Anonymous (used as a
mass nounIn linguistics, a mass noun is a common noun that presents entities as an unbounded mass. Given that different languages have different grammatical resources, the actual test for which nouns are mass nouns may vary between languages...
) is a label and
Internet memeThe term Internet meme is a phrase used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet, much like an esoteric inside joke...
adopted within
Internet cultureThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
to represent the actions of many online community users acting
anonymousAnonymous may refer to:*Anonymity, the state where a person's name and other personally identifying information is not known*Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an anonymous, undisclosed, or unknown creator or author...
ly, usually toward a loosely agreed-upon goal. It is generally considered to be a blanket term for members of certain Internet subcultures.
Actions attributed to Anonymous are undertaken by unidentified individuals who apply the Anonymous label to themselves. After a series of controversial, widely-publicized protests and reprisal DDoS attacks by Anonymous in 2008, incidents linked to its cadre members are said to be increasingly common.
Although not necessarily tied to a single online entity, many websites are strongly associated with Anonymous. This includes notable imageboards such as
4chan4chan is an English-language imageboard website. Launched on October 1, 2003, its boards are primarily used for the posting of pictures and discussion of manga and anime...
and
Futaba, or Futaba for short, is an internet forum in Japan. It is considered one of Japan's most popular imageboards dealing in otaku and underground culture.-Origin:...
, their associated wikis,
Encyclopedia DramaticaEncyclopædia Dramatica is a wiki, running MediaWiki software. Launched on December 9, 2004, it satirizes both encyclopedic topics and current events, especially those related to or relevant to Internet culture. The wiki has been the subject of media attention given its focus on trolling and use of...
, and a number of forums.
Origins as a concept and a meme
The name Anonymous itself is inspired by the perceived anonymity under which users post images and comments on the Internet. Usage of the term Anonymous in the sense of a shared identity began on
imageboardAn imageboard is a type of Internet forum that revolves around the posting of images. The first imageboards were created in Japan, and many English-language imageboards today are centered around Japanese culture.- Characteristics of imageboards :Imageboards, similar to bulletin boards, are used...
s. A tag of Anonymous is assigned to visitors who leave comments without identifying the originator of the posted content. Users of imageboards sometimes jokingly acted as if Anonymous were a real person. As the popularity of imageboards increased, the idea of Anonymous as a collective of unnamed individuals became an
internet memeThe term Internet meme is a phrase used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet, much like an esoteric inside joke...
.
Anonymous broadly represents the concept of any and all people as an unnamed collective. Definitions tend to emphasize the fact that the term cannot be readily encompassed by a simple definition, and instead it is often defined by
aphorismThe word aphorism denotes an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and easily memorable form....
s describing perceived qualities.
Composition
Anonymous consists largely of users from multiple
imageboardAn imageboard is a type of Internet forum that revolves around the posting of images. The first imageboards were created in Japan, and many English-language imageboards today are centered around Japanese culture.- Characteristics of imageboards :Imageboards, similar to bulletin boards, are used...
s and internet forums. In addition, several
wikiA wiki is a website that uses wiki software, allowing the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked Web pages, using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor, within the browser...
s and
Internet Relay ChatInternet Relay Chat is a form of real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfers via Direct...
networks are maintained to overcome the limitations of traditional imageboards. These modes of communication are the means by which Anonymous protesters participating in
Project ChanologyProject Chanology is a protest movement against the practices of the Church of Scientology by members of Anonymous, a leaderless Internet-based group that defines itself as ubiquitous...
communicate and organize upcoming protests.
A "loose coalition of Internet denizens", the group is banded together by the internet, through sites such as
4chan4chan is an English-language imageboard website. Launched on October 1, 2003, its boards are primarily used for the posting of pictures and discussion of manga and anime...
, 711chan,
Something AwfulSomething Awful, often abbreviated to SA, is a comedy website housing a variety of content, including blog entries, forums, feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. It was created by Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka in 1999 as a largely personal website, but as it grew, so...
,
FarkFark is a community website created by Drew Curtis that allows users to comment on a daily batch of news articles and other items from various websites. As of June 2009, the site boasts approximately 4 million unique visitors per month, which puts it among the top 100 English language websites...
,
Encyclopedia DramaticaEncyclopædia Dramatica is a wiki, running MediaWiki software. Launched on December 9, 2004, it satirizes both encyclopedic topics and current events, especially those related to or relevant to Internet culture. The wiki has been the subject of media attention given its focus on trolling and use of...
