.
882
00:49:20,582 --> 00:49:24,795
It played out this way
in Japan back in 2002,
883
00:49:24,795 --> 00:49:31,134
with these politicized 2channel users
known as the Net Right,
884
00:49:31,134 --> 00:49:37,432
who felt that their own country wasn't
doing enough to make Japan great again.
885
00:49:39,309 --> 00:49:41,687
[Beran] What are 4chan and 8chan
doing to promote Trump?
886
00:49:41,687 --> 00:49:43,981
They're doing the same thing
Anonymous was doing.
887
00:49:43,981 --> 00:49:48,610
Mass pranks, spinning misinformation
into the news cycle,
888
00:49:48,610 --> 00:49:51,446
like rumors that Hillary Clinton is sick.
889
00:49:52,406 --> 00:49:53,949
And they're making memes.
890
00:49:53,949 --> 00:49:56,493
[mysterious synthesizer music playing]
891
00:49:56,493 --> 00:50:00,163
[Beran] Which then spread off the chans
into the mainstream narrative.
892
00:50:00,747 --> 00:50:04,167
These radicalized young men know
that they can poison that well
893
00:50:04,167 --> 00:50:07,337
and spread all this stuff
downstream in the culture.
894
00:50:07,337 --> 00:50:09,172
{\an8}That's what 4chan was always doing,
895
00:50:09,172 --> 00:50:11,299
{\an8}but now it was getting
more toxic than ever.
896
00:50:11,299 --> 00:50:12,384
[growling]
897
00:50:12,384 --> 00:50:15,929
While this is happening, what is
happening on the rest of the internet?
898
00:50:16,513 --> 00:50:18,765
Everyone's experience on the internet
899
00:50:18,765 --> 00:50:22,978
is a monetized corporate form of 4chan.
900
00:50:24,021 --> 00:50:25,856
But it's more dangerous than 4chan
901
00:50:25,856 --> 00:50:30,152
because these newer sites are
better at boosting whatever content
902
00:50:30,152 --> 00:50:33,196
will make people stay on the site longer.
903
00:50:34,990 --> 00:50:39,745
[Brennan] What drives
user-base numbers and revenue is anger.
904
00:50:39,745 --> 00:50:42,497
- [digital whooshing]
- [creepy giggling]
905
00:50:42,497 --> 00:50:45,333
[Beran] So, Facebook or Twitter
is making more money
906
00:50:45,333 --> 00:50:49,046
as users are getting angrier
and becoming glued to the screen.
907
00:50:50,630 --> 00:50:54,551
And so, as the internet gets
4chan-ified, it's easier than ever
908
00:50:54,551 --> 00:50:57,971
to make really dark, disgusting
or screwed up things,
909
00:50:57,971 --> 00:51:02,726
{\an8}and they can let it spawn in that
environment until it spreads everywhere.
910
00:51:02,726 --> 00:51:03,769
{\an8}Go ahead.
911
00:51:03,769 --> 00:51:05,270
[crowd cheering]
912
00:51:06,938 --> 00:51:11,943
[newscaster] The Fox News decision desk
has called Donald Trump
913
00:51:11,943 --> 00:51:15,572
the 45th president of the United States,
914
00:51:15,572 --> 00:51:20,660
winning the most surreal election
we have ever seen.
915
00:51:23,830 --> 00:51:25,624
{\an8}[music fades out]
916
00:51:31,588 --> 00:51:35,467
[Housh] With moot, I did find it really
funny that when we all started to leave
917
00:51:35,467 --> 00:51:39,137
and all he was left with
was the Nazis... that he quit.
918
00:51:39,137 --> 00:51:42,099
Having an angry mob of 25 million people
919
00:51:42,099 --> 00:51:45,310
who disagree with
everything you do is never very fun.
920
00:51:45,310 --> 00:51:46,895
It's not even that I'm burnt out.
921
00:51:46,895 --> 00:51:51,483
It's that I've probably gone through
like five burnouts at this point.
922
00:51:51,983 --> 00:51:52,943
[somber music playing]
923
00:51:52,943 --> 00:51:58,198
[Alt] He had founded 4chan as this haven
for people who loved stuff from Japan,
924
00:51:58,198 --> 00:52:00,700
and who loved internet hijinks.
925
00:52:00,700 --> 00:52:02,911
He wasn't in it for politics.
926
00:52:04,246 --> 00:52:06,164
[Beran] Moot is exasperated,
927
00:52:06,164 --> 00:52:09,626
and he announces
that he's leaving the site.
928
00:52:10,418 --> 00:52:11,753
His parting advice
929
00:52:11,753 --> 00:52:14,631
is that you shouldn't actually be
on the internet that much.
930
00:52:15,132 --> 00:52:19,010
He says, go out and live your life.
There's now a meme for it, "touch grass."
931
00:52:19,761 --> 00:52:23,390
[moot] For people who are angry
on the internet, I really, truly hope that
932
00:52:23,390 --> 00:52:27,144
you one day find the beauty
in not allowing strangers
933
00:52:27,144 --> 00:52:29,020
and things outside
your control to rile you up.
934
00:52:29,020 --> 00:52:33,108
I'm sure you'll add a few extra years to
your life by keeping your heart rate down.
935
00:52:34,734 --> 00:52:36,111
[moaning]
936
00:52:36,778 --> 00:52:40,365
[Beran] But the user base, I think, wanted
to drag the site in another direction.
937
00:52:41,616 --> 00:52:43,618
[somber music continues]
938
00:52:44,327 --> 00:52:46,413
[Beran] After Trump wins the election,
939
00:52:46,413 --> 00:52:52,043
the people on 4chan and 8chan spreading
viral misinformation feel empowered.
940
00:52:52,043 --> 00:52:54,254
It worked, so they keep doing it.
941
00:53:00,677 --> 00:53:03,346
[man 1] After it happened
and Trump became president,
942
00:53:03,346 --> 00:53:05,140
I was totally shocked.
943
00:53:08,101 --> 00:53:10,478
{\an8}I was reading the New York Times.
944
00:53:10,478 --> 00:53:13,648
{\an8}They projected Hillary at
90-something-percent to win.
945
00:53:14,900 --> 00:53:18,612
No one thought this could
happen from the very beginning,
946
00:53:18,612 --> 00:53:19,905
and it did.
947
00:53:22,824 --> 00:53:25,535
{\an8}At the time,
I was a freshman in New York City.
948
00:53:25,535 --> 00:53:28,997
I did swing left. Really far left.
949
00:53:30,165 --> 00:53:31,416
They were painting Trump out
950
00:53:31,416 --> 00:53:35,295
like he was going to be
some second coming of Hitler.
951
00:53:36,463 --> 00:53:42,010
{\an8}To someone as ignorant as I was at 18, 19,
believing that stuff was horrifying.
952
00:53:42,928 --> 00:53:46,014
On Election Day, my friends are like,
"We're doing this march."
953
00:53:46,014 --> 00:53:47,515
"We're going to Trump Tower."
954
00:53:47,515 --> 00:53:49,100
{\an8}[protestors chanting] Fuck your wall!
