Fredrick Brennan

Fredrick Brennan
Fredrick Brennan driving a boat in 2014.
Born	c. 1994/1995
Other names	"Hotwheels"[1]
Known for	Creating 8chan

Fredrick Brennan, also known by the nickname "Hotwheels", is an American computer programmer with brittle bone disease who founded the imageboard website 8chan.

Early life

Brennan was born in the mid-1990s with osteogenesis imperfecta, commonly known as brittle bone disease, which stunted his growth and confined him to a motorized wheelchair. He estimates he had broken bones 120 times in his first 19 years, which was extremely painful for him.^[2][3] His short arms don't let him pick items off the floor or out of cupboards; Brennan uses mechanical reacher arms to reach into cabinets, or to turn on water faucets, though this makes the reacher arms break about once a month.^[4]

Brennan comes from a multigenerational family with osteogenesis imperfecta. His mother, who has the same condition, gave birth to him via caesarian section when she was 38, and to his brother, who also shares it, when she was 40. His parents divorced when Brennan was 5 years old; the children were in the father's sole custody until Brennan was 14, when they were placed into the New York State foster care system.^[3] Because of his hardships, Brennan wrote an article for The Daily Stormer supporting eugenics, specifically the voluntary sterilization of people with similar severe inheritable genetic conditions, so that other children like him would not be born.^[5][3]

His disability restricted his childhood play activities, so he was "hooked" on his first computer at the age of 6, and wrote his first independent computer program at the age of 13.^[4] Brennan was active in Internet culture from an early age, being introduced to 4chan in 2006, helping mirror Encyclopedia Dramatica during its shutdown in 2011, and joining Wizardchan.

Independence

In August 2013, Brennan moved from his mother's home in Atlantic City, New Jersey to Brooklyn, where he worked writing websites as head of programming for RazorClicks, which does small business Web marketing.^[2] The company paid the rent for his apartment, and he worked a second job, remotely, for a Canadian company for expenses.^[4]

In January 2014, Brennan was robbed of almost $5000 that he was saving up for a new wheelchair. When the suspect was arrested, Brennan went to the police station for a lineup, but when a bus didn't come on the way back, was left stranded in snow, and had to be treated for hypothermia.^[2] He received a personal apology from New York City Police Commissioner William J. Bratton.^[6] RazorClicks began a donation campaign to help gather the remaining funds for a new wheelchair; US$15,000 was raised in 2 months.^[7]

8chan

Brennan launched 8chan, also called "Infinitechan", in October 2013, after a month of raising pledges on Patreon. It was meant as a "free-speech-friendly 4chan alternative", where discussion boards would be managed by the creating users, not by site moderators.^[8] It started with a small but loyal following.^[9]

In September 2014, the website gained popularity from the Gamergate controversy after 4chan banned supporters of the subject, many of whom then organized at 8chan.^[10][8] 8chan quickly became the second most popular English-language imageboard on the web.^[9] Supporters gathered in person to hold an in-person birthday party for the site, starring Brennan.^[1] Brennan himself became a prominent GamerGate advocate, being interviewed about 8chan's involvement in the harassment of Brianna Wu on The David Pakman Show, and asked to debate about Gamergate on HuffPost Live and Al Jazeera America.^[11][12][13]

In October 2014, Brennan formed a partnership with Japanese message board 2channel, and moved to the Philippines to work on 8chan full-time.^[1][14]

Brennan has been criticized for 8chan's pedophilia-related boards; Brennan has said he personally finds such content reprehensible, but stands by his refusal to remove content that does not violate United States law.^[8] However in January 2015 Patreon removed 8chan's fundraising page, and the site registrar put the domain on hold, each citing the child abuse content; the site was moved to its original domain name, 8ch.net.^[9][15][16]

References