,
SlashdotSlashdot, sometimes abbreviated as /., is a technology-related news website owned by SourceForge, Inc. It features user-submitted and editor-evaluated current affairs news with a "nerdy" slant. Each story on the site has an Internet forum-style comments section attached...
,
IRCInternet Relay Chat is a form of real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfers via Direct...
channels, and
YouTubeYouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google...
.
Social networking services, such as
FacebookFacebook is a global social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and...
, are used for the creation of groups which reach out to people to mobilize in real-world protests.
Anonymous has no leader or controlling party, and relies on the collective power of its individual participants acting in such a way that the net effect benefits the group.
A common tactic of Anonymous is to claim during "raids" that they are the work of
eBaum's WorldeBaum's World is a website based in Rochester, New York featuring entertainment media such as videos, Flash cartoons and web games. It is controversial for many reasons, primarily due to the fact that much of the content on the website is taken from other sources without permission and rebranded...
, a site highly detested by Anonymous for theft of content from other sites.
Raids and invasions
The activities in this section were attributed to Anonymous either by their perpetrators or in the media. The actions taken by Anonymous do not seem to follow any single shared agenda. Those identifying with the term often take action simply for amusement. This is known within sites affiliated with Anonymous as "doing it for the lulz".
Habbo raids
A popular target for organized raids by Anonymous is
HabboHabbo is a social networking website aimed at teenagers. The website is owned and operated by Sulake Corporation...
, a popular social networking site designed as a virtual hotel. The first major raid, known as the "Great Habbo Raid of '06", occurred on June 12, 2006. In the raid (and most others that occur), users signed up to the Habbo site dressed in avatars of a black man wearing a grey suit and an
AfroAn afro, sometimes shortened to "fro", is a hairstyle in which the hair extends out from the head like a halo, cloud or ball.- History :...
hairstyle (in style of
Samuel L. JacksonSamuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor. After Jackson became involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then, films. He had several small roles, before meeting his mentor, Morgan Freeman, and the director Spike Lee...
in the movie
Pulp FictionPulp Fiction is a 1994 crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, who cowrote its screenplay with Roger Avary. The film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence, nonlinear storyline, and host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references...
) and blocked entry to the pool, declaring that it was "closed due to
AIDSAcquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus ....
", flooding the site with internet sayings, and forming
swastikaThe swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form or its mirrored left-facing form. Archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates from the Neolithic period and was first found in the Indus Valley Civilization of the Indian...
-like formations. When the raiders were banned, they complained of racism. In response, the Habbo admins often ban users with avatars matching the profile of the raiders even months after the latest raid.
Hal Turner raid
According to Turner, in December 2006 and January 2007, individuals who identified themselves as Anonymous took Turner's website offline, and cost him thousands of dollars in bandwidth bills. He retaliated by sending a "formal legal notice of criminal activity in violation of several federal laws" by email to 7chan, multacom, and multicom, as well as redirecting his domain to 420chan.org, causing that site to take a bandwidth hit as well. He also sued 4chan, 7chan, and other websites in court over copyright infringement. However, he lost his plea for an injunction and failed to receive letters from the court.
Project Chanology
The group gained worldwide press for
Project ChanologyProject Chanology is a protest movement against the practices of the Church of Scientology by members of Anonymous, a leaderless Internet-based group that defines itself as ubiquitous...
, the protest against the
Church of ScientologyThe Church of Scientology is the largest organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination...
.
On January 14, 2008, a video produced by the Church featuring an interview with
Tom CruiseThomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known by his screen name of Tom Cruise, is an American actor and film producer. Forbes magazine ranked him as the world's most powerful celebrity in 2006. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and won three Golden Globe Awards...
was leaked to the Internet and uploaded to
YouTubeYouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google...
.
The Church of Scientology issued a copyright violation claim against YouTube requesting the removal of the video.
In response to this, Anonymous formulated Project Chanology.
Calling the action by the Church of Scientology a form of
Internet censorshipInternet censorship is control or suppression of the publishing or accessing of information on the Internet. The legal issues are similar to offline censorship....