955
00:53:49,100 --> 00:53:50,560
{\an8}[Isaac] It was all-out madness.
956
00:53:50,560 --> 00:53:53,104
[protestors chanting] Fuck Donald Trump!
Fuck Donald Trump!
957
00:53:53,104 --> 00:53:54,898
[Isaac] People yelling and screaming.
958
00:53:54,898 --> 00:53:57,692
[protestors chanting] New York hates you!
New York hates you!
959
00:53:57,692 --> 00:53:59,819
It was just total rage.
960
00:53:59,819 --> 00:54:01,029
[man 2] Set it on fire!
961
00:54:01,029 --> 00:54:02,572
[woman] Let it all burn!
962
00:54:02,572 --> 00:54:05,033
{\an8}[Isaac] Being in that mob,
it was so hateful,
963
00:54:05,033 --> 00:54:08,119
and it sort of hit me
like a wrecking ball all at once,
964
00:54:08,119 --> 00:54:11,998
realizing, like, hey,
this isn't what I signed up for.
965
00:54:11,998 --> 00:54:14,584
- [man 3] Whose streets?
- [all] Our streets!
966
00:54:14,584 --> 00:54:18,088
[Isaac] There was a shift,
and a lot of it had to do with
967
00:54:18,088 --> 00:54:20,757
just being extremely curious.
968
00:54:23,885 --> 00:54:26,263
When you're that young,
you want to change the world.
969
00:54:26,263 --> 00:54:29,557
It's that same thing of,
like, this country is corrupt
970
00:54:29,557 --> 00:54:31,977
and something needs to be done about it.
971
00:54:31,977 --> 00:54:34,396
With Trump, we have
this new guy in charge saying,
972
00:54:34,396 --> 00:54:36,398
"We're going to drain the swamp."
973
00:54:37,023 --> 00:54:39,484
We're gonna drain the swamp of Washington.
974
00:54:39,484 --> 00:54:42,654
We're gonna have fun doing it.
We're all doing it together.
975
00:54:43,154 --> 00:54:46,574
It gave people some sort of hope
that the world could change.
976
00:54:46,574 --> 00:54:48,785
[upbeat music playing]
977
00:54:48,785 --> 00:54:52,372
A lot of Trump's mega fans felt
that when he was in the White House,
978
00:54:52,872 --> 00:54:57,585
he would have some kind
of clandestine plan
979
00:54:57,585 --> 00:54:59,879
to bring all these people to justice.
980
00:55:00,797 --> 00:55:03,425
[Isaac] But that hope of a radical change
981
00:55:04,009 --> 00:55:06,761
{\an8}that had been promised repeatedly
982
00:55:06,761 --> 00:55:09,931
{\an8}never seemed to happen
or come into fruition.
983
00:55:11,850 --> 00:55:15,645
That's when one of the early
Q posts came up on my radar.
984
00:55:17,814 --> 00:55:20,608
Someone with the name Q put out a post,
985
00:55:20,608 --> 00:55:23,945
and it would have the same phrase
Trump would tweet ten minutes later.
986
00:55:25,905 --> 00:55:29,075
Like, how did they predict
President Trump's Twitter?
987
00:55:29,075 --> 00:55:30,702
That's just, like, nuts.
988
00:55:30,702 --> 00:55:33,705
So, it's like, "Let's just show
this to people. This is crazy."
989
00:55:34,414 --> 00:55:36,416
This was posted in 4chan.
990
00:55:36,416 --> 00:55:38,835
So, Q posted the triple-plus,
991
00:55:38,835 --> 00:55:44,007
and Donald Trump, seven minutes later,
tweeted the triple-plus.
992
00:55:44,007 --> 00:55:45,633
So we know for a fact that Q is real.
993
00:55:45,633 --> 00:55:47,802
[Isaac] And within,
you know, a day or two,
994
00:55:47,802 --> 00:55:53,308
I have 20,000 views,
a flood of comments that are all positive.
995
00:55:53,308 --> 00:55:56,644
- And it's just this whirlwind of, like...
- [music ends]
996
00:55:57,354 --> 00:55:58,480
"What did I just do?"
997
00:55:58,480 --> 00:56:00,940
You know? "What have I stumbled on?"
998
00:56:01,608 --> 00:56:03,026
[mysterious music playing]
999
00:56:03,026 --> 00:56:04,986
[Isaac] The whole idea was, like,
1000
00:56:04,986 --> 00:56:09,115
"There's this person on the inside
who's sort of leaving us breadcrumbs."
1001
00:56:12,285 --> 00:56:14,871
So, he's giving us breadcrumbs.
Breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs.
1002
00:56:14,871 --> 00:56:18,124
{\an8}I'm giving you all my breadcrumbs,
the whole entire way.
1003
00:56:18,124 --> 00:56:20,752
[Isaac] And it's like, you guys
aren't getting the real story.
1004
00:56:20,752 --> 00:56:23,088
{\an8}Here's what's going on behind the scenes.
1005
00:56:23,671 --> 00:56:26,966
{\an8}[Brennan] Trump wanted people
to think that he had a plan.
1006
00:56:27,884 --> 00:56:32,347
He set people up to feel like
this kind of person would emerge.
1007
00:56:32,931 --> 00:56:36,393
[Isaac on YT] This is his team here.
I'm guessing Q is one of these people.
1008
00:56:36,393 --> 00:56:39,687
We have Kushner here,
but look at all the thumbs.
1009
00:56:39,687 --> 00:56:43,483
All the thumbs up,
they connect to make an actual Q.
1010
00:56:43,483 --> 00:56:45,110
So that was the first hint we got.
1011
00:56:45,860 --> 00:56:50,073
[Isaac] The YouTube channel
was growing like wildfire.
1012
00:56:50,698 --> 00:56:53,159
This never happened
in the history of the world,
1013
00:56:53,159 --> 00:56:55,620
and it's all happening
because of the internet.
1014
00:56:55,620 --> 00:56:58,415
Share the stream, tweet it out,
do whatever you want to do.
1015
00:56:58,415 --> 00:57:00,917
Spread the information,
that's what QAnon asks us to do.
1016
00:57:01,960 --> 00:57:05,171
[woman 1] Q is a patriot.
We know that for sure.
1017
00:57:05,171 --> 00:57:07,841
Many of the things that he has
1018
00:57:08,550 --> 00:57:13,138
{\an8}given clues about and talked about
on 4chan and other forums,
1019
00:57:13,138 --> 00:57:15,515
{\an8}um, have really proven to be true.
1020
00:57:15,515 --> 00:57:19,519
[newscaster 1] There was a curious sight
at last night's Trump rally in Tampa.
1021
00:57:19,519 --> 00:57:21,855
The letter Q was everywhere.
1022
00:57:21,855 --> 00:57:24,399
[newscaster 2] What was once
a baseless conspiracy theory
1023
00:57:24,399 --> 00:57:27,110
has become a mainstream online cult.
1024
00:57:27,110 --> 00:57:28,987
Q is about getting to the truth.
1025
00:57:28,987 --> 00:57:32,198
[woman 2] He knows a lot of
the secrets that they have,
1026
00:57:32,198 --> 00:57:34,367
and that's why he's such a threat to them.
