Anonymous is an online group in which the majority of its members work just for “lulz” or fun and often hurt people in the process. But there are some members that truly want to serve for the better of society and the world. While Anonymous aims to make all information free, these members especially dedicate their work to implement and protect freedom of expression/speech and information all around the world. Furthermore, they aim for revolution (Olson). These members’ efforts provide support to protestors, shout out at oppressive governments, free information and voices, and heroize Anonymous members, effectively creating social change and speeding the revolutions around the world and within. The following cases demonstrate the worth of the revolutionary Anonymous and how their motives, actions, and structure characterize the nature of modern protests.
The first revolutionary hactivism was performed in support of the anti weapons testing protests in Vieques, Puerto Rico in 1999. Hactivist Sabu attacked the Puerto Rican government’s official websites and defaced it with his own message: “Give us the Respect that we deserve. Or shall we take it by force?” that stayed up for some days (Olson 137). A few weeks after the protests, the Vieques base was in control of the locals (Olson 137). Sabu claimed partial credit, pleased that he had contributed. While his efforts were small and intangible to the bigger effects of the protests, Sabu’s operation did have some positive impact on the protestors in Vieques efforts by providing support. It warned the Puerto Rico government and gave another reason to why the government must stop working against its people. Though slightly, the hactivism pushed the government to act quickly. To Sabu, the ...
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Keizer, Greg. “Syria Swings Back at Anonymous, Defaces AnonPlus Website.” Computerworld.com. 2011. Web. March 2014.
Leyden, John. “Anon hackers join Egyptian protests.” The Register. 27 Jan 2011. Web. March 2014.
“Message to the United States Government from Anonymous, A.” Anonvish17. YouTube. 2011. Web. March 2014.
Olson, Parmy. We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous, and the Global Cyber Insurgency. New York 2012 : Little, Brown and Company.
Ragan, Steve. “Anonymous offers support to Tunisian protestors.” TheTechHerald.com. Jan 10, 2011. Web. March 2014.
Ryan, Yasmine. “Tunisia’s Bitter Cyberwar.” AlJazeera. Jan 6, 2011. Web. March 2014.
“Tunisia is the First Anonymous Revolution.” Puppetworld Post. Web. March 2014.
Stone, Michael. “Anonymous hacks Syrian Electronic Army: Operation Syria engaged.” Examiner.com. 2013. Web. March 2014.
In his memoir revolution 2.0 the young Google marketing executive Wael Ghonim emerged as an internet activists’. His advocacy for freedom of the suppressed ordinary people initiated
In the essay “Where Anonymity Breeds Contempt” the author Julie Zhou demonstrates the negative impact Anonymity in the internet has had on human beings. Following with a convincing argument for unmasking these “trolls” of the internet.
Protests have long been a way for people to display their difference in opinion and gain support. One of the many protests against the war that had a powerful effect on public opini...
All societies will endure times of great trouble where people suffer, and in that suffering, discontent will give birth to voices offering a solution. While some, holding the most genuine motives, will whole heartedly rise to the challenge, others will seem parallel in these actions, but will refuse to take responsibility for any attributions made to the system, doing so in a reckless prosecution towards power. Before establishing a solution, one must find a scapegoat, a targeted group of people, to condemn. This is followed by aggressive name calling, crude insulting, and attacks on the personal rights of citizens. If name calling doesn’t work, a violent revolution will materialize, in which there will be a bloody outcome with many fatalities.
Andrew Calabrese, Virtual non-violence? Civil disobedience and political violence in the information age (2004) 6 Emerald Info 326 available at http://spot.colorado.edu/~calabres/Calabrese%20(civl%20dis).pdf
Historically, the Anonymous has been engaging in activities that qualifies the group as hacker group as opposed to troll organisation. The group began its operation on December 2010 by attacking the MasterCard for blocking the Wiki Leaks website donations (Coleman 1). In January 2011, the Anonymous group attack the Tunisian government website for using illegal means against protesters. In February...
“We are #Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget #ExpectUs #MillionMaskMarch #OpVendetta #UK”. That message is from the many tweets off of Twitter that the group Anonymous.
Chenoweth seeks to explain why “nonviolent resistance often succeeds compared to violent resistance, and under what conditions nonviolence succeeds or fails”. In recent years, organized groups conducting civil disobedience have been successful using nonviolent tactics such as, “boycotts, strikes, protests, and organized noncooperation”, in order to challenge the current power they were facing.1 Some successful examples of regimes that have been removed from power in recent years are, “Serbia (2000), Madagascar (2002), Georgia (2003), Ukraine (2004-2005), Lebanon (2005), and Nepal (2006)”.1 More recently in 2011 there were major uprising in both Egypt and Tunisia that were able to remove regimes that had been in power for decades, showing that nonviolence can work even if the regime has been in power for years.1
Hacking has historically been associated with shady behavior or criminal connotations. It is very rare that a person condones hacking or thinks of it as anything other than a crime. However, in his article “Academic Freedom and the Hacker Ethic”, Tom Cross challenges us to redefine a hacker and what they actually do. He forces the audience to think as he states that “knowing how to do something that might be harmful is not the same as causing harm” (Cross, 38). Using this powerful statement, Cross uses his article to give the reader a new take on hacking. He proceeds to explain that often times, the information that we receive as a public is a result of hacking into government systems. He provides us with a new perspective as he divulges the
The 20 Enemies of the Internet. 1999. Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Feb 20, 2001. <http://www.rferl.org/nca/special/enemies.html>.
The term “cyber terrorism” refers to the use of the Internet as a medium in which an attack can be launched such as hacking into electrical grids, security systems, and vital information networks. Over the past four decades, cyber terrorists have been using the Internet as an advanced communication tool in which to quickly spread and organize their members and resources. For instance, by using the instantaneous spread of information provided by the Internet, several terrorist’s groups have been able to quickly share information, coordinate attacks, spread propaganda, raise funds, and find new recruits for their cause. Instantaneous and unpredictable, the technological advantages these terrorists have obtained from using the Internet includes
Masnick, Mike. "Should We Want A 'Cyberwar'? It's A Lot Less Bloody Than A Real War." Techdirt. N.p., 20 June 2012. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. (Source G)
Society has become ever-increasingly dependent upon technology, more specifically, computers to conduct personal and business transactions and communications. Consequently, criminals have targeted these systems to conduct information and cyber warfare, which can include politically motivated attacks and to profit through ill-gotten means. In an article written by Koblentz and Mazanec (2013), cyber warfare is the act of disabling an enemy’s ability to use or obtain information, degrade its ability to make decisions, and to command its military forces. Additionally, information warfare is composed of cyber warfare and related to the protection, disruption, destruction, denial, or manipulation of information in order to gain a benefit through the technologies (Taddeo, 2012). Accordingly, as technology becomes readily available to various entities, the ability to conduct or perform warfare through technological means is multiplying.
Kabay, M. E. "Anonymity and Pseudonymity in Cyberspace: Deindividuation, Incivility and Lawlessness Versus Freedom and Privacy." Conference of European Institute for Computer Anti-virus Research 8 Mar. 1998.
McGuffin, Chris, and Paul Mitchell. “On domains: cyber and the practice of warfare.” International Journal 69.3 (2014): 394+. Academic OneFile. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.