We've been hearing a lot of arguments about the benefits and deficits of anonymity online. Personally, I believe that benefits like being able to freely talk about personal problems, ask questions without the fear of being judged, and easily make all different types of new friends outweigh the negatives. However, there's always a group of people that takes things to the extreme. In terms of embracing and reveling in anonymity online, there is nobody who has taken this to such as an extreme as the infamous Anonymous.
Anonymous are a group of "hacktivists" (people who use hacking/cleaver usage of computers as a means to promote a political goal) who hide behind the mask of the Internet, as well as their symbolic Guy Fawkes masks (first seen in the movie V for Vendetta) to express their opinions. These people basically come together through the 4chan Internet community, which is an anonymous imageboard website that I have heard eloquently described by friends as a "condensation of the cesspool that is the internet". 4chan is extremely good at banding together for a cause, whether that is locating an image of a chart you vaguely remember seeing once in a text book, populating the latest meme, or launching an assault against human rights violators.
Anonymous are a group of "hacktivists" (people who use hacking/cleaver usage of computers as a means to promote a political goal) who hide behind the mask of the Internet, as well as their symbolic Guy Fawkes masks (first seen in the movie V for Vendetta) to express their opinions. These people basically come together through the 4chan Internet community, which is an anonymous imageboard website that I have heard eloquently described by friends as a "condensation of the cesspool that is the internet". 4chan is extremely good at banding together for a cause, whether that is locating an image of a chart you vaguely remember seeing once in a text book, populating the latest meme, or launching an assault against human rights violators.
One of the most notable things Anonymous done is its crusade against the Church of Scientology. It all began as a little quibble over an video uploaded onto YouTube that the Church asked to have removed, and Anonymous insisted removing it would infringe upon free speech. This evolved into a war against the Scientologists for "exploiting church members and limiting free speech". They organized a series
of attacks through the internet. Some of these carried over into the real world, manifesting as actual protests spurred by videos like this, causing over 7,000 protesters to gather worldwide on two occasions. While the merits of this particular agenda can be debated, they sometimes do have truly good intentions.To cite a timely example, 4chan have been standing up for the Tunisian people. Together, they launched attacks on Tunisian government websites and even managed to post this message of warning ending in:
We are Anonymous.This looks philanthropic and lovely, but they also have a sick, anti-society side. Their 4chan roots show and they uphold the "cesspool" qualities the website is famous for. Many people were quite disturbed, for example, on May 20, 2009 when YouTube was flooded with uploads of porn. Often, it was disguised as a family or kid-friendly video. While they claimed to be doing this as a response to the removal of some music videos, I think that they just wanted to show off their power by pulling off something abhorrent.
We are the angry avatar of free speech.
We are the immune system of democracy.
We do not forgive censorship.
We do not forget free speech.
Expect us - always.
I think that as long as Anonymous don't get so radical that they begin blurring the lines between activism and terrorism, it is probably good to have a group of people out there who is organized enough to speak against wrongdoings with a single, powerful voice. I'll pose the question to you, though: champions of human rights, or ne'er-do-well hackers with too much time on their hands?
2 comments:
I believe that the idea of coming together to protest injustice or the violation of human rights is a good thing. However, uploading porn onto Youtube where children may be exposed to it is definitely not okay. By participating in disreputable activities such as this, they are hurting their own reputation and the causes which they are trying to support. I place a very high value on freedom of speech, but I do not believe showing porn to a 7 year old boy or girl falls under the protection of the First Amendment. Simply because they can do something does not mean that they should, and I hope they will be more conscientious in the future.
As a frequent browser of 4chan, I found this evaluation of 4chan and Anonymous extremely interesting. One of the key differences between 4chan and Anonymous is just how the two interact with each other. It would be wrong to say that the two are independent entities, but at the same time, it would be incorrect to think that Anonymous is composed of every 4chan user. 4chan is composed of everyday people; many of them completely clueless of how to actually use a terminal on a computer or how to even begin writing an injection script. However, what they lack in abilities they make up for in sheer numbers. That is the main reason that majority of attacks from 4chan come in the form of DDoS, as that is all they are capable of. It took the skill of a more elite group of hactivists to gain more notoriety.
Anonymous is a group of hackers, ranging in age from teenagers to people who have retired from work, who believe primarily in one thing, freedom of speech. As they have stated in both their “An Open Letter To The World” and “Message to the Westboro Baptist Church, the Media, and Anonymous as a whole”, the founding principal of Anonymous the right to have every story heard, regardless of its contents. To achieve this goal, Anonymous has resorted to using its talents to embarrass those that it deems intruding on that principle. There has been a lot of recent activity from Anonymous, the DDoS (Denial of Service) attack of PayPal, Visa, and MasterCard, the social engineering and hacking of HBGary, and the retaliation against Koch for their support against Unions.
However, Anonymous is an entity that will eventually end itself. As a leaderless organization, they run in many directions at once, and at many times, they will do things “just of the lolz”. Because of that, they often make unpopular moves, such as uploading porn onto Youtube or striking down certain individuals via their harassment. For these, I would blame the more lawless group of 4chan as opposed to the more idealistic group of Anonymous. One day for sure, Anonymous will become an organization that will consume itself, but until then, I will be glad they exist.
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