Recent years have seen cyber wars erupting in different forms, ranging from the infamous WikiLeaks data ops to smaller scale disruption and denial of service operations, such as those directed against Scientology, the Westboro Baptist Church, the Steubenville rapists, and most recently in Ferguson, Missouri. The world-wide Web has become crucial terrain in an ongoing political struggle to attain the strategic high ground of information dominance. Anonymous is an amorphous political collective that operates within this new multi-dimensional landscape; with that, it’s anybody’s guess who they are and what they intend to do. Do you think they are freedom fighters or or are they terrorists?
Journalist Richard Stallman asks us to consider: “Is Anonymous the incarnation of the long-awaited altruistic invisible army of hackers needed by various social movements, as promised by science-fiction writers for the last decade? Or is Anonymous a phenomenon more similar to a mass panic, a sort of collective behavior that falls outside of organized politics, an ‘Internet Hate Machine’ that embodies the libidinal subconscious of the lost children of the Web?”
#OpKKK: Hands Up! Hoods Off!
Regardless of what some might think, they present a compelling ongoing challenge to any authority that aims to control the flow of infomation in society. In the case of this last video, Anonymous declares “We Are The Law Now.”
Discussion Questions:
Why is it that governments and institutions appear to be more zealous in their prosecution/imprisonment of computer hackers, protesters, and journalists, when war criminals, torturers, and criminal bankers are free to walk and continue business as usual?
How is it possible that extreme corporate domination over traditional media and communication systems has evloved uncontested in a democratic country like the United States? Is it possible that a socially constructive role might be played by non-linear, distributed, and fragmented organizations like the Anonymous collective? Or are they simply too disorganized and law-less to be considered effective? Do you think they pose an inherent danger to civil society or might they help us hold authorities and corporations responsible for their actions?
In a world driven by the internet it is no surprise that the governments and institutions appear to be more likely to prosecute and or imprison computer hackers, protesters, and journalists. Its like “if you’re not with me, then you must be against me”. I believe the government likes to control what society can see and try and control what they think. Prosecuting and imprisoning computer hackers, protesters, and journalists is basically eliminating anybody that can stand between being exposed to whatever information they have hidden. Yet criminal bankers can walk free because they have the money to buy their freedom, what these criminals are doing doesn’t effect the government in a way that it would be impossible to recover.
In my opinion I think that this whole situation with the cyber group anonymous is nerve wrecking. They claim that they are on the side of the people and are against the cops. To know that a group of people can have such a big impact on society is very impressive. This whole cyber war they are having with the Ku Klux Klan organization is also nerve wrecking. Anonymous threatened Ferguson police and the KKK if they attempted to work together. The types of examples that anonymous are setting for our communities in my opinion are very questionable. It’s good to stand up for what you believe in but when violence starts to be encouraged I see it as a big problem. In my opinion I don’t agree that problems should be resolved with violence but through communication and interactions with others. Sadly, we live in a world were not everybody feels the same way. one thing I do agree with is when anonymous states that they have a lot of people who support them and will continue to protest without violence.
Government and institutions appear to be more zealous in their prosecution/imprisonment of computer hackers, protesters, and journalist, when war criminals, torturers, and criminal bankers are free to walk and continue business as usual because of one thing, money. When you have money you can get away with murder(literally), until the masses start speaking up. The government knows that once people have started to speak up, dig deep and find the dirt that they’ve been hiding, then all hell will break loose. I love Anonymous. I wish that they would hack more usual things such as our credit reports and debts, but that is another topic.
We’ve witnessed for years what happens to people who speak up against the government. Snowden is the biggest example of our time of someone who found out way too much and began talking. The more we discover, the weaker the government gets.
This was such an interesting read. However, I would like to know more about the bill that he first video spoke about where your rights are being taken away from you? I find it interesting that this group of individuals are able to expose hat is actually going on in our society and government. There are many things that we don’t know which makes me wonder, are we better off not knowing them?
