Criticism of Boxread

The discussion website Boxread has hosted numerous controversial boards, with topics ranging from entertainment to outright violence. This article documents the history of Boxread's criticisms and controversies.

b/liquidsoap
On May 3, 2013, a user known on the site as p/StylisedTitles created a board titled b/liquidsoap. Despite reaching 1.1 million members, the board was criticized due to its discussions of controversial topics, including Nazis, neo-Nazis, and racial stereotypes. According to Shut Up News, the board was reported 1,286 times, with 539 reports marking as "inappropriate topics", 637 marking as "harassment", and 110 marking other reasons. On April 22, 2014, Boxread deleted b/liquidsoap board and released an apology via b/Boxread.

b/noreastersunite
On June 15, 2015, a native named Roger Knickerbocker (a voice actor and multimedia artist in the  area), going by the handle p/proagawamman, created a board named b/noreastersunite as a discussions place for people living in the Northeastern United States, Central Canada, and the Canadian Maritimes.

On August 12, 2015, a Boxreadist from named p/electricboogaloo611 posted a drawing of Eckhart, the titular character of the, shooting people with an AK-47. Versions of the image spread around the board, some even layering the heads of the people Eckhart was shooting at with the names of some of their real-life rivals; the situation became so severe that within an hour, p/proagawamman and fellow moderators p/quebecnordiquesfan and p/hiimpaul kicked 35 accounts off b/noreastersunite.

A day later, the Presque Isle police went to electricboogaloo611's house, and he was revealed to be a 26-year old artist named Alan le Gall (better known on as TheGrimlockFanboy). He said he drew the original artwork as a response to a troll telling him to "grow up and stop watching stupid-ass baby shows". Alan was let off with a warning from the police.

b/furryass
On February 1, 2017, more than 200 users were kicked off the board b/furry by moderators for spamming uncensored -related images, which violated the board's rules.

On February 2, one of the kicked users, p/yiffyou, made a board called b/furryass, dedicated to sexually explicit posts about "" and masturbation. As of February 7, 194 users had joined. The board also spawned many Internet memes, including the " created furries" meme. On May 19, 2018, the board was deleted by administrator p/chris due to complaints about discrimination and the board's explicit sexual content.

b/WhitesWin
On December 2, 2017, p/DonnyJayTrump, an American white nationalist Boxreadist, was banned from b/stupid for spamming far-right content. In February, the user created a board named b/WhitesWin, a board dedicated to criticizing liberal politicians and other people with left-wing ideologies. The board reached more than 400 thousand members during its first week on Boxread, and was criticized on left-wing and apolitical boards, accusing b/WhitesWin of supporting racism and showcasing racist and violent content. The board was deleted on February 3, 2021 for containing explicit and discriminatory content that violated the websites rules.

b/furrierass
On September 20, 2018, five Boxreadists (FreeSpeechBro, slimshady69, iloveliberty, topsyturvy, and turvytopsy) joined b/furrierass (a "more controlled" remake of b/furryass by p/elkadsreiscommunist and ex-b/furryass moderator p/opalotterfan23). The group then posted various far-right comic strips throughout the evening, which stirred controversy with the userbase and even spread to other boards.

At midnight on September 21, all four accounts were blocked by p/chris, along with various other spammers. former b/furryass moderator p/Josh482 issued a statement through b/StarTrek saying in part, "I can't believe that some people use the dark humor of comic strips to promote actual far-right beliefs. I cannot approve of comic strips that encourage racism and violence." Unlike b/furryass, b/furrierass remained on the website following the incident.

Doxxing of Morgan Debney
In August 2019, ETVKK After Hours was criticized for endorsing the doxxing of Morgan Debney, a 30-year old British Boxreadist living in, ; when fans of the website revealed him to be the true identity of user p/behonest, who made several posts and comments on b/rockandmetal critical of Christian rock artists such as Stryper and Skillet, as well as a few other bands. U.S. Representative Charles Milburn, himself a rock music fan, stated it was "repellent to unleash the resources of a social media brand on some unemployed, anonymous man for the misdemeanor of trivially mocking musicians and bands". ETVKK host JP Reeve criticized ETVKK After Hours fans for "wanting to take out a hit job on somebody with a opinion, no matter how worthless said opinion is".

Debney stated he would sue El TV Kadsre Television Network for "believing the rubbish ideal of hunting down somebody for having an opinion that is true", and created a GoFundMe page to raise money for legal costs, with a goal of £62,000. As of September 1, 2019, he had raised £2,000.

b/hatedoms
On September 7, 2019, a Canadian user on b/hatedoms called p/cancerzodiac wrote a rant on aenimo, titled "Aenimo is gay", stating:
 * aenimo is gay. fucked. like, really fucked. superfucked. bitched to infinity. seriously, i'm sick of this lgbtabcxyz community making cartoons like yeonsa and yeosa. aenimo is just awful and i'm disappointed in sandia. sandia needs to fucking get fucked.

