/pol/

/pol/, short for "Politically Incorrect", is an anonymous political discussion on 4chan. As of 2022, it is the most active board on the site. It has had a substantial impact on Internet culture. It has acted as a platform for far-right extremism; the board is notable for its widespread racist, white supremacist, antisemitic, anti-Muslim, misogynist, and anti-LGBT content. /pol/ has been linked to various acts of real-world extremist violence. It has been described as one of the "[centers] of 4chan mobilization", a title also ascribed to /b/. Common /pol/ content involves discussion of history, far-right ideologies, hatred of black people, and current news. A 2020 report categorized about 36% of news sources frequently posted to the board by American users as "junk news", a category that includes sources considered to be propaganda, sensationalist, or conspiracy theory content. Outside of traditional news sources, users also commonly rely on alternative media such as YouTube commentary as a source of news. Flags are displayed on each post. A national flag corresponding to the user's geographic location (based on their IP address, which could be manipulated using a proxy server) may be displayed. Alternatively, users may select a "meme flag" (also referred to as a "troll flag"), corresponding to various political identifiers. However, these are not common per amount of posts—the "Nazi" meme flag was the most commonly used meme flag in a 2020 analysis, while posts with an American geographic location were about 57 times more common (and appeared the most of any flag). Each post also has a unique ID attached, which is likewise associated with the user's IP address. However, these unique IDs will only tend to remain attached to a user per a single thread, as they are not persistent between multiple threads. Threads have a limited lifespan, effectively prioritizing newer content. Much of the content on /pol/ relies heavily on Internet memes to further spread ideas. Many have questioned the sincerity of users on /pol/ as possible trolls.