The government in general works in a certain way and that it to show that they are the one in charge and they are the one who have the power. The government are more zealous because they believe the ones who are the tortures and war criminals, are not a threat or do not disturb the peace. The people who are computer hackers and protesters are the ones who are a threat. They’re a threat to the government because those are the people who actually stand up for what they believe in and actually go out their way, to let people know what they do not know at all. It’s like putting all of the government secret’s out there and this is why the government treat these people very differently to tortures and war criminals.
Constitution and the set of common laws initially were created to protect people and allowed to set certain limitations on government’s power. We assume that we have a democracy, and we are a free nation. How much of freedom is enough? Can everyone handle it the right way? We demand freedom and less of a control, yet it has been obvious that many take advantage of it and use it for their own benefit. Examples can be the meaningful riots that became for many an excuse to loot and destroy the homes of innocent people. Then those in power use those event as an excuse to enforce more control. Can anything be done to really obtain the freedom? And what if those who do it, overwhelmed from the power, will try to control the freed? The idea of the Constitution is to protect our rights, but it has been rewritten so many times. Now it is depriving us from the ability to voice our opinion or make choices. The more power government attains from it’s people, less controllable and transparent it becomes. “Demos” means people and “kratos” means rule”. Democracy means “rule of people”. That means that WE are the government and we are definitely slacking.
Anonymous is a network of activists and “hacktivists” that concentrate on seeking mass awareness and revolution against corrupt entities. Governments and institutions are zealous in the prosecution of computer hackers, protesters and journalists because they are opening people’s eyes and the governments and institutions are not happy about it. The government keeps many secrets from us and they do not like to be challenged. I believe the government has two sides, they decide what they want us to see and what they don’t want us to see. When someone is powerful enough to expose the side that they don’t want us to see they consider them a threat and that’s why the government goes after hackers, protesters and journalists.
After watching both videos, i think of Anonymous as freedom fighters, primarily because private corporations have dominated the social media and our communication systems and they control the flow of information in our society. Anonymous is group of people that support and they are part of protesters and social movements and they inform us about the laws that are about to be passed by our government and how these laws can negatively affect our lives. Anonymous is suggesting that we open our eyes and try to bee more involved with whats going on in our society and around the world and not only look at things only through the traditional media and communication systems that are owned by people with a lot of money and power.
I think governments and institutions appear to be more zealous in their prosecution/imprisonment of computer hackers, protesters, and journalists because they are bringing up relevant issues and concerns in modern society. They are intelligent people and they know how to move a crowd. These people let others aware of what’s going on and bring people together. The bigger the circle the more power we people have. They want to better the society and government does not want that. Nor do they want us to have any power. The government wants to run this country in a way that only benefits them. The government feels threatened when we join forces and in order to stop that from happening, they need to seize the people that start it which are the computer hackers, protesters, and journalists. Whereas, robbers, criminals, and criminal bankers have no interest in changing society or care about world issues. I never heard of Anonymous until this class but this is crazy. They are so scary with the masks and computerized voices. But they seem to be warning us, telling us to wake up and realize what is really going on. The government does not inform us on everything that is going on, we are usually lied to about what’s really going on. Groups such as “anonymous” are sharing information that we are not suppose to know.
The government fears that the computer hackers, protesters, and journalists might find out about the government’s schemes and the government does not want information published. These people report and publish secret information about the government. The anonymous are doing a great job publishing private company, government, and organization information to the public so that people know what these groups are doing behind people’s backs. However, they do not post a threat to the society; in fact they help everyone out by keeping everyone informed on what is going on, so that people are not left out.
The government seems to be more eager about the imprisonment of the hackers, protesters, and journalists over the war criminals, torturers, and criminal bankers, because it allows the general public to get more hyped about whatever topic that is being enforced. The government does not like it when the public gets emotionally involved with something since it will end up starting protests, riots, and other social events. Since the government only likes the public thinking the way they do, Anonymous is clearly a big topic that goes against their views (even with the KKK incident). Their ideology could spark many heated officials if it is brought to the public eye more so than it is already.
