How Musk ushered 4chan into US politics

In the past few days, US media have been reporting that billionaire Elon Musk will step back from his leading role in President Donald Trump’s administration. This is after his highly publicised stint as unofficial head of the nongovernmental agency DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) and various political initiatives – most recently, his campaign for the election of a conservative judge to a vacated Supreme Court seat in the state of Wisconsin – backfired.

How and when Musk will make his exit remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: He will leave behind lasting damage that goes way beyond the disruptive work of his invention, DOGE. Through his behaviour online and offline, Musk has introduced incredibly toxic and cynical politics from the obscure fringes of the internet into the chambers of power in the world’s foremost superpower.

His Nazi gesture at an event following Trump’s inauguration on January 20 was a perfect illustration. Musk immediately weighed in on the accusation that he made a Nazi salute with a mix of denial and humour, making a slew of Nazi-themed jokes on his X account.

Doing something outrageous and then denying the obvious is a clear case of “trolling” – a favourite practice in fringe internet spaces where toxic and cynical political views dominate. Among them is an infamous website called 4chan, which Musk is believed to frequent. Just at the start of this year, he decided to change his X account name to “Kekius Maximus” and his profile picture to a Pepe the Frog image – memes taken straight from 4chan. He has also openly referred to the site on his X account.

Although many have heard of the website 4chan, there is still very little public understanding of what it is and how it is connected to the rise of the far right in the US.

Simply put, it is a website where people can share text and image messages anonymously with no registration or login for users. It is a space for discussions, humour and the creation of an online community. Founded in 2003, 4chan reached 8.2 million visitors monthly in 2010 and 22 million in 2021.

Due to the anonymous cover afforded by the website’s structure, users feel confident to express problematic and fringe political views usually mixed with a veil of humour. This irony-laden form of political expression has come to define the website. Often you would see racist, sexist and/or homophobic slurs posed as jokes. Anyone who calls these out is mocked even further for their naivety or sincerity.

The disclaimer under the main forum on 4Chan, /b/, states: “The stories and information posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact.”

This is exactly why journalists and commentators who took Musk’s denial of his Nazi salute at face value completely missed the point. To those far-right fans of Musk, the appeal of his actions was in fact reinforced by the very denial, by the fact that he did a fascist gesture so brazenly and then “got away with it”.