{"id":62039,"date":"2026-03-06T17:38:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T08:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=62039"},"modified":"2026-03-06T17:58:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T08:58:04","slug":"domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/","title":{"rendered":"Domain of anonymous Japanese bulletin board 5channel, which inspired 4chan, permanently suspended. Site now active only on alternative domain\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Jim Watkins, the administrator of Japanese anonymous bulletin board <strong>5channel<\/strong>, reported\u00a0on March 6\u00a0that the site\u2019s domain\u00a0\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/5ch.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">5ch.net<\/a>\u201d\u00a0as well as the related site BBSPINK\u2019s domain\u00a0<strong>\u201c<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/bbspink.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bbspink.com<\/a>\u201d\u00a0have been permanently suspended\u00a0(as reported by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.itmedia.co.jp\/news\/articles\/2603\/06\/news112.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ITmedia<\/a>).\u00a0As of the time of writing, the\u00a0site\u00a0is continuing operations using the alternative domain\u00a0\u201c5ch.io.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>5channel&nbsp;traces its origins back to&nbsp;2channel,&nbsp;which was founded in 1999 by Hiroyuki Nishimura&nbsp;(the current owner of 4chan). In 2014, management was transferred to Jim Watkins, and in&nbsp;2017,&nbsp;the site was&nbsp;renamed&nbsp;to&nbsp;5channel.&nbsp;The&nbsp;site&nbsp;hosts a&nbsp;large number&nbsp;of&nbsp;messaging&nbsp;boards&nbsp;based on topic,&nbsp;with&nbsp;especially&nbsp;active&nbsp;video game-related&nbsp;boards.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to a post from Watkins\u2019s personal\u00a0X account, the domains\u00a05ch.net\u00a0and\u00a0bbspink.com\u00a0were permanently suspended by the domain registrar Epik. As the background to the suspension, Watkins reported that content related to animal abuse had been flagged for violating Epik\u2019s terms of service.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It is unfortunate, but this action will put 8chan and 8kun out of business within a few days.<br>Please contact abuse@epik.com to help me resolve the release of <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hiO12OdM4l\">https:\/\/t.co\/hiO12OdM4l<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DzEOa98Lmy\">https:\/\/t.co\/DzEOa98Lmy<\/a><\/p>&mdash; James Watkins (@Jimwatkins) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jimwatkins\/status\/2029685780847939666?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 5, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the post&nbsp;in&nbsp;question&nbsp;has&nbsp;been&nbsp;deleted&nbsp;in the meantime, Watkins later reported that the English-language imageboard&nbsp;8chan&nbsp;(8kun)&nbsp;may become unable to continue&nbsp;operating&nbsp;within a few days. He&nbsp;also appears to be&nbsp;attempting&nbsp;to&nbsp;have the suspensions of&nbsp;5ch.net&nbsp;and&nbsp;bbspink.com&nbsp;lifted, and&nbsp;has called on users to contact Epik&nbsp;regarding&nbsp;the matter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the time being, 5channel&nbsp;is still active&nbsp;under the alternative domain&nbsp;5ch.io<strong>.<\/strong>&nbsp;However, the loss of its original domain&nbsp;could&nbsp;have a major effect on&nbsp;both the site\u2019s management and its usability.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jim Watkins, the administrator of Japanese anonymous bulletin board 5channel, reported\u00a0on March 6\u00a0that the site\u2019s domain has been suspended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":62043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-62039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Domain of anonymous Japanese bulletin board 5channel, which inspired 4chan, permanently suspended. Site now active only on alternative domain\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jim Watkins, the administrator of Japanese anonymous bulletin board 5channel, reported\u00a0on March 6\u00a0that the site\u2019s domain has been suspended.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Domain of anonymous Japanese bulletin board 5channel, which inspired 4chan, permanently suspended. Site now active only on alternative domain\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jim Watkins, the administrator of Japanese anonymous bulletin board 5channel, reported\u00a0on March 6\u00a0that the site\u2019s domain has been suspended.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-06T08:38:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-06T08:58:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260306-426914-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hideaki Fujiwara\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hideaki Fujiwara\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Domain of anonymous Japanese bulletin board 5channel, which inspired 4chan, permanently suspended. Site now active only on alternative domain\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Jim Watkins, the administrator of Japanese anonymous bulletin board 5channel, reported\u00a0on March 6\u00a0that the site\u2019s domain has been suspended.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Domain of anonymous Japanese bulletin board 5channel, which inspired 4chan, permanently suspended. Site now active only on alternative domain\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Jim Watkins, the administrator of Japanese anonymous bulletin board 5channel, reported\u00a0on March 6\u00a0that the site\u2019s domain has been suspended.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2026-03-06T08:38:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-03-06T08:58:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260306-426914-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Hideaki Fujiwara","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hideaki Fujiwara","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/"},"author":{"name":"Hideaki Fujiwara","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/d7c6807a5a0a89cb5f7764ae96ffa985"},"headline":"Domain of anonymous Japanese bulletin board 5channel, which inspired 4chan, permanently suspended. Site now active only on alternative domain\u00a0","datePublished":"2026-03-06T08:38:01+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-06T08:58:04+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/"},"wordCount":330,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260306-426914-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/","name":"Domain of anonymous Japanese bulletin board 5channel, which inspired 4chan, permanently suspended. Site now active only on alternative domain\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260306-426914-header.jpg","datePublished":"2026-03-06T08:38:01+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-06T08:58:04+00:00","description":"Jim Watkins, the administrator of Japanese anonymous bulletin board 5channel, reported\u00a0on March 6\u00a0that the site\u2019s domain has been suspended.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260306-426914-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260306-426914-header.jpg","width":1600,"height":900,"caption":"5channel logo"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/domain-of-anonymous-japanese-bulletin-board-5channel-permanently-suspended-site-now-active-on-only-on-alternative-domain\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Domain of anonymous Japanese bulletin board 5channel, which inspired 4chan, permanently suspended. Site now active only on alternative domain\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/d7c6807a5a0a89cb5f7764ae96ffa985","name":"Hideaki Fujiwara","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/261fb30e148f01d8a7b7752437b9edb5-150x150-1-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/261fb30e148f01d8a7b7752437b9edb5-150x150-1-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/261fb30e148f01d8a7b7752437b9edb5-150x150-1-100x100.jpg","caption":"Hideaki Fujiwara"},"description":"Automaton Japan Deputy Editor-in-Chief. Voracious gamer who plays everything. Loved Titanfall 2 and has been playing Apex Legends since its launch.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/hideaki-fujiwara\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62039"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62074,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62039\/revisions\/62074"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}