In the opening moments of “The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem,” a defeated-sounding statement sums up the issues the documentary has yet to delve into: “You can fix code. You can’t fix people.”
“The Antisocial Network,” a Netflix documentary releasing Friday, details how the controversial site 4chan.org began and unintentionally fostered conspiracy and unrest in the lives of its users. Directed by UT alumnus Giorgio Angelini and Arthur Jones, the two-hour documentary provides context to events caused by the intense trolling found on anonymous sites since the creation of 4chan.org. The documentary serves as a follow-up to the 2020 Emmy and Sundance award-winning documentary “Feels Good Man.”
The documentary starts off by explaining the development of the Japanese anonymous user site 2chan. Because there was a market starting in the 90s for Japanese pop culture in America, the site had many American users who couldn’t necessarily read text on the site’s pages but enjoyed the meme culture it fostered. Wishing for a version of the site for American users, a teenager named Christopher Poole downloaded a copy of 2chan’s software and re-launched it as an English version called 4chan under his username “moot.” The documentary explains how the innocent site became a much darker place through vibrant animations, interviews with original 4chan users, news footage, memes, social media footage and YouTube videos.
Interviews with a number of 4chan’s original users explain the appeal of the anonymous site to their younger selves saying the site held “edgy” content that they couldn’t find anywhere else. Though it first aimed to provide a space for people who did not feel comfortable in the real world, the users explain how 4chan quickly developed into an enthralling environment for trolls and mindless insensitivity without consequences.
Chilling footage of protests and racist gatherings explains how the anonymous users started to exercise their trolling offline and even became seen by the FBI as a public threat. Most shockingly, the documentary explains that the conspiracies the space has fostered are tied to groups such as the Occupy Wall Street movement and the Jan. 6 Insurrection. Though the documentary did a great job of addressing some of the biggest events throughout 4chan’s history, it could have accomplished much more if Netflix had offered it as a multi-part series — that way the documentarians could have fleshed out each different trend and conspiracy the film mentioned.
Despite this, “The Antisocial Network” is an interesting and engaging documentary. It offers a troubling look into the way people use and hide behind the media while including hopeful remarks about the idea that people who use media negatively often grow out of their habit. An especially timely release with 2024 being an election year and the rise of proposed government restrictions on social media, the documentary offers a perspective worth understanding.
4 “V for Vendetta” masks out of 5.
