The Guy Fawkes mask has become an unofficial symbol for the hacktivist group Anonymous. (Photo by Pedro Rufo | Shutterstock)
What kinds of groups come to mind when you think about people you don’t like?
Racists? Pedophiles? Terrorists?
Call me an idealist, but I’d say that any group that infringes upon any person’s basic human rights is not cool, and they should be held accountable if their actions affect others negatively (the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights lays it out nicely for future reference). The only problem is that it’s often impossible to bring such groups to “justice” through conventional or legal methods given the difficulty involved in gathering evidence against said “villains” or framing their wrongdoings in a court of law.
Enter the romantic notion of hacktivism. Like most romantic things, it messes with what you thought were your steadfast principles and occasionally causes you to contradict yourself. Hacktivism is basically what it sounds like — the words hack and activism meshed together —hacktivism.
“Hacktivists” use computer hacking as a means to publicize what they consider misdemeanors that they believe have not been adequately dealt with by the law, media, or public in general. Famous groups include “Anonymous,” and “LulzSec” who famously politicized hacking by taking down the websites of organizations from the CIA to the KKK. Many hacktivist groups actually started for “lulz,” for laughs. That is to say, they would hack organizations just to test their cyber security and see what sort of information they could dig up for kicks. Now, however, they’ve started to dedicate their efforts to more serious crusades.
Though by no means comprehensive (by no means at all), here’s a timeline I came up with to tickle your brains and see what you think. For the sake of scope, I’ll focus mostly on the group Anonymous.
2001
As the internet became an increasingly accessible commodity, groups began to use it to voice political messages. The Hacktivisimo Declaration, apparently inspired by the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights, states that internet users “have the right to freedom of expression,” including “freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.”
2008
Anonymous set forth their first major campaign called “Project Chanology” against the Church of Scientology who Anonymous accused of spreading misinformation and trying to stifle any dissenting views against the Church. It started with an attempt on the Church’s part to take down one video, in which a crazy-eyed Tom Cruise extols Scientology while the Mission Impossible theme song plays in the background, from everywhere on the internet.
2010
Anonymous swooped in to defend WikiLeaks in “Operation Avenge Assange” when MasterCard, PayPal, and Visa blocked payments to the site. Anonymous briefly took down the MasterCard and Visa sites and slowed down traffic on PayPal. The beauty of hacktivist groups, in my opinion, is that regardless of the effects of their efforts, the media always publicizes them. In this way, the media not only spreads word of the attacks, but also perpetuates the ideas behind them.
The movie V for Vendetta (based on the Alan Moore graphic novel) depicts a vigilante protagonist known only as “V” who seeks to bring down the government in a post-apocalyptic universe. He says some pretty profound stuff and also sports a Guy Fawkes mask.
2011
Anonymous introduced “Operation DarkNet” in which they targeted forty websites that host child pornography. They temporarily took down the sites and released the names of 1500 visitors. This is a recurring issue pursued by Anonymous. This same year they also voiced their support of the Occupy movement.
2012
Anonymous briefly took down the website of the Vatican, clarifying that they have nothing against Catholics themselves, but rather the institution of the Church which they view as corrupt and oppressive.
Let’s jump to 2015.
This article originated as an attempt to detail a brief history of hacktivism, but really there’s nothing brief about it. We’re just getting into the second month of the year, and Anonymous has already introduced several campaigns. With “Operation Charlie Hebdo,” Anonymous offered condolences to the victims and their families as well as redirected a jihadist website to the search engine DuckDuckGo. They’ve also introduced “Operation Death Eaters” in which they aim to rally supporters for a street protest on February 13 to stand against pedophiles who avert consequences because of their power or wealth (or both). You should also check out the article my colleague Christina wrote last week about Anonymous helping the homeless.
Many question the morality of hacking. I personally believe it is a violation of privacy, and I agree with the UN Declaration of Human Rights which states that people have the right to feel secure from arbitrary interference with their privacy.
I don’t find it fair that groups like Anonymous hack organizations and people and oftentimes release their personal information on the internet.
But I also don’t find it fair when people don’t reap any consequences for their crimes.
There is no right or wrong here. There’s a little bit of both on all sides, and I want to hear what you think. Let us know in the comments.
Here’s another screenshot from the movie of V asking a profound question. Ponder it.
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Stefany Gutu