Dvach

Dvach ( from "dva" "two" and "chan"), also known as 2ch, is the largest Russian anonymous imageboard. The original Dvach started in 2006 and was shut down in 2009, succeeded by many copies, one of which got even more popular than the original. Now it is known as 2ch.hk and run by Nariman Namazov, nicknamed Abu. After a major DDoS-attack in 2016, it has been hosted by a state-affiliated company Mail.Ru, and many users believe that it was then sold to the company for an undisclosed sum.
Many users avoid using the name Dvach for 2ch.hk, because they believe this name is only appropriate for original 2ch.ru. They use various derogatory names instead, such as Kharkach (from харкать "xarkat' " "to spit", referencing the .hk domain), Sosach (from сосать "sosat' " "to suck", due to previous domain name 2ch.so), Mailach (from alleged connections with Mail.Ru company), Abuchan (from Abu) etc.
Dvach was often accused in cyberbullying, misogyny and toxic trolling, but it is also known for revealing identities of criminals.
History.
Original Dvach.
The "old Dvach", 2ch.ru, was launched in February 2006 by Vikentiy Fesunov (kentturbo) and allegedly administered by Konstantin Grusha (Zoi), who also co-owned several other Russian websites, such as and anime.ru. Its userbase was mostly anime fans, influenced by 4chan, 2channel and Russian communities popular at the time, especially LiveJournal bloggers.
2ch.ru was the first Russian-language imageboard. Later in 2007, some other websites were created, including Iichan, a heavily moderated imageboard, a "polite and non-toxic" alternative to Dvach, and now-defunct 0chan, an imageboard for tech geeks, which later developed in a refugee for Dvach users.
In January 2009, 2ch.ru was closed. The domain name was still owned by Vikentiy so that nobody would claim it. Some of the users went to 0chan, but numerous copies of Dvach were also launched, most notable being 2-ch.ru, known as Tirech (from тире "dash"), run by Vitalik and his moderation team.
Change of administration.
In November 2010, Vitalik resigned as an administrator, and a user Abu succeeded him. He would later reveal in an interview with his former classmate, a Russian YouTube blogger Ilya Varlamov, that he had bought 2-ch for 10 000 dollars. Abu tolerated some of the derogatory and mocking names given to him and the board by the users, like Macaque or Sosach. He used images of Abu from the Disney cartoon-like avatars.
Abu changed the moderation team and banned some of the former moderators for their abuse of tripcodes and avatars. He also repressed many in-site user communities, such as Rozen Maiden and My Little Pony fans, child porn posters, anime fans posting outside of /a/ board, etc.
Unlike previous owners and copy-cats, who tried to preserve the original image of Dvach, Abu introduced many innovations. The welcoming message was changed to "Добро пожаловать. Снова." ("Welcome. Again."), becoming an informal slogan of 2ch.hk. The site started using Macaba, a custom version of the widespread Wakaba engine. Abu gained users' criticism for promoting the imageboard in social networks such as Twitter and VK. When the board was advertized in MDK, one of the largest VK communities, the 2ch thread discussing this fact was deleted by Abu, who received the moderator's position in the community.
Abu also introduced subscriptions to the site, "passcodes", which allow users who have bought them to avoid captcha and attach up to eight images to their posts instead of default four.
In 2011, Abu was doxxed. His identity was revealed as a 27 years old SEO-specialist from Moscow, an ethnic Azerbaijani Nariman Namazov (). Initially, Abu tried to ridicule and dismiss the revealing, but in 2013 it was confirmed. Since then he would officially represent 2ch.hk in media and even address the users with annual New Year speeches.
Alleged Mail.Ru deal.
In September 2016, during alleged DDoS attacks on 2ch.hk, a state-affiliated company Mail.Ru, which owned a popular e-mail service, as well as VK, the largest Russian social network, provided its services to defend the website. It is widely believed that 2ch.hk was sold to the company, facing major criticism of the users. The speculated deal raised concerns about disclosure of the users' data and violating anonymity principles. Many users have left the website, and a large part of them migrated to Lolifox, a Brazilian imageboard, later abandoned by its original users and completely taken over by Russians.
Subculture and slang.
Many Dvach terms have become widespread in Russian Internet slang, such as "tyan" (тян, "girl") and "kun" (кун, "guy"), derived from Japanese honorifics, or "vsratyi" (всратый, "ugly", literally "shitted up") and expressions like "ask your answers" (задавайте свои ответы) instead of "ask your questions".
Some slang was initially specific to various in-site communities, examples being:
Many newcomers tend to overuse some outdated local slang, which as they imagine is appropriate. Words like "sup" (сап or суп, a greeting) or "dvacher" tend to not be used by the core audience of the site, but are commonly associated with it by people from other online communities.
A lot of terms have been borrowed from the West. Some of them have undergone Russification, like "semyon" (influenced by a Russian proper name, from English "same person", a poster who pretends to be several different people in a discussion) or "sazha" (literally "soot", from "sage", a Japanese term for replying into a thread without bumping it, pronounced as if it was an English word). Sometimes 2ch serves as a window for Western memes to enter the Russian Internet.
The default software used by Dvach is Macaba, a fork of the Wakaba engine. Many users think it is buggy or lacks functionality, so they use other options like the official 2ch mobile app or the Dollchan script, a browser extension.
Females are not approved on Dvach, except inherently female boards like /dev/. A famous saying goes "there are no "tyans" on the boards!". Using feminine-gendered language is considered . Girls who openly say about their sex may be faced with demands like "tits or gtfo!".
Officially, underage people are not allowed on the site. There are 18+ boards, which are explicitly related to sex, but stating age below 18 may result in a ban on any board. Porn, both real-life and drawn, is generally tolerated and posted freely on all boards, except a child or zoophilic porn, forbidden by Russian law.