, members of Project Chanology organized a series of
denial-of-service attackA denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...
s against Scientology websites,
prank callA prank call, also known as a crank call, is a form of practical joke committed over the telephone. Prank phone calls began to gain an America-wide following over a period of many years, as they gradually became a staple of the obscure and amusing cassette tapes traded amongst musicians, sound...
s, and
black faxThe term black fax refers to a prank fax transmission, consisting of one or more pages entirely filled with a uniform black tone and often made into a loop the sending machine will transmit endlessly...
es to Scientology centers.
On January 21, 2008, individuals claiming to speak for Anonymous announced their goals and intentions via a video posted to YouTube entitled "Message to Scientology", and a press release declaring a "War on Scientology" against both the Church of Scientology and the
Religious Technology CenterThe Religious Technology Center is a Californian 501 non-profit corporation. RTC was founded in 1982 by the Church of Scientology in order to control and oversee the use of all of the trademarks, symbols and texts of Scientology and Dianetics, including the copyrighted works of Scientology founder...
. In the press release, the group states that the attacks against the Church of Scientology will continue in order to protect the right to
freedom of speechFreedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship or limitation. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes used to indicate not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
, and end what they believe to be the financial exploitation of church members. A new video "Call to Action" appeared on YouTube on January 28, 2008, calling for protests outside Church of Scientology centers on February 10, 2008. On February 2, 2008, 150 people gathered outside of a Church of Scientology center in
Orlando, FloridaOrlando is a major city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan region...
to protest the organization's practices. Small protests were also held in
Santa Barbara, CaliforniaSanta Barbara is a city in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the west coast, between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the sea, and having a Mediterranean climate, it is called California's...
, and
Manchester, EnglandManchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. In 2007, the population of the city was estimated to be 458,100...
.
On February 10, 2008, about 7,000 people protested in more than 93 cities worldwide. Many protesters wore masks based on the character V from
V for VendettaV for Vendetta is a ten-issue comic-book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd, set in a dystopian future United Kingdom imagined from the 1980s about the 1990s...
(who in turn was influenced by
Guy FawkesGuy Fawkes , also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, belonged to a group of Roman Catholic restorationists from England who planned the Gunpowder Plot of 1605...
), or otherwise disguised their identities, in part to protect themselves from reprisals from the Church.
Anonymous held a second wave of protests on March 15, 2008 in cities all over the world, including Boston, Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Vancouver, Toronto, Berlin, and Dublin. The global turnout was estimated to be "between 7000 and 8000", a number similar to that of the first wave. The third wave of the protests took place on April 12, 2008. Named "Operation Reconnect", it aimed to increase awareness of the Church of Scientology's
disconnection policyDisconnection, when used in Scientology, is a term used to describe the severance of all ties between a Scientologist and a friend, colleague, or family member deemed to be antagonistic towards Scientology. The practice of disconnection is a form of religious shunning. Among Scientologists,...
.
On October 17, 2008, an 18-year-old from New Jersey described himself as a member of Anonymous, and he stated that he would plead guilty to involvement in the January 2008 DDoS attacks against Church of Scientology websites.
Protests continued, and took advantage of media events such as the premiere of the Tom Cruise movie
ValkyrieValkyrie is a 2008 historical thriller film set in Nazi Germany during World War II. The film depicts the 20 July plot by German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and to use the Operation Valkyrie national emergency plan to take control of the country...
, where the venue was chosen in part to reduce exposure to the protests.
Epilepsy Foundation forum invasion
On March 28, 2008,
Wired NewsWired News is an online technology news website, formerly known as HotWired, that split off from Wired magazine when the magazine was purchased by Condé Nast Publishing in the 1990s. Condé Nast purchased Wired News on 11 July 2006...
reported that "Internet
grieferA griefer is a player who plays a multiplayer video game in order to irritate and harass other players, rather than in pursuit of game objectives....
s"—a makeshift term for people who cause grief—assaulted an
epilepsyEpilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures...
support forum run by the Epilepsy Foundation of America.
JavaScriptJavaScript is an object-oriented scripting language used to enable programmatic access to objects within both the client application and other applications. It is primarily used in the form of client-side JavaScript, implemented as an integrated component of the web browser, allowing the...
code and flashing computer animations were posted with the intention of triggering
migraineMigraine is a neurological syndrome characterized by altered bodily perceptions, severe headaches, and nausea. Physiologically, the migraine headache is a neurological condition more common to women than to men. The word migraine was borrowed from Old French migraigne...
headaches and
seizureAn epileptic seizure is a transient symptom of excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. It can manifest as an alteration in mental state, tonic or clonic movements, convulsions, and various other psychic symptoms...
s in
photosensitive and pattern-sensitive epilepticsPhotosensitive epilepsy is a form of epilepsy in which seizures are triggered by visual stimuli that form patterns in time or space, such as flashing lights, bold, regular patterns, or regular moving patterns.-Symptoms:...