1027
00:57:34,367 --> 00:57:38,788
The information he has
given us has been extraordinary.
1028
00:57:39,456 --> 00:57:42,041
{\an8}It was a very diverse group,
1029
00:57:42,041 --> 00:57:45,086
{\an8}but ultimately,
they're just normal people.
1030
00:57:45,086 --> 00:57:48,381
You know? They have jobs,
they have kids, they have families.
1031
00:57:48,381 --> 00:57:50,216
They're... They're working people.
1032
00:57:52,594 --> 00:57:56,598
[Beran] When you talk to people
who support QAnon,
1033
00:57:56,598 --> 00:57:59,726
they need some way of expressing
1034
00:57:59,726 --> 00:58:02,937
that they got the short end of the stick.
1035
00:58:03,771 --> 00:58:07,775
You have an elite group of people getting
richer and richer using mainstream media
1036
00:58:07,775 --> 00:58:10,445
to say, "Everything's fine.
Don't worry about it."
1037
00:58:10,445 --> 00:58:12,614
"I know life is getting tougher for you."
1038
00:58:12,614 --> 00:58:14,616
"That's the truth.
We represent the truth."
1039
00:58:14,616 --> 00:58:17,702
Well, what happens is people
begin to hate the truth.
1040
00:58:18,620 --> 00:58:22,790
And they end up doing
the same thing that 4chan people did.
1041
00:58:22,790 --> 00:58:26,044
They start falling into the internet,
falling into fantasy.
1042
00:58:27,670 --> 00:58:28,838
Those smart people at the top,
1043
00:58:28,838 --> 00:58:31,090
they're using the truth
to beat me over the head.
1044
00:58:31,549 --> 00:58:33,301
So, I'll invent my own truth.
1045
00:58:33,301 --> 00:58:36,179
It doesn't have to be true,
it just has to feel right.
1046
00:58:37,805 --> 00:58:41,518
And little by little, that quote,
unquote "truth" just sounded deranged.
1047
00:58:42,101 --> 00:58:45,355
If you're not familiar with the
conspiracy theory, it goes like this.
1048
00:58:45,355 --> 00:58:48,983
They think that President Trump
is engaged in a secret war
1049
00:58:48,983 --> 00:58:52,820
against Satanic pedophiles
in the Democratic Party and Hollywood.
1050
00:58:53,321 --> 00:58:56,991
Hillary Clinton is a Luciferian,
Satanist, and so are the Rothschilds.
1051
00:58:56,991 --> 00:58:58,701
So are the rest of the cabal.
1052
00:58:58,701 --> 00:59:02,038
Open your eyes to what's really going on.
Oprah Winfrey?
1053
00:59:02,038 --> 00:59:04,290
You really think
we can trust Oprah Winfrey?
1054
00:59:04,290 --> 00:59:07,126
These people are trying to drink blood.
Why do they do it?
1055
00:59:07,126 --> 00:59:09,295
It's actually a drug,
it's called adrenochrome.
1056
00:59:09,295 --> 00:59:13,091
It gives them energy. It makes
them feel a little younger, right?
1057
00:59:13,091 --> 00:59:16,052
So it's not like
they're doing it for no reason.
1058
00:59:16,052 --> 00:59:19,347
This myth becomes a meme
as it grows in popularity,
1059
00:59:19,347 --> 00:59:21,182
as people begin to believe it,
1060
00:59:21,182 --> 00:59:26,062
but 4chan knows that what they're doing
is they're putting old 4chan jokes
1061
00:59:26,062 --> 00:59:28,189
in the thing that they're making up.
1062
00:59:29,190 --> 00:59:33,444
For example, CP,
that's a code for child pornography.
1063
00:59:33,444 --> 00:59:36,281
So, anything that started
with those letters,
1064
00:59:36,281 --> 00:59:40,201
{\an8}cheese pizza, Christopher Poole,
Captain Picard,
1065
00:59:41,202 --> 00:59:43,580
these were all old-school 4chan memes.
1066
00:59:43,580 --> 00:59:45,790
[man] Raise your hand
if you're a pedophile.
1067
00:59:45,790 --> 00:59:47,959
- Oh, right. Yes.
- [all laughing]
1068
00:59:47,959 --> 00:59:51,462
[Beran] It's, you know,
pure adolescent nonsense
1069
00:59:51,462 --> 00:59:54,591
that was far removed
from what they were joking about.
1070
00:59:54,591 --> 00:59:57,302
But it grows into
this outlandish horror story
1071
00:59:57,302 --> 00:59:59,512
- that a lot of people believe.
- [music ends]
1072
00:59:59,512 --> 01:00:01,723
[journalist] You are
secretly saving the world
1073
01:00:01,723 --> 01:00:05,560
{\an8}from this Satanic cult of pedophiles
and cannibals.
1074
01:00:05,560 --> 01:00:09,814
{\an8}Does that sound like something
you are behind?
1075
01:00:09,814 --> 01:00:13,318
Well, I haven't...
I haven't heard that, but, uh...
1076
01:00:13,818 --> 01:00:16,195
is that supposed
to be a bad thing or a good thing?
1077
01:00:16,195 --> 01:00:20,700
New York City, do not
let them normalize pedophilia.
1078
01:00:20,700 --> 01:00:23,745
Hollywood is trying
to normalize pedophilia.
1079
01:00:24,537 --> 01:00:30,793
QAnon started trying to absorb
the iconography, the lingo,
1080
01:00:30,793 --> 01:00:33,671
the messaging tactics of Anonymous.
1081
01:00:34,297 --> 01:00:36,799
And I took that personally.
1082
01:00:37,300 --> 01:00:38,676
[water bubbling]
1083
01:00:39,552 --> 01:00:41,554
[somber music playing]
1084
01:00:42,388 --> 01:00:46,601
[Kirtaner] You know? I was out of
the game a couple of years at that point.
1085
01:00:47,185 --> 01:00:50,063
And I tried to ignore them
as much as possible,
1086
01:00:50,063 --> 01:00:52,940
but it became a self-propagating troll.
1087
01:00:54,984 --> 01:00:57,111
Your great-grandma's knitting group
1088
01:00:57,111 --> 01:01:00,239
was all of a sudden talking
about Q and saving the children.
1089
01:01:01,199 --> 01:01:05,453
Q was just a whole bunch
of trolls who were, like,
1090
01:01:05,453 --> 01:01:10,875
"Look at all these fools. They believe it.
They actually honestly believe this,
1091
01:01:10,875 --> 01:01:13,795
and, God, ain't this funny, everybody?"
1092
01:01:15,463 --> 01:01:17,548
{\an8}[Fuxnet] And the only way
that you can really get there
1093
01:01:17,548 --> 01:01:19,425
{\an8}is if you're an asshole that wants
1094
01:01:19,425 --> 01:01:23,012
{\an8}to make people believe
that their thoughts,
1095
01:01:23,012 --> 01:01:25,598
their interpretations
of reality are not true,
1096
01:01:25,598 --> 01:01:28,351
and that's harmful. [chuckling]
1097
01:01:28,351 --> 01:01:30,228
That's harmful to everybody.