Despite child porn being forbidden, some girls previously involved in child porn, such as Masha Babko or LiinaLiiis, became memes on 2ch.
Political stance.
Generally, there is no common political stance among website users. Some of them do not like the topic at all, and fiery political discussions outside of /po/ and similar boards may result in bans for participants. Nevertheless, Dvach shares a large part of its audience with many alt-right forums, such as PLUM community on VK or Uebermarginal Twitch streamer, as well as prominent libertarian activists like Mikhail Svetov.
Many widespread political memes originated on 2ch.hk. Users who do not like president Putin call him "Pynya" (initially it was an old pro-government meme, taken over by 2ch.hk users), while his supporters may call his opponent Navalny with "Sisyan" (literally "tittied", referencing a photo of Navalny being overweight with manboobs).
A lot of holy wars are related to Russia–Ukraine relations. Ukrainians are often called with offensive names like "khokhly" and compared to pigs, while Russians may be described as "pidorashki" (from "pidor" "faggot" and "Rasha", English pronunciation of the word Russia).
In October 2018 users from Dvach disclosed true identity of one of suspects who was allegedly involved in poisoning of ex-Russian spy and other British subjects in Salisbury. Users from Dvach emailed several Bellingcat investigators to whom they provided public photos of him showing his real name on board of honorably awarded military serviceman and his participation in public events in Russian .
Nariman Namazov, the owner of 2ch, has said that he is "left-leaning". As an ethnic Azerbaijani, he does not support Russian nationalists. Abu described the famous activist Alexey Navalny, who was associated with nationalists in the past, as a populist, and actively promoted the Sisyan meme denigrating Navalny. Some users say Namazov cooperates tightly with Russian police and special services, revealing the data of the users who promote mass protests or advocate for extremist organisations.
Controversies.
Pranks.
After accidents such as terrorist attacks or mass shootings, Dvach users pranked people on social networks with fake epytaphs featuring the site owner Nariman Namazov or former porn star Sasha Grey as victims or perpetrators. Compare it to Sam Hyde hoaxes of 4chan.
In 2015, Sasha Grey reacted to it, denying the rumor that she was murdered during the War in Donbass.
Sometimes even major Russian media fall for the pranks. In January 2019, Novaya Gazeta reported that according to its sources, the perpetrator of 2018 Magnitogorsk gas explosion was "Norimonov Namazjon Wakabliyevich", later refuting this information.
Offline events.
In September 2017, a Dvach user placed a large poster with the Sisyan meme on a railway bridge during a Navalny demonstration in Novosibirsk.
In November 2018, three activists installed a Putin doll with inscription "War criminal Pynya V.V." in Perm. All of them were arrested.
Blocking attempts.
In August 2015, the /g/ ("naked girls") board was blocked in Russia for alleged posting of child porn.
In May 2017, Dvach was blocked in Ukraine, along with other services hosted by Mail.Ru.
In November 2019, Russian Internet regulator demanded Dvach to delete posts degrading state symbols, threatening it with blocking.
Official Twitter account of Dvach was blocked on 14 March 2020. In their new account, 2ch representatives said it was due to copyright infringiment, but users speculated that it was related to a conflict with Russian feminist activists.
In March 2020, Dvach was temporarily blocked due to COVID-19 misinformation.
Hacking cases.
Back in 2011, Dvach users were accused in DDoS attacks against opposition websites.
After Kerch school shooting incident the accounts of the perpetrator Vladislav Roslyakov were hacked, and his direct messages were posted on Dvach. He gained a lot of fans on the site. Threads about him are still thriving on /fag/ ("faggotry") board among the threads about Internet celebrities.
In July 2019, hackers stole 7.5 TB of data from the SyTech company, an FSB contractor. They have also defaced the company's website with the Yoba meme.
In October 2019, a Dvach user hacked the website of NATO Rapid Deployable Corps – Italy. He replaced the info about the corps commander with a mocking biography of Nariman Namazov. He also placed a link to 2ch.hk, accompanied by the Yoba meme.
Doxxing pornstars.
Dvach is often criticized for their attitude towards women.
In April 2016, Dvach users massively deanonymized Russian porn actresses, outing them to their friends and families. They used FindFace, a face recognition service that searched in the photos uploaded on the VK.
In early 2020, Dvach users doxxed Russian women who participated in a porn-horror video by Till Lindemann, a Rammstein vocalist. The users criticised them for "degrading the image of Russian women". Russian feminist activist Zalina Marshenkulova, who stood up for the women, accused Dvach users of death threats and cyberbullying against her.
Attacking celebrities.
Users from the site often attack Russian celebrities.
In October 2019, Russian comedian Garik Kharlamov was claimed "cuckold" after his wife Kristina Asmus was filmed in an erotic scene in the Text movie. The couple later divorced, they said it was not related to the Dvach trolling.
In March 2020, a TV host Andrey Malakhov was called "the chief scavenger" in the official 2ch Twitter for hyping on tragedies and deadly incidents.
Finding criminals.
Despite being described as a toxic and harmful community, Dvach has many times helped with finding criminals.
In October 2016, Dvach doxxed two teenage girls from Khabarovsk who bragged about torturing animals and offending homeless people in their social networks. They got prison sentences.
In February 2019, users disclosed a child porn studio in Kyiv, Ukraine. The officials arrested its organisers.
In February 2020, a 2ch user posted photos from a hospital, claiming to be a male nurse, and said that he "loves disabling the ventilators and watching the agony of dying old (World War II) veterans". He said that he had already killed more than ten people. Then the 2ch users doxxed him. Sergey Kalinin, 26, from Perm apologized and said that it was a prank and he actually did not kill anyone. He was fired from the hospital.