.
According to
Wired News, circumstantial evidence suggested that the attack was perpetrated by Anonymous users, with the initial attack posts on the epilepsy forum blaming
eBaum's WorldeBaum's World is a website based in Rochester, New York featuring entertainment media such as videos, Flash cartoons and web games. It is controversial for many reasons, primarily due to the fact that much of the content on the website is taken from other sources without permission and rebranded...
. Members of the epilepsy forum claimed they had found a thread in which the attack was being planned at 7chan.org, an
imageboardAn imageboard is a type of Internet forum that revolves around the posting of images. The first imageboards were created in Japan, and many English-language imageboards today are centered around Japanese culture.- Characteristics of imageboards :Imageboards, similar to bulletin boards, are used...
that has been described as a stronghold for Anonymous. The thread, like all old threads eventually do on these types of imageboards, has since cycled to deletion.
RealTechNews reported that the forum at the United Kingdom–based
National Society for EpilepsyThe National Society for Epilepsy is the largest medical charity in the field of epilepsy in the UK, providing services for people with epilepsy for over 100 years...
was also subjected to an identical attack. It stated that "apparent members of Anonymous" had denied responsibility for both attacks and posted that it had been the Church of Scientology who carried them out.
News.com.au reported that the administrators of 7chan.org had posted an open letter claiming that the attacks had been carried out by the Church of Scientology "to ruin the public opinion of Anonymous, to lessen the effect of the lawful protests against their virulent organization" under the Church's
fair gameThe term Fair Game is used to describe various aggressive policies and practices carried out by the Church of Scientology towards people and groups it perceives as its enemies. Founder L. Ron Hubbard developed the strategy in the 1950s and established the policy in 1965. Three years later, he...
policy.
The Tech Herald reported that when the attack began, posts referenced multiple groups, including Anonymous. The report attributes the attack to a group named "The Internet Hate Machine" (a reference to the KTTV Fox 11 news report), who claim to be part of Anonymous, but are not the same faction that are involved in the campaign against Scientology.
Some Anonymous participants of
Project ChanologyProject Chanology is a protest movement against the practices of the Church of Scientology by members of Anonymous, a leaderless Internet-based group that defines itself as ubiquitous...
suggest that the perpetrators are internet users who merely remained anonymous in the literal sense, and thus had no affiliation with the larger anti-Scientology efforts attributed to Anonymous. During an interview with CNN, Scientologist Tommy Davis accused Anonymous of hacking into the Epilepsy Foundation website to make it display imagery intended to cause epileptic seizures. Interviewer
John RobertsJohn D. Roberts is a television journalist for CNN, where he is a co-anchor of CNN's morning program American Morning. He anchors from Washington D.C. and New York...
contended the FBI said that it "found nothing to connect this group Anonymous (with these actions)", and that it also has "no reason to believe that these charges will be leveled against this group". The response was that the matter was on the hands of local law enforcement and that there were ongoing investigations.
Defacement of SOHH and AllHipHop websites
In late June 2008, users who identified themselves as Anonymous claimed responsibility for a series of attacks against the
SOHHSOHH is a hip hop news website. Felicia Palmer and Steven Samuel founded the website in 1996. In 2000, Rolling Stone magazine writer Mark Binelli called it the "best overall hip-hop site".- History :...
(Support Online Hip Hop) website. The attack was reported to have begun in retaliation for insults made by members of SOHH's "Just Bugging Out" forum against 4chan's users. The attack against the website took place in stages, as Anonymous users flooded the SOHH forums, which were then shut down. On June 23, 2008, the group which identified themselves as Anonymous organized DDOS attacks against the website, successfully eliminating over 60% of the website's service capacity. On June 27, 2008, the hackers utilized
cross-site scriptingCross-site scripting is a type of computer security vulnerability typically found in web applications which enable malicious attackers to inject client-side script into web pages viewed by other users. An exploited cross-site scripting vulnerability can be used by attackers to bypass access...
to alter the website's main page with satirical images and headlines referencing numerous racial stereotypes and slurs, and also successfully stole information from SOHH employees. This incident may have nothing to do with the group, Anonymous.
