A central figure in the English-speaking world of anonymous forums and the creator of 8chan, the site where the QAnon conspiracy theory took root, Fredrick Brennan died on January 10. The announcement was made on Sunday, February 22, by the podcast I'm from the internet, in which he was a regular participant. According to the same source, he died in his sleep. He was 31 years old.
Born in 1994, Brennan suffered from a rare disease, osteogenesis imperfecta – also known as "brittle bone disease" – which makes bones extremely fragile and leads to severe growth delays and significant disability. He spent most of his childhood unable to leave his home and he developed a passion for computers at the age of 6. As a self-taught programmer, he began earning money in his teens by developing software and websites.
At the same time, he frequented highly popular, loosely moderated anonymous forums under the pseudonyms "Copypaste" or "Hotwheels" (a reference to his wheelchair). He spent much of his time on 4chan and also on Wizardchan, a smaller and misogynistic forum for male virgins, where he briefly served as administrator.