Government and institutions appear to be more zealous in their prosecutions of computer hackers because they are the ones that do this stuff through the internet where it can reach millions of people all at one time about the flaws. They are the ones who speak for what they feel is right or what should or shouldn’t be done. They give the others a second to think like them and try and see their point on things. They are the reason that change still exist in our government. If it wasn’t for them we would have no change in todays government. They are informing the world, the citizens about what the government doesn’t share and what the institution is not telling.
I think the reason that governments and institutions appear more zealous with the prosecution of computer hackers, protesters, and journalists is because these are the people that expose how bad and corrupt they really are. Criminal bankers, war criminals, and torturers are all on the same side as the government and institutions in that they all work together to keep things quiet and simply sweep things under the rug. What they do not understand is that society has changed and journalists, protestors, and computer hackers now have more power than ever because of how huge social media has gotten. Now, they have the power to share all the negative things these institutions have been hiding all these years.
Hackers, protesters, and journalist face more zealous prosecutions and imprisonment then other criminals because they pose more of a threat to government’s control over the population. The government is afraid of loosing power and and having people speak out against them. Protester, hackers, journalist, and specifically Anonymous can reveal more about the types of injustices a society is facing and unveils problems the government wishes to keep a secret. With corporations having control over the media it creates major bias in the information being relayed to society and those people who only look to their TV to be educated on current events. Anonymous is able to reach almost every person and is known for revealing injustices and has even threatened some parts of the government like the Ferguson police for example. That kind of power has been unheard of before Anonymous.
After reading this entry i learned a lot I never knew about “Anoynmous”. Of course I know about the KKK but this opened my eyes to a lot. The KKK is very well known and powerful. Many people are afraid when they ever see someone with the white robes on.
After viewing the videos I started to get a little nervous especially when they said they can find out anything and they know exactly what those are doing that they are involved with. The masks are very scary that they wear and it makes people even more afraid of them. The government have their own set of rules that will not change which means this won’t change. The government expects everyone not to protest but these things are going to happen because some people do not agree what occurs. They do not know how to handle the protesters and just focus on the chaos. Everyone has the freedom to speak out loud and as long as they are not hurting anyone this really should not be a problem. People believe they will never be found since they wear a mask, but these things do need to be looked at a little bit more.
Of course, the government is more zealous in their prosecution/imprisonment of computer hackers, protesters, and journalists. It is them who speak their minds on present or even past conflicts, initiating new information that may open the publics mind to perceive things in a more impact full way. It is them who open societies eyes and help them grasp what may not always be in front of them. Computer hackers, protesters and journalists are all in a fundamental position in where they are able to voice opinions, ideas, and even facts that are not heard and/or allowed to be heard. However, they take place on the media where, once it is published, it can go absolutely viral! Viral, quickly molding new concepts and conclusions into society and instantly changing regular routines, groups and their procedures. However, when war criminals, torturers, and criminal bankers are walking on the streets, they are not changing, in any way, anything that the government has already created. They are not impacting the people in any contrasting way.
I personally do not see Anonymous as a threat to civil society. I have never heard of them either until this class as well. I see them as people that are trying to get the United States to understand what is really going on in our world. I have not heard of them doing any harm, they are mostly just trying to get their point across. It seems as they want us, Americans, to learn how to speak up for ourselves, and the laws of our government. The government has been getting away with a lot of stuff, and us Americans do not always see that due to the fact that we do not have all the knowledge that we should have.The Anonymous group seems to want to help us know our rights, which I think is a good thing. They are not going against anyone specifically, unless a group goes after them, such as the KKK. Since the KKK now sees what Anonymous is capable of, maybe they will back off.
The government is more concerned with hackers, protestors, journalists and any other form of public awareness as they have the power to influence the people whereas robbers, criminals, and criminal bankers are needed to increase the wealth and power of the government. The last thing the government wants is to increase the awareness of what they are guilty for and opening it up to the general public. This sort of information can create chaos amongst them which can eventually force them to act out in force through means of our militarized police or to change their own ways of running the country.