No Cussing Club
In January 2009 members of Anonymous targeted
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
teen McKay Hatch who runs the
No Cussing ClubThe No Cussing Club is an advocacy organization asking people to refrain from using profanity in public space. The organization was founded by then 14-year-old McKay Hatch in 2007...
, a website against
profanityThe original meaning of the adjective profane referred to items not belonging to the church, e.g...
.
YouTube Porn Day
On May 20, 2009, members of Anonymous uploaded numerous pornographic videos onto
YouTubeYouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google...
. Many of these videos were disguised as children's videos or family friendly videos with tags such as "jonas brothers". YouTube has since removed all videos uploaded. The BBC contacted one of the uploaders who stated that it was a '4chan raid' organised due to the removal of music videos from YouTube. BBC News reported that one victim posted a comment saying: "I'm 12 years old and what is this?" which went on to become an internet meme.
KTTV Fox 11 news report
On July 26, 2007,
KTTVKTTV, channel 11, is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Los Angeles, California. Serving the vast Los Angeles metropolitan area, KTTV is a sister station to KCOP , Los Angeles' MyNetworkTV station...
Fox 11 News based in
Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
aired a report on Anonymous, calling them a group of "
hackerIn common usage, a hacker is a person who breaks into computers, usually by gaining access to administrative controls. The subculture that has evolved around hackers is often referred to as the computer underground...
s on steroids", "domestic terrorists", and collectively an "Internet hate machine". The report covered an attack on a
MySpaceMySpace is a social networking website. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California, USA, where it shares an office building with its immediate owner, Fox Interactive Media, which is owned by News Corporation. MySpace became the most popular social networking site in the United...
user, who claimed to have had his MySpace account "hacked" into seven times by Anonymous, and plastered with images of
gay pornographyGay pornography is the representation of sex between men with the primary goal of sexual arousal in its audience. There is also a tradition, and continuing considerable output, of lesbian pornography...
. The MySpace user also claimed a virus written by Anonymous hackers was sent to him and to ninety friends on his MySpace contact list, crashing thirty-two of his friends' computers. The report featured an unnamed former "hacker" who had fallen out with Anonymous and explained his view of the Anonymous culture. In addition, the report also mentioned "raids" on
HabboHabbo is a social networking website aimed at teenagers. The website is owned and operated by Sulake Corporation...
, a "national campaign to spoil the new Harry Potter book ending", and threats to "
bomb sports stadiumsJake Joseph Brahm is an American blogger. He attained notoriety when a post he made on the 4chan imageboard was interpreted as a terrorist threat by the Department of Homeland Security...
".
The day following the Fox report,
Wired NewsWired News is an online technology news website, formerly known as HotWired, that split off from Wired magazine when the magazine was purchased by Condé Nast Publishing in the 1990s. Condé Nast purchased Wired News on 11 July 2006...
blogger and journalist
Ryan SingelRyan Singel is a San Francisco-based blogger and journalist covering civil liberty and privacy issues. His work has appeared extensively in Wired News, and Singel recently began co-authoring a blog with journalist and convicted hacker Kevin Lee Poulsen.Singel has covered issues of government...
derided the report, stating that the "hacker group" in fact consisted of "supremely bored 15-year olds", and that the news report was "by far the funniest prank anyone on the board has ever pulled off".
In February 2008, an Australia-based
Today TonightToday Tonight is an Australian current affairs program, produced by the Seven Network and shown weeknightly at in direct competition with rival Nine Network program A Current Affair....
broadcast included a segment of the Fox report, preceded by the statement: "The
Church of ScientologyThe Church of Scientology is the largest organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination...
has ramped up the offensive against Anonymous, accusing the group of religious bigotry and claiming they are sick, twisted souls."
Chris Forcand arrest
On December 7, 2007, the Canada-based
Toronto SunThe Toronto Sun is an English language daily tabloid newspaper published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is known for its daily "Sunshine Girl" feature and for what it sees as a populist conservative editorial stance.-History:...
newspaper published a report on the arrest of the alleged Internet predator Chris Forcand. Forcand, 53, was charged with two counts of luring a child under the age of 14, attempt to invite sexual touching, attempt exposure, possessing a dangerous weapon, and carrying a concealed weapon.
