Simba founded Anthrochat in response to the differences of opinion between himself and the administration of FurNet. In late 2003/early 2004, trolls, usually congregating in the channel #safurs, were dealt with by forcible disconnect. This quickly degenerated into a series of challenges to IRCop authority and subsequent network-wide bans of large swaths of users that were found objectionable by FurNet administration.

Simba, an IRCop of FurNet at the time, disagreed with this form of administration and argued for the right to freedom of speech on IRC. FurNet's administrators did not agree, Simba was removed from duty as an IRCop. FurNet administration published the FurNet Code of Conduct^[1] ("My freedom starts where your liberty stops").

Simba put out a call for volunteers to create a new, uncensored IRC network which became known as Anthrochat. Anthrochat's Mission Statement^[2] is essentially to be an unmoderated, uncensored medium where the IRCops' sole responsibility is to ensure the physical integrity of the network. Censorship, social mores, and personal tastes are relegated to the channel operators of individual channels, and no network-wide enforced decency standards or code of conduct exists. FurNet continues to enforce common decency standards, which some consider subjective to the views of the IRCops online making them at the time. To this day, feelings about the whole split are somewhat sore, and users typically identify with one network or the other, though some connect to both simultaneously.

Anthrochat presently runs a version of the UnrealIRCD server using Anope services. The change in codebase from what Furnet was using was received so positively, particularly because of the vhost feature that allows users to request customized hostmasks, that Furnet itself has mimiced Anthrochat's lead by instituting the same IRC daemon and services package.

From the network's founding in 2004 until the end of 2006, Anthrochat's userbase remained at an average of approximately 250-300 connected users. Usage increased over the course of 2007, and in January 2008 there were an average of approximately 384 users connected.