1098
01:01:31,604 --> 01:01:36,359
All of us who had built the culture
started seeing our work being used
1099
01:01:36,359 --> 01:01:39,195
by people we utterly despised.
1100
01:01:39,195 --> 01:01:44,534
And because we all left the chan culture,
there was no one there pushing back.
1101
01:01:45,618 --> 01:01:46,703
[purring]
1102
01:01:46,703 --> 01:01:50,164
We've all participated
in undermining reality
1103
01:01:50,164 --> 01:01:53,668
with our silly jokes
and the conspiracy theories.
1104
01:01:56,629 --> 01:02:01,634
But we never wanted things
to turn into a living cartoon.
1105
01:02:01,634 --> 01:02:03,010
[protestors clamoring]
1106
01:02:03,010 --> 01:02:07,265
And we have to understand we have
awoken in the midst of a nightmare!
1107
01:02:07,265 --> 01:02:08,808
But we can fight this!
1108
01:02:08,808 --> 01:02:10,852
- [no audible dialogue]
- [protestors shouting]
1109
01:02:10,852 --> 01:02:13,521
[Kirtaner] Unfortunately,
when you are that far gone,
1110
01:02:13,521 --> 01:02:15,940
there's nothing really you can do.
1111
01:02:15,940 --> 01:02:19,777
All you can do is cross your fingers
and hope that eventually
1112
01:02:19,777 --> 01:02:21,446
they will realize that...
1113
01:02:22,697 --> 01:02:23,656
"I've been conned."
1114
01:02:23,656 --> 01:02:24,991
[no audible dialogue]
1115
01:02:24,991 --> 01:02:27,994
[Isaac] I was convinced
that it was a real thing.
1116
01:02:27,994 --> 01:02:31,330
But eventually Q started
getting a couple things wrong.
1117
01:02:31,330 --> 01:02:32,540
[somber music continues]
1118
01:02:32,540 --> 01:02:35,877
There were, like, dates given,
and then it would never happen.
1119
01:02:35,877 --> 01:02:38,421
[Isaac on YT] Like I said, QAnon, right?
1120
01:02:38,421 --> 01:02:42,467
He said March 9th.
It's March 20th, guys. Okay?
1121
01:02:42,467 --> 01:02:45,136
Little things like that
kept happening again and again.
1122
01:02:45,136 --> 01:02:47,889
We know the storm is upon us.
What else do you want me to say?
1123
01:02:47,889 --> 01:02:49,474
These people are going to get arrested.
1124
01:02:49,474 --> 01:02:54,061
There was this big kind of powwow
live stream with all the Q influencers,
1125
01:02:54,061 --> 01:02:55,563
kind of like a sales pitch.
1126
01:02:55,563 --> 01:02:57,148
[man 1] It doesn't matter if it's real.
1127
01:02:57,148 --> 01:02:58,649
It's better than Game of Thrones.
1128
01:02:58,649 --> 01:03:00,985
It's better than House of Cards,
better than Walking Dead.
1129
01:03:00,985 --> 01:03:03,196
It is the most entertaining thing
on the internet.
1130
01:03:03,196 --> 01:03:04,989
[man 2] The content
he's discussing is real.
1131
01:03:04,989 --> 01:03:06,616
Whether Q himself is real or not,
1132
01:03:06,616 --> 01:03:08,701
the content he's discussing
is 100% genuine.
1133
01:03:08,701 --> 01:03:09,619
[man 1] Yeah.
1134
01:03:09,619 --> 01:03:13,372
[Isaac] Eventually I learned that many
of the individuals in that live stream
1135
01:03:13,372 --> 01:03:16,292
were actually behind the QAnon posts.
1136
01:03:18,002 --> 01:03:20,171
And they were just
some dudes in a basement
1137
01:03:20,171 --> 01:03:24,383
who gained legitimacy
by predicting those Trump tweets.
1138
01:03:25,426 --> 01:03:27,887
[Beran] Q never predicted
any of Donald Trump's tweets.
1139
01:03:28,387 --> 01:03:31,516
Trolls simply doctored the
timestamps to make it seem that way.
1140
01:03:33,267 --> 01:03:35,895
{\an8}QAnon followers
saw what they wanted to see,
1141
01:03:35,895 --> 01:03:37,647
{\an8}and they just ran with the lie.
1142
01:03:38,773 --> 01:03:40,191
[overlapping digital chatter]
1143
01:03:40,191 --> 01:03:42,735
[Isaac] I think it really
took advantage of people that
1144
01:03:42,735 --> 01:03:47,240
were looking for answers about themselves,
about the world around them.
1145
01:03:48,533 --> 01:03:50,201
- [creaking]
- [whooshing]
1146
01:03:50,785 --> 01:03:52,703
[Isaac] It just got
to a point where I was like,
1147
01:03:52,703 --> 01:03:56,040
"Okay, I have to tell
these people this is not real."
1148
01:03:56,541 --> 01:03:59,335
[Isaac on YT] So,
today's the day that Q dies.
1149
01:04:00,002 --> 01:04:04,966
The group behind QAnon is a bunch
of manipulative 8chan scammers.
1150
01:04:04,966 --> 01:04:07,134
They were using me
to push the Q narrative,
1151
01:04:07,134 --> 01:04:11,722
and it's not good to have this false hope,
and the truth needs to come out.
1152
01:04:11,722 --> 01:04:14,851
- [ominous music playing]
- [Isaac] It wasn't well-received at all.
1153
01:04:14,851 --> 01:04:18,479
It was a mountain of dislikes
and hate comments.
1154
01:04:22,733 --> 01:04:26,612
It was really like me talking to a wall.
There's nothing I could have said.
1155
01:04:27,363 --> 01:04:31,450
Once you really realize it's phony,
nothing's gonna happen,
1156
01:04:31,450 --> 01:04:33,744
you know, you kind of think like,
1157
01:04:34,412 --> 01:04:36,873
what is going to happen to these people?
1158
01:04:37,373 --> 01:04:39,917
{\an8}[newscaster] The authorities in Nevada
say a man barricaded himself
1159
01:04:39,917 --> 01:04:41,502
{\an8}in an armored vehicle
1160
01:04:41,502 --> 01:04:46,048
{\an8}near the Hoover Dam bridge this afternoon,
demanding President Trump release reports.
1161
01:04:46,048 --> 01:04:48,551
{\an8}Reports about what, he did not say.
1162
01:04:48,551 --> 01:04:51,012
[newscaster 2] The man accused
of murdering reputed mob boss
1163
01:04:51,012 --> 01:04:53,431
Francesco "Franky Boy" Cali
appearing in court today.
1164
01:04:53,431 --> 01:04:55,725
{\an8}[newscaster 3] Comello held up
his hand in court,
1165
01:04:55,725 --> 01:04:57,518
his palm filled with scribblings,
1166
01:04:57,518 --> 01:04:59,979
including a reference
to a conspiracy theory.
1167
01:04:59,979 --> 01:05:03,649
[newscaster 4] Parker Police said
she believed her child had been taken
1168
01:05:03,649 --> 01:05:07,236
by a Satanic pedophilia ring of Democrats.
