While 4chan‘s /b/ board may be notorious for porn, gore, and Internet pranks, the users posting on book forum /lit/ generally stick to discussions of novels and other reading material.
This changed over the weekend when the forum began sharing videos by a book vlogger known as Katie.
“Hi /lit/,” one user wrote, “what do you think of the ‘Booktuber’ trend?”
“Fuck… I lost hard,” one user wrote, referring to the 4chan meme “You Love, You Lose”—posting images of hot women with the intention of finding a new Internet crush.
/lit/ users thought Katie was cute. They also mocked her, called her a virgin, and wondered out loud if she had “a petticoat … I could look up.”
Then the users went to YouTube to try to get her attention.
Katie took notice.
“This one creeper said that I sounded like a virgin,” she wrote, “and then this other dude … described in like a paragraph what he would do to me if he met me or something and by this I mean in an inappropriate and sexual way.”
She added, “I am so disgusted and feel violated beyond belief.”
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While several on the board showed remorse—”I’m fucking ashamed of us,” one wrote—it was too late. Katie took down her YouTube page.
Katie’s Tumblr remains active. A /lit/ user claimed to have sent her the 4chan thread she was featured in.
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Then the forum braced itself for Katie’s visit. One user wrote “Luv U Katie” on a piece of paper, placed on top of Coke bottles filled, apparently, with urine.
This is not an isolated incident. Sexualized comments about book vloggers, even ostensibly underage ones, is actually a recurring theme on the board.
/Lit/ on 4chan
This is far from the first time female YouTubers have faced harassment on the site, especially of a sexual nature. While they continue to speak out about the abuse they face on it and other social media platforms, the tide still hasn’t turned to make YouTube a safe space for female voices.
Katie did not respond for comment about her harassment.
Illustration by Fernando Alfonso III