The "bitched to infinity" portion spread around the board, becoming a b/hatedoms phenomenon.

The term became controversial after a user called p/cocainetelevision released an image of Bluey Heeler, the main character of the Australian animated preschool television series , stabbing her sister, Bingo, and at the bottom is the text "Bluey: Bitched To Infinity" in red Arial Black. Versions of the image with different fonts spread around the Internet, including one posted by a Boxreadist called p/sloshyworstchannel, with the text "Stabber Bluey" in the image. The term Stabber Bluey was then used to refer to these images. Although the Stabber Bluey meme died down in popularity after Bluey distributor began sending cease-and-desist letters to various websites the meme was spreading around (as well as sending a letter to the original fan artist, a Bluey fan on b/cartoons called p/goat17383 who drew it as a joke), the "bitched to infinity" meme continued in popularity, even after p/cancerzodiac got their account suspended for hate speech on another board, b/animanga.

p/coolcathatesyou
On September 26, 2019, the headquarters of  (the regulatory and competition authority for the British telecommunications industry) was evacuated due to a perceived shooting threat posted in a comments thread on b/movies by an American Boxreadist from,  named p/coolcathatesyou, wherein he threatened to "bust a cap" in a UK internet network hub if British Boxreadists didn't "quit with saying things like rubbish" and "learn that britannia stopped ruling the waves eons ago".

Two hours later, the went to his house, and p/coolcathatesyou was revealed to be a 19-year old boy named Joshua Polaris Orr. Joshua was subsequently hospitalized at a mental health facility in due to severe stress and anxiety.

b/carcrashes
On September 14, 2020, p/KILL_SELF_LOL created b/carcrashes, a board dedicated to posting accident scene photos and videos of car accidents. The board had become infamous for its userbase posting uncensored photos of accidents, often without the victims' or their families' permission. On September 16, 2020, after being up for two days, the board already reached 10,000 members, catching the attention of administrator p/tamika, and she deleted the board later that day.

b/CoronaNews
On May 1, 2021, a user going by the name of Death2Brian123 created b/CoronaNews, a board dedicated to spreading COVID-19 misinformation from a perspective. 0ver 20,000 users joined reportedly within the board's first six minutes on Boxread, most of their posts consisting of links to fake news articles about the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

The board began receiving media coverage in June 2021 after Death2Brian123 began publishing defamatory News.org videos in which the original videos' lower thirds were altered to contain hateful statements about liberal politicians. b/CoronaNews was deleted on November 20, 2021 for violating the website's misinformation rules, as well as its users engaging in targeted harassments.

b/IMO
A rant by a user on b/IMO on the works of the Morkel family ended up becoming the source of several memes, including "fell in gey" and "if you want a good kids [sic] show watch...", the latter of which was used to mock the original poster calling the adult animated series Happy Tree Friends a kids show. The former meme was even referenced in Mole Miner, one of Phelan Morkel's works, in the season 22 episode "The 99-Cent Pyramid" when Philippe mentions that Harry "fell in gay with a guy not once, but numerous times."

The former meme ended up becoming controversial after a user on 's r/memeswithoutborders posted a picture falsely accusing Elina Galcheva and Genevieve LaClotte, who are friends, of "falling in gey" with each other, which then spread to other boards with memes accusing various celebrities and e-celebs of "falling in gey" with one another.

Removal of right-wing boards
On March 27, 2022, Boxread administrator p/Victor conducted a mass removal of over three hundred right-wing Boxread boards, adding a description for all of them stating, "Rule 5 violation: promoting discrimination". The board's removal resulted in users on the boards accusing Boxread of left-wing bias, noting that left-wing boards such as b/Democrats and b/LeftWing remain active. The mass removal was also criticized by right-wing commentators and news websites among the likes of Nelson Chetski, Charles Milburn and Beaufort News.

b/Ukraine raid and aftermath
On April 9, 2022, pro- Boxread users launched a mass raid on the cultural board b/Ukraine, spamming Ukrainophobic posts and pictures depicting sexual violence against Ukrainians. During the raid, over 300 thousand users joined the board, most of the accounts being recently made. The new accounts were banned over the course of four hours by hundreds of site administrators. In the aftermath of the invasion, Boxread announced that it would tighten the site's account restrictions, and confirmed that accounts newer than twenty-four hours old would be barred from uploading, with no exceptions. The new policy was met with wide spread criticism from the site's users.

On April 16, 2022—one week later—Boxread administrators reported on b/Boxread and across social that b/Russia had been isolated for spreading misinformation about the. After the situation was worsened with image macros depicting Ukrainian people and Ukraine's leaders in violent situations, the board was terminated on June 4, 2022 for violating the website's rules against hate speech and misinformation, with several administrators stating that they might impose IP address bans on the offenders.

The isolation of b/Russia was met with mixed responses, as while many Boxreadists praised the administrators for removing content that was discriminatory in nature, the administration was also mocked across the Internet for "depowering free speech" and attempting to finalize the staff's supposed imposition of an entirely far-left political agenda.