1169
01:05:07,236 --> 01:05:09,280
[YouTuber] This is ridiculous.
What this is, folks,
1170
01:05:09,280 --> 01:05:14,243
this is Douglas County getting caught
being a child sex trafficking ring
1171
01:05:14,243 --> 01:05:16,913
and trying to go after
the person that's outing them.
1172
01:05:16,913 --> 01:05:19,206
[Beran] Things were
teetering on a precipice
1173
01:05:19,206 --> 01:05:22,084
and the 2020 election
pushed things over the edge.
1174
01:05:23,002 --> 01:05:25,004
[distorted digital burst]
1175
01:05:25,004 --> 01:05:30,676
{\an8}Joseph R. Biden, Jr. is elected
the 46th president of the United States.
1176
01:05:31,177 --> 01:05:33,095
{\an8}This is a major fraud on our nation.
1177
01:05:34,055 --> 01:05:37,141
{\an8}We were getting ready
to win this election.
1178
01:05:37,141 --> 01:05:39,685
{\an8}Frankly, we did win this election.
1179
01:05:39,685 --> 01:05:40,978
[audience cheering]
1180
01:05:40,978 --> 01:05:43,814
{\an8}[newscaster 1] President Trump appeared
in public and falsely claimed
1181
01:05:43,814 --> 01:05:45,942
that he won the 2020 election.
1182
01:05:45,942 --> 01:05:49,654
{\an8}He is still showing no signs
of conceding any time soon.
1183
01:05:49,654 --> 01:05:52,031
[protestors chanting] Stop the steal!
Stop the steal!
1184
01:05:52,031 --> 01:05:56,786
We're here to tell them that they're not
stealing our republic from us!
1185
01:05:56,786 --> 01:06:00,456
[Beran] It was another denial of reality.
1186
01:06:00,456 --> 01:06:02,208
Reconciling Trump's loss
1187
01:06:02,208 --> 01:06:05,670
with a win by creating a fantasy
that he, in fact, has won.
1188
01:06:05,670 --> 01:06:08,214
If we look into the way voter fraud
is being conducted,
1189
01:06:08,214 --> 01:06:10,299
the way people are throwing away ballots,
1190
01:06:10,299 --> 01:06:13,678
these people are going down, you guys,
because these people are cowards,
1191
01:06:13,678 --> 01:06:15,596
they're a bunch of child molesters.
1192
01:06:15,596 --> 01:06:18,724
[newscaster 2] "Stop the steal"
has swept across inboxes,
1193
01:06:18,724 --> 01:06:22,061
Facebook pages, and Twitter
like an out-of-control virus.
1194
01:06:23,187 --> 01:06:27,441
There was this moment that
I don't see written about a lot,
1195
01:06:27,441 --> 01:06:29,151
leading up to January 6th,
1196
01:06:29,151 --> 01:06:30,778
of incredible tension.
1197
01:06:31,487 --> 01:06:37,034
They need to stop the steal tomorrow!
Stop the steal!
1198
01:06:37,868 --> 01:06:39,704
[all chanting] Stop the steal!
1199
01:06:40,579 --> 01:06:43,833
Everyone felt it in the air. We didn't
know what was going to happen.
1200
01:06:43,833 --> 01:06:46,252
[all chanting] Stop the steal!
1201
01:06:46,252 --> 01:06:48,045
[Beran] Anything could happen.
1202
01:06:50,006 --> 01:06:53,259
[distorted digital humming]
1203
01:06:53,259 --> 01:06:55,636
[horns honking]
1204
01:06:58,514 --> 01:07:01,726
[woman on PA] Delta Airlines
is paging Fight For Trump.
1205
01:07:02,768 --> 01:07:04,437
Fight For Trump.
1206
01:07:05,062 --> 01:07:09,984
[passengers chanting] Fight for Trump!
Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!
1207
01:07:09,984 --> 01:07:12,778
[all cheering]
1208
01:07:12,778 --> 01:07:17,950
{\an8}The most important day right now
in modern political history is upon us.
1209
01:07:17,950 --> 01:07:19,410
The power is in your hands.
1210
01:07:19,410 --> 01:07:22,496
[protestors] One, two, three, four.
USA! USA!
1211
01:07:22,496 --> 01:07:24,957
[Beran] It was
an internet-generated event.
1212
01:07:25,583 --> 01:07:28,836
What's up, people? Where you guys from?
Let me know. Please tag, people.
1213
01:07:28,836 --> 01:07:30,755
I'm gonna walk you guys...
1214
01:07:30,755 --> 01:07:33,174
I'm gonna walk you
all the way out to the crowds.
1215
01:07:33,758 --> 01:07:36,886
[Beran] It's people who love Christ,
people who love Trump,
1216
01:07:36,886 --> 01:07:40,014
people who are just conservatives,
conspiracy theorists,
1217
01:07:40,014 --> 01:07:41,807
people who are totally deranged,
1218
01:07:41,807 --> 01:07:45,936
and they're all glomming together,
and the radical acceptance of all of that,
1219
01:07:46,729 --> 01:07:49,523
because they believed
in this mass delusion.
1220
01:07:50,357 --> 01:07:52,610
[man 1] They're storming the Capitol!
1221
01:07:52,610 --> 01:07:54,403
Hell yeah!
1222
01:07:54,403 --> 01:07:56,197
It was wild, you know?
1223
01:07:56,197 --> 01:07:58,365
We'd never seen anything like it.
1224
01:07:59,909 --> 01:08:04,038
There is no historical parallel
to the storming of the US Capitol.
1225
01:08:04,038 --> 01:08:05,247
[protestors clamoring]
1226
01:08:05,247 --> 01:08:08,084
But at the time,
I wasn't surprised at all.
1227
01:08:08,918 --> 01:08:11,629
[all shouting and cheering]
1228
01:08:13,380 --> 01:08:15,549
[Beran] I'm a reporter,
and I was actually there.
1229
01:08:16,050 --> 01:08:20,513
I wandered in the crowd,
like, up the Capitol Hill, to the...
1230
01:08:20,513 --> 01:08:24,809
part where the Capitol begins,
and it's shrouded in tear gas and smoke.
1231
01:08:25,351 --> 01:08:26,560
[tear gas firing]
1232
01:08:26,560 --> 01:08:28,187
[Beran] And I go around, and I'm like,
1233
01:08:28,187 --> 01:08:30,898
"Excuse me, sir.
Why are you invading the Capitol?"
1234
01:08:30,898 --> 01:08:33,150
[man 1] We all feel like,
you know, it was fraud,
1235
01:08:33,150 --> 01:08:35,444
and with the evidence and everything...
1236
01:08:35,444 --> 01:08:41,283
And everyone has a little different,
precious, deranged internet conspiracy.
1237
01:08:41,784 --> 01:08:44,954
[man 2] If you don't know what
an obelisk is, do some research.
1238
01:08:44,954 --> 01:08:47,873
It's Satan's penis, basically.
But, anyway, look it up.
1239
01:08:47,873 --> 01:08:50,626
Then you gotta ask yourself,
"Why is it in Washington, DC?"
1240
01:08:50,626 --> 01:08:51,752
Each one is different.
