What the thing is
Shitposting is aggressively poor-quality online content. It is intentionally inane and contextless. It is designed to provoke or derail—not inform or connect.
Where it came from
It emerged around the mid-2000s on image boards like 4chan. It was not born in mainstream social media. It predates algorithmic feeds and engagement metrics.
Shitposting is defined as posting content of “aggressively, ironically, and trollishly poor quality”, usually designed to derail a discussion or draw the biggest reaction for the least effort. A shitpost can sometimes be orchestrated as part of a coordinated flame war to make a website unusable for its regular visitors.
What it gets right
It exposes the fragility of online discourse. It reveals how little effort is needed to break consensus. It names a real tactic used by real people on real platforms.
Polygon’s Sam Greszes compared it to Dadaism’s confusing, context-free pieces, which were seen as revolutionary precisely because they were so absurd, and wrote that the goal is to confuse an audience at the lack of content until they laugh or smile. Greg Barton, a Deakin University expert on terrorism, described racist shitposting as common online and a way for people to connect and gain attention: the more ironic and funny the post, the bigger the response. In 2018 Chicago magazine described the Facebook group NUMTOT (New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens) as posts meant to be awkward and irrelevant, distracting communities from their topic.
What it gets wrong
It mistakes reaction for engagement. It conflates derailing with critique. It offers no alternative—only sabotage as method.
Why it matters now
Because shitposting has scaled beyond niche forums. Its logic now underwrites viral outrage, political trolling, and platform-native content strategies. The tactic has outlived its irony.
The political use came to prominence in the 2016 US presidential election. The Daily Dot called a shitpost “a deliberate provocation designed for maximum impact with minimum effort”, and the pro-Trump group Nimble America drew wide media attention that September for circulating memes maligning Hillary Clinton. The Independent that month called shitposting an apolitical “tool that can be put to a variety of effects” that predated the election, and Esquire wrote that internet mockery was emerging as a legitimate political technique. The Financial Times cited Jo Swinson, the former Liberal Democrat leader, who had to deny killing squirrels for fun after trolls invented the story. It has also reached music: in 2024 Pitchfork’s Kieran Press-Reynolds coined “shitpost modernism” for artists influenced by shitpost culture, citing Lil Yachty’s “Poland” among other examples.
Is it worth your time
Yes—if you need to understand how attention is weaponised online. No—if you expect coherence, sincerity or constructive dialogue.
