Japanese Toy Company Has Reportedly Propped Up 4chan for Years

Good Smile, one of the world’s most popular toy makers, reportedly acted as a staple for one of the internet’s worst cesspools, providing financial backing to 4chan. The site has continued to facilitate campaigns of harassment, racism, misogyny and homophobia while creating a vortex for internet conspiracy theories.

Wired reported on Wednesday The, on the basis of documents of the articles of association, Japanese toy company Good Smile has been supporting 4chan financially for almost eight years. The merch provider is known for its Nendoroid series and other benchmarks figures and action figures based on several major IPs, notably anime but also Warner Bros. and Walt Disney real estate. The documents reportedly show that Good Smile committed $2.4 million to keep the site running when it changed hands in 2015.

Gizmodo reached out to Good Smile for comment, but we didn’t immediately receive a response. The partnership agreement had been filed with the New York Attorney’s Office 2022 buffalo shootingwhere the perpetrator referred to 4chan as where he uploaded his manifest.

Good Smile has been linked to 4chan in previous reports. Last year, based on non-disclosure documents, Wired reported that Good Smile had played a role in acquiring the site in 2015. Former Vice Presidents for Good Smile in USA have accused the company in legal documents of trafficking in “sexually explicit” minors Girl, Commit tax evasion, cheat the US and to be involved 4 channels accordingly The Hollywood ReporterSubsidiary’s Top Brass, went to Good Smile’s US offices back in 2019 and was there narrated by Enna Hozumi, Vice President at Good Smile US, that Good Smile Japan has “bought out” 4chan and that it is “managed” at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. A company representative told the reporter that Good Smile made a “passive investment” in 4chan.

The nice folks at anonymous imageboard site 4chan have been involved in numerous harassment campaigns, such as: B. Recent targeted attacks Employees of an LGBT suicide hotline. It was called the seedbed for the QAnon conspiracy movement and for them incel community. The online board was expressly mentioned by the perpetrator of the fatal 2018 Toronto van attack that specifically targeted women. It is otherwise continued to be a haven for rightmost radical And Trolls of all shapes and sizes.

2015, Christopher Poolewho calls himself “moot” online, Sold 4chan to Hiroyuki Nishimura, the creator of the 2channel site that inspired 4chan. Nishimura is still the admin of the site. His hands-on approach to running the site has allegedly controlled 4chan becomes the Internet bastion for far-right extremists and other traffickers of useless information. According to documents cited by Wired, Nishimura then poured $800,000 of his own money into the site, along with $4.8 million from one of his companies, which was additionally funded by a separate Japanese telecom firm, Dwango.

The lingering question in all of this is, “Why?” 4chan is by no means a moneymaker. It was corrupted by ad blockers and Nishimura suggested the site could be shut down. He later broke 4chan in two with the addition of 4channel. Nishimura told the Japanese publication shueisha that he met Good Smile President Takanori Aki at anime conventions and they became “friends”. He also told Shueisha that Good Smile is working on ending his current deal with 4chan as it appears the toy company’s main working partner, Disney, is trying to end his relationship.

According to the report, Disney’s licensing deal with Good Smile expires in May, but It is plan to allow them relationship expire. Gizmodo reached out to Disney for official comment, but we didn’t immediately receive a response.