1241
01:08:51,752 --> 01:08:52,962
[man 3] The Great Reset?
1242
01:08:52,962 --> 01:08:53,879
[Beran] Yeah.
1243
01:08:53,879 --> 01:08:55,297
[man 3] That's when we go
1244
01:08:55,297 --> 01:08:58,217
to a digital currency
and a one-world government.
1245
01:08:58,217 --> 01:09:00,177
The next person
would be totally different.
1246
01:09:00,177 --> 01:09:03,931
[man 4] Governor Wolf, in Pennsylvania,
shuts my fucking restaurant down.
1247
01:09:03,931 --> 01:09:05,850
Fuck you, Governor Wolf.
1248
01:09:06,433 --> 01:09:08,644
And I would ask them,
"What are you reading?"
1249
01:09:08,644 --> 01:09:11,730
[Beran] Is there a certain place where
you get your information on Trump?
1250
01:09:11,730 --> 01:09:13,524
[man 5] Yeah, Facebook and Parler.
1251
01:09:13,524 --> 01:09:16,610
[Beran] There had not been
a revolution like this before.
1252
01:09:16,610 --> 01:09:19,446
It felt new.
It felt like a product of the internet.
1253
01:09:19,446 --> 01:09:21,407
A product of social media.
1254
01:09:22,741 --> 01:09:25,161
[man 6 on radio] I'm the guy
with the mask on. Where are you?
1255
01:09:26,120 --> 01:09:27,496
Cobra, over and out.
1256
01:09:29,331 --> 01:09:30,875
[man 7] Break through!
1257
01:09:30,875 --> 01:09:32,585
[all shouting and clamoring]
1258
01:09:34,170 --> 01:09:36,714
[glass shattering]
1259
01:09:38,424 --> 01:09:40,926
- [woman] Whoo!
- [protestors yelling]
1260
01:09:43,304 --> 01:09:47,558
- [protestors chanting] Stop the steal!
- [alarm beeping]
1261
01:09:48,434 --> 01:09:52,855
[Brennan] Once all of these Trump people
raid the building, and they're all inside,
1262
01:09:52,855 --> 01:09:57,318
they don't just walk over the stanchion
or, like, over the velvet red rope.
1263
01:09:57,318 --> 01:09:59,195
They walk along it,
1264
01:09:59,195 --> 01:10:01,947
even though
they have to go into a little line.
1265
01:10:02,448 --> 01:10:05,075
A lot of them were acting like tourists.
They just...
1266
01:10:05,659 --> 01:10:08,787
"Whoa. We did it." You know?
1267
01:10:08,787 --> 01:10:13,709
Like, total just big-eyed deer
in headlights, a lot of them.
1268
01:10:13,709 --> 01:10:16,921
[unsettling music playing]
1269
01:10:17,880 --> 01:10:20,507
[Beran] They were surprised themselves.
It was as if
1270
01:10:20,507 --> 01:10:22,509
they were wanderers in a dream.
1271
01:10:26,180 --> 01:10:28,057
And to me, that spoke to their...
1272
01:10:28,974 --> 01:10:30,434
deep delusion.
1273
01:10:31,101 --> 01:10:35,856
They were enacting something
that was a fantasy on the internet.
1274
01:10:36,941 --> 01:10:42,196
And that it was far removed from
the reality of what they were doing.
1275
01:10:43,614 --> 01:10:46,784
They were filming themselves.
Putting themselves back on the internet
1276
01:10:46,784 --> 01:10:49,119
as they were doing this
from this closed loop. [chuckling]
1277
01:10:49,620 --> 01:10:51,330
Can I speak to Pelosi?
1278
01:10:51,330 --> 01:10:52,915
Yeah? We're coming, bitch!
1279
01:10:52,915 --> 01:10:54,792
[cameraman] Whose office is this?
1280
01:10:55,292 --> 01:10:57,002
Is it on the door? [laughing]
1281
01:10:57,962 --> 01:10:59,088
Oh, my God.
1282
01:11:08,514 --> 01:11:10,516
[unsettling music rising]
1283
01:11:22,695 --> 01:11:23,821
[music ends abruptly]
1284
01:11:26,532 --> 01:11:27,741
[mouse clicking]
1285
01:11:27,741 --> 01:11:32,871
[Fuxnet] Some of us who started this
whole long unfortunate series of events
1286
01:11:32,871 --> 01:11:35,624
had to sit there and watch it happen.
1287
01:11:37,751 --> 01:11:41,297
"No. This is where
this needs to fucking stop."
1288
01:11:41,297 --> 01:11:42,965
[protestors chanting] USA!
1289
01:11:42,965 --> 01:11:44,466
[man] Fuck yeah!
1290
01:11:45,134 --> 01:11:47,720
[Kirtaner] All these people that were
emboldened in the moment,
1291
01:11:47,720 --> 01:11:51,932
they all tried to scrub what they could
from the internet.
1292
01:11:53,017 --> 01:11:54,518
[whirring]
1293
01:11:54,518 --> 01:11:57,104
[newscaster] The FBI spent
the past week trying to identify
1294
01:11:57,104 --> 01:12:00,566
and locate the people involved
in last week's violence and unrest.
1295
01:12:00,566 --> 01:12:03,861
So far, more than 70 people
are facing federal charges,
1296
01:12:03,861 --> 01:12:05,529
but many more walking around,
1297
01:12:05,529 --> 01:12:08,991
blending into our communities
and evading charges.
1298
01:12:08,991 --> 01:12:11,827
The FBI needs your help to find them.
1299
01:12:11,827 --> 01:12:12,953
[pensive music playing]
1300
01:12:12,953 --> 01:12:15,622
The first time I heard that Kirt
might be coming back,
1301
01:12:15,622 --> 01:12:18,751
my first thought was just...
It was utter joy.
1302
01:12:18,751 --> 01:12:21,879
This guy is an outright old-school troll
1303
01:12:21,879 --> 01:12:24,256
with the skill set needed
to cause some trouble.
1304
01:12:25,466 --> 01:12:29,428
[Kirtaner] So, myself
and a few other people got to work.
1305
01:12:31,805 --> 01:12:36,352
Parler was a social network
that was used during January 6th.
1306
01:12:36,352 --> 01:12:41,231
We were able to download the entirety
of all media that was posted that day.
1307
01:12:42,399 --> 01:12:45,361
And on top of that,
who they were communicating with,
1308
01:12:45,361 --> 01:12:48,405
where they went after the fact,
where they came from.
1309
01:12:48,405 --> 01:12:51,867
All of it was right there,
ripe for the taking,
1310
01:12:51,867 --> 01:12:55,954
and we pulled it all down
and released it to the public.
1311
01:12:55,954 --> 01:12:57,998
[digital whirring]
1312
01:12:57,998 --> 01:13:01,835
[Kirtaner] Anonymous
de-anonymized everybody.
1313
01:13:01,835 --> 01:13:03,921
[music fades out]
1314
01:13:04,671 --> 01:13:06,215
[Kirtaner] It was poetry in motion.
1315
01:13:06,215 --> 01:13:10,469
This is the environment that I thrive in.