Before reading this I never knew anything about Anonymous but I did know about who and what the KKK was. When it comes to the KKK I feel they are a very powerful group of people who many people fear. Even the ways the KKK is dressed in those white robes with there faces covered is a very scary thing as well. when watching the videos about anonymous is very creepy to hear them say we know exactly what you are doing at all times. The idea of anonymous is crazy even then being dressed up in the mask is so crazy. The government is very set in there ways and will not make any changes unless they have to. When things go wrong like people protest there are invaders and writers and they don’t know how to control them or what type of action to take. Also I feel people have the right to speak there mind and say what is right however it should be done in a peaceful way. The whole idea of anonymous blows my mind and it is scary to think people are watching your every move and follow you where ever you go.
Government and institutions appear to be more zealous in their prosecution and imprisonment of computer hackers, protesters, and journalists because some are invading privacy, trying to change the world, and are allowed to speak freely. These are the people who push and shove to get what they want and to try to create a social change, by standing up for themselves and others. War criminals, torturers, and criminal bankers are not really trying to make a difference, or disturb the peace for what they want. These people are apart of the society and we need them in order to function and support the infrastructure. Government does not like change, or when the peace is disturbed by protesters, hackers, and journalists because they do not know how to handle them, or shut them down. These people have a right to speak their mind and try to create a social change which is something the government and institutions do not want. They can live without these people, but the war criminals, torturers, and criminal bankers is what operates our society.
I definitely believe that governments are quicker to prosecute and imprison hackers because when people operate through the internet their message reaches the masses and informs people of the institutions flaws. Instead, those who are committing crimes on the street are not necessarily in plain view of the rest of the world. While hacking might be illegal, I am always a little bit impressed by anonymous. They are very educated on all of the causes that they fight for and they are not blind to the fact that we are living in a cyber world. Thus, they are simply using the internet to inform the world about what the government and institution is often choosing not to tell.
Let me start of by saying before this class i never heard of Anonymous. Wow its amazing what they are doing. The video clip with them hacking into the KKK was hilarious because so many people are terrified of them. I know that we are suppose to have the right of freedom of speech but little by little it is getting taken away. Anonymous made a point about the KKK i don’t they care about the KKK because with everything they know they could of hacked into them a long time ago. Since they didn’t until they threaten a peaceful protest, and also with the police. With their so called “serve and protect”.
I think governments and institutions appear to be more zealous in their prosecution/imprisonment of computer hackers, protesters, and journalists because they cause people to think. They voice their opinions and pose questions that may be alarming to some individuals. They cause people to protest and question societies rules and laws that have been passed by legislature. Whereas, criminals, torturers, and criminal banker are free to walk and continue business and usual because they don’t pose a threat to the government. They are not causing people to gather and protest or question the government. They are just going against peoples morals and societies norms. I do think Anonymous will help raise awareness and help individuals hold authorities and corporations responsible for their actions since they are making people aware of issues that are occurring because of the two. Therefore, they do not pose an inherent danger to civil society. They are simply stating issues and trying to get others involved to help make changes happen.
I think government institutions are more zealous in prosecution of hackers protesters, and journalist because they are free thinkers that can both bring light to the inequalities occurring in society and stir up social unrest. People like this are looking for social change and the government does not want a change in the system. While criminals walk and continue business they are not changing the flow of society like how a protester or hacker tries to. I don’t believe alone that Anonymous poses a treat to society but I believe their ideology does and if it spreads it can bring on social change which might not necessarily be such a bad thing.
Bankers, war criminals and torturers are all part of the infrastructure of this country that is why they do not pursue them. Are they pursuing China for hacking into the Pentagon defense system? The higher officials are not doing their jobs or they are asleep on the jobs because how can 2 spray painted military planes fly into the Twin Towers? how can a bunker buster hit the Pentagon? How could the government lie to families about Flight 93 that was shot down before crashing? I do not think Anonymous Groups pose a threat.