I'm just like, who's next, right?
1316
01:13:10,469 --> 01:13:13,305
{\an8}The hacking group Anonymous
stole tons of data
1317
01:13:13,305 --> 01:13:16,558
{\an8}from a site that hosts extremist
and racist groups.
1318
01:13:16,558 --> 01:13:18,018
[Kirtaner] Epik hosting,
1319
01:13:18,018 --> 01:13:21,688
their client base includes InfoWars,
1320
01:13:21,688 --> 01:13:24,274
the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys.
1321
01:13:25,067 --> 01:13:28,529
- It's a who's who of hate groups.
- [mysterious music playing]
1322
01:13:29,988 --> 01:13:32,658
[Kirtaner] All of their customer data,
their credit card numbers,
1323
01:13:32,658 --> 01:13:34,410
personal information,
1324
01:13:34,410 --> 01:13:36,161
was all released by Anonymous.
1325
01:13:37,329 --> 01:13:40,582
It was one of the biggest hacks
that people had seen in a decade.
1326
01:13:40,582 --> 01:13:42,126
{\an8}Law enforcement's involved,
1327
01:13:42,126 --> 01:13:45,337
{\an8}and we're going to find
exactly how it was moved.
1328
01:13:45,337 --> 01:13:47,840
{\an8}No, I'm not in a state of denial.
Come on, bro.
1329
01:13:48,590 --> 01:13:50,717
[Kirtaner] When you get
on a good win streak,
1330
01:13:50,717 --> 01:13:53,512
you know, you're riding high, you know,
1331
01:13:53,512 --> 01:13:55,806
you kind of get carried away.
1332
01:13:56,932 --> 01:14:00,978
There's kind of an intoxicating aspect
1333
01:14:00,978 --> 01:14:05,190
to the attention
that you can get from hacking.
1334
01:14:05,190 --> 01:14:08,944
It can trick you into thinking
you're fighting for good.
1335
01:14:08,944 --> 01:14:12,823
But in reality, you're just high
off the feeling of having power.
1336
01:14:12,823 --> 01:14:14,908
[ominous music playing]
1337
01:14:14,908 --> 01:14:16,869
[Kirtaner] When you're behind a screen,
1338
01:14:16,869 --> 01:14:19,329
you could wake up one day and say,
"You know what?"
1339
01:14:19,329 --> 01:14:21,999
"Today, I'm gonna be the asshole."
1340
01:14:23,083 --> 01:14:24,543
And you can just go out there,
1341
01:14:24,543 --> 01:14:27,004
and you could get it
out of your fucking system,
1342
01:14:27,004 --> 01:14:28,505
and see what happens.
1343
01:14:29,006 --> 01:14:31,425
[Fuxnet] It happened with the FBI raids.
1344
01:14:32,092 --> 01:14:33,844
It happened with QAnon.
1345
01:14:34,386 --> 01:14:36,138
You can still see it today.
1346
01:14:36,889 --> 01:14:41,018
I did indeed discover
Donald Trump's Twitter password,
1347
01:14:41,018 --> 01:14:44,480
which was Maga2020
with an exclamation mark.
1348
01:14:45,189 --> 01:14:48,650
And he changed a single digit to Maga2024.
1349
01:14:50,694 --> 01:14:53,155
That was the password for realDonaldTrump.
1350
01:14:53,697 --> 01:14:54,865
I had that shit.
1351
01:14:55,365 --> 01:14:56,992
I only know that was his Twitter password.
1352
01:14:56,992 --> 01:15:00,746
I don't know if it's his password anywhere
else. I did not go to check--
1353
01:15:00,746 --> 01:15:04,082
I would never, ever encourage people
to go do anything,
1354
01:15:04,082 --> 01:15:09,838
but minor variations
on that password work in a lot of places.
1355
01:15:09,838 --> 01:15:13,467
[Stephen Colbert] Former President Trump
just launched his new social media app,
1356
01:15:13,467 --> 01:15:14,968
Truth Social.
1357
01:15:14,968 --> 01:15:17,554
The site was briefly accessible
to the public last night
1358
01:15:17,554 --> 01:15:20,140
and was immediately overrun by trolls
1359
01:15:20,140 --> 01:15:24,102
that posted a photo of a pig defecating
on its own scrotum.
1360
01:15:24,102 --> 01:15:25,521
[audience laughing]
1361
01:15:25,521 --> 01:15:29,650
It's pretty funny. We got
piggy poop balls on The Colbert Show.
1362
01:15:30,776 --> 01:15:32,444
[Fuxnet] Throughout the years,
1363
01:15:32,444 --> 01:15:37,824
there have been countless people
who tried to take the reins of Anonymous,
1364
01:15:37,824 --> 01:15:42,621
but they have not learned from
the mistakes that we made in the past.
1365
01:15:44,665 --> 01:15:49,878
Activism should come from
a place of understanding
1366
01:15:49,878 --> 01:15:54,132
more so than just anger or fear
1367
01:15:54,132 --> 01:15:58,345
or especially self-aggrandization.
1368
01:15:58,345 --> 01:16:02,099
{\an8}We actually haven't heard Anonymous
in a while, to tell you the truth,
1369
01:16:02,099 --> 01:16:04,601
{\an8}but what can you tell us about this hack?
1370
01:16:04,601 --> 01:16:10,065
[Fuxnet] Because of
the attention you can gain
1371
01:16:10,065 --> 01:16:14,820
through these tactics,
it can have a way of corrupting people.
1372
01:16:14,820 --> 01:16:17,948
[shouting] I am literally
in every mainstream media publication
1373
01:16:17,948 --> 01:16:19,908
for the things that I do!
1374
01:16:20,409 --> 01:16:22,494
I'm not an unknown actor!
1375
01:16:23,161 --> 01:16:26,665
I'm literally
a famous fucking cyberterrorist!
1376
01:16:27,291 --> 01:16:29,418
And you think that you could scare me?
1377
01:16:29,418 --> 01:16:33,338
What are you gonna do?
What are you gonna do to me, huh?
1378
01:16:33,338 --> 01:16:35,424
[birds chirping]
1379
01:16:37,718 --> 01:16:38,760
[approaching footsteps]
1380
01:16:40,304 --> 01:16:41,805
[chatter on police radio]
1381
01:16:43,557 --> 01:16:44,641
[honking]
1382
01:16:46,768 --> 01:16:48,937
[Kirtaner] It was around
11:00 in the morning.
1383
01:16:48,937 --> 01:16:51,106
Couple of cops come around the corner.
1384
01:16:55,944 --> 01:16:57,154
They served me a warrant.
1385
01:16:57,154 --> 01:16:59,740
And, "We're here to search your premises."
1386
01:16:59,740 --> 01:17:05,078
"We're from the, uh,
Ontario Police Cyber Crimes Division."
1387
01:17:06,788 --> 01:17:12,169
I wasn't charged, I wasn't detained,
but now I'm being investigated for...
1388
01:17:12,753 --> 01:17:15,797
some alleged online activities.
1389
01:17:15,797 --> 01:17:17,299
[ominous music playing]
1390
01:17:20,344 --> 01:17:25,724
They're hauling out my computers, any
hard drive storage devices they can find.
1391
01:17:25,724 --> 01:17:30,062
And then towards the end, they're like,
"Does he have a Guy Fawkes mask in there?"
1392
01:17:30,062 --> 01:17:32,981
"Yeah."
"Oh, yeah. He's got a Guy Fawkes mask."
1393
01:17:33,899 --> 01:17:39,946
I am in a very similar situation
as Jeremy Hammond was.
1394
01:17:41,114 --> 01:17:43,742
And that's absolutely fucking terrifying
1395
01:17:43,742 --> 01:17:48,580
because, well,
Hammond went to prison for a decade.
1396
01:17:50,791 --> 01:17:55,545
[Fuxnet] What's ironic about 4chan,
or any of these digital spaces,
1397
01:17:56,213 --> 01:17:59,049
is that people went there
to feel less alone,
1398
01:17:59,049 --> 01:18:01,968
but these spaces only simulate community.
1399
01:18:01,968 --> 01:18:03,804
[unsettling music playing]
1400
01:18:03,804 --> 01:18:08,350
[Fuxnet] It feels like you're fulfilling
your wildest fantasies, but in fact,
1401
01:18:09,601 --> 01:18:12,354
you're just experiencing
less and less of life.
1402
01:18:16,983 --> 01:18:20,654
You feel like you have it all,
when, in fact, you have nothing.
1403
01:18:21,279 --> 01:18:22,197
[thumping]
1404
01:18:22,197 --> 01:18:25,242
You're just alone together.
1405
01:18:28,120 --> 01:18:30,205
[roaring]
1406
01:18:30,872 --> 01:18:32,582
[melancholy music playing]
1407
01:18:45,846 --> 01:18:47,931
[music fades out]
1408
01:18:47,931 --> 01:18:50,016
[insects chittering]
1409
01:18:52,602 --> 01:18:56,398
[Fuxnet] This is the kind of place where,
like, you're walking around people,
1410
01:18:56,398 --> 01:18:59,234
they'll make eye contact with you.
They want that, "How you doing?"
1411
01:18:59,234 --> 01:19:00,569
[Hatesec] Yeah, that's nice.
1412
01:19:01,278 --> 01:19:03,363
[Fuxnet] As far as the FBI stuff went,
1413
01:19:03,363 --> 01:19:07,743
I got out of it unscathed,
with no charges or anything like that.
1414
01:19:08,660 --> 01:19:12,748
The people that I was staying with
when I was on my trip around the country
1415
01:19:12,748 --> 01:19:14,833
were people
that I've known since the '90s,
1416
01:19:14,833 --> 01:19:17,669
that I met in anime chat rooms,
1417
01:19:17,669 --> 01:19:22,257
and had not met them at all
until I left on the run.
1418
01:19:24,092 --> 01:19:30,056
Anonymous was never this mythical unicorn
1419
01:19:30,056 --> 01:19:34,644
of an organization
that could fix all of our problems.
1420
01:19:34,644 --> 01:19:37,564
People just believed that it was.
1421
01:19:37,564 --> 01:19:42,819
[all singing] ♪ Never gonna run around
And desert you ♪
1422
01:19:42,819 --> 01:19:44,571
♪ Never gonna make you cry ♪
1423
01:19:44,571 --> 01:19:50,243
[Fuxnet] I think I have an understanding
of how some of our actions in the past,
1424
01:19:50,243 --> 01:19:54,456
whether we like it or not, have affected
1425
01:19:55,373 --> 01:19:57,250
the reality of things today.
1426
01:19:57,250 --> 01:19:59,711
{\an8}[newscaster 1] Police say he posted
a document showing
1427
01:19:59,711 --> 01:20:02,339
{\an8}support for racist conspiracy theories.
1428
01:20:02,339 --> 01:20:04,716
{\an8}[newscaster 2] The Guardian reports
4chan has inspired
1429
01:20:04,716 --> 01:20:07,177
{\an8}at least three other
mass casualty attacks,
1430
01:20:07,177 --> 01:20:10,055
{\an8}including a shooting
in D.C. just last month.
1431
01:20:11,389 --> 01:20:18,104
[man 1] There has been a string of
fake mass shootings with crisis actors--
1432
01:20:18,104 --> 01:20:20,982
[man 2] The Jews want to replace
white people because they hate us.
1433
01:20:20,982 --> 01:20:23,193
[man 3] Do your own research
and find out for yourself.
1434
01:20:23,193 --> 01:20:25,362
[woman 1] Leaders
shape-shift into reptiles.
1435
01:20:25,362 --> 01:20:27,531
[woman 2] They're always
eating these children.
1436
01:20:27,531 --> 01:20:29,866
[woman 3] Of course it's not fake, okay?
1437
01:20:29,866 --> 01:20:31,076
[mystical music playing]
1438
01:20:31,076 --> 01:20:34,329
[Beran] We now know that if you spend
a lot of time on the screen,
1439
01:20:35,080 --> 01:20:37,415
you can create a mass delusion,
1440
01:20:37,415 --> 01:20:40,418
that reality parts from where you are,
1441
01:20:40,418 --> 01:20:43,547
and you can create
something elaborate in your mind
1442
01:20:43,547 --> 01:20:46,258
that is delicate and complicated,
1443
01:20:46,258 --> 01:20:48,885
and it can be
this really fascinating thing,
1444
01:20:48,885 --> 01:20:51,805
and you can spend all day
obsessing about it with other people.
1445
01:20:53,265 --> 01:20:55,350
It can feel real as anything else.
1446
01:20:55,851 --> 01:20:58,228
- [mystical music continues]
- [door slamming]
1447
01:21:00,272 --> 01:21:04,609
[Beran] But what we're doing is building
these elaborate grotesque fantasies
1448
01:21:04,609 --> 01:21:06,486
out of our own unhappiness.
1449
01:21:10,991 --> 01:21:15,787
[Alt] Our current moment
is really about us as humans.
1450
01:21:17,664 --> 01:21:20,750
And how we're only
just starting to learn the effects
1451
01:21:20,750 --> 01:21:23,628
of these tools that we all use.
1452
01:21:25,338 --> 01:21:28,425
We didn't evolve
to be online all the time.
1453
01:21:30,302 --> 01:21:34,472
This is an absolutely new moment
for the human animal.
1454
01:21:35,849 --> 01:21:38,393
- [unsettling digital effects]
- [distorted laughter]
1455
01:21:38,393 --> 01:21:42,230
[Alt] And figuring out
how we use these tools,
1456
01:21:42,230 --> 01:21:45,400
that's the question of the next century.
1457
01:21:47,694 --> 01:21:48,987
[bubbling]
1458
01:21:48,987 --> 01:21:51,531
[unsettling music playing]
1459
01:21:54,284 --> 01:21:57,120
[music distorting]
1460
01:22:03,293 --> 01:22:05,045
[music fades out]
1461
01:22:10,508 --> 01:22:12,510
[somber music playing]
1462
01:22:18,892 --> 01:22:21,895
[upbeat music playing]
1463
01:23:39,347 --> 01:23:42,058
[music fades out]