The report stated that Forcand was already being tracked by "cyber-
vigilanteA vigilante is someone who unlawfully punishes a criminal, or participates in a mob or conspiracy to mete out unlawful punishment to a criminal or criminals....
s who seek to out anyone who presents with a sexual interest in children" before police investigations commenced.
A
Global Television NetworkGlobal Television Network is a Canadian English language privately owned television network. It is owned by Canwest Media Inc., a division of Canwest which is headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Throughout the 1990s, it dominated primetime ratings in key markets such as southern Ontario, B.C...
report identified the group responsible for Forcand's arrest as a "self-described Internet vigilant group called Anonymous" who contacted the police after some members were "propositioned" by Forcand with "disgusting photos of himself". The report also stated that this is the first time a suspected Internet predator was arrested by the police as a result of
Internet vigilantismInternet vigilantism is the phenomenon of vigilantic acts taken through the Internet or carried out using applications that depend on the Internet...
.
Dusty the cat
In mid-February 2009, two videos featuring the physical abuse of a domestic cat named Dusty by a person calling himself "Timmy" were posted on Youtube. The 4chan community, most specifically Anonymous, were outraged by the abuse. A thread created to allow members of Anonymous to volunteer to track down the creator of this video was posted on both
4Chan4chan is an English-language imageboard website. Launched on October 1, 2003, its boards are primarily used for the posting of pictures and discussion of manga and anime...
and 7Chan to find "Timmy" and turn his identity over to law enforcement, if he declined to do it himself. Anonymous and the Internet Vigilante Group collaborated with one another to track down the originator of the videos. They identified him as K.G., a fourteen-year-old from Oklahoma, and they passed his details to his local police department. As a result of this the teen was arrested and eventually forced to pay a $500 fine. Dusty and a second cat, who was later found to have been abused in a second video, were treated by a vet, removed from the home permanently and later adopted by new families. In addition, Dusty the cat became an instant online celebrity as
internet memeThe term Internet meme is a phrase used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet, much like an esoteric inside joke...
.
2009 Iranian election protests
Following allegations of vote rigging after the results of the June 2009 Iranian Presidential Elections were announced, declaring Iranian's Incumbent President
Mahmoud AhmadinejadMahmoud Ahmadinejad is the sixth and current President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a coalition of conservative political groups in the country.An engineer and teacher from a poor background, Ahmadinejad joined the...
as the winner, thousands of Iranians participated in demonstrations. Anonymous, together with the
The Pirate BayThe Pirate Bay is a Swedish website that indexes and tracks BitTorrent files. It bills itself as "the world's largest BitTorrent tracker" and is ranked as the 104th most popular website by Alexa Internet. The website is primarily funded with advertisements shown next to torrent listings...
, launched an Iranian Green Party Support site
Anonymous Iran. The site has drawn over 22,000 supporters world wide and allows for information exchange between the world and Iran, despite attempts by the Iranian government to censor news about the riots on the internet. The site provides resources and support to Iranians who are protesting.
Operation Didgeridie
In September 2009 the group reawakened "in order to protect civil rights" after several governments began to block access to its imageboards. The blacklisting of Krautchan.net in Germany infuriated many, but the tipping point was the Australian government's posturing as it planned to go ahead with ISP-level censorship of the internet. The policy was spearheaded by
Stephen ConroyStephen Michael Conroy is an Australian politician and the current Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy in the Rudd Labor Government...
and had been driven aggressively by the
Rudd GovernmentThe Rudd Government refers to the federal Executive Government of Australia during Kevin Rudd's prime ministership. It is made up of members of the Australian Labor Party....
since its election in 2007.
Early in the evening of September 9, Anonymous took down the prime minister's website with a distributed denial-of-service attack. The site was taken offline for approximately one hour.
See also
- Beck v. Eiland-Hall
Beck v. Eiland-Hall is a case before the World Intellectual Property Organization filed by political commentator Glenn Beck, concerning the website entitled "www.GlennBeckRapedAndMurderedAYoungGirlIn1990.com". The site was created by Isaac Eiland-Hall as a parody of Beck's style of commentary...
- Electronic civil disobedience
Electronic civil disobedience, also known as ECD or cyber civil disobedience, can refer to any type of civil disobedience in which the participants use information technology to carry out their actions. Electronic civil disobedience often involves the computers and/or the Internet and may also be...
- Crowd psychology
Crowd psychology is a branch of social psychology. Ordinary people can typically gain direct power by acting collectively. Historically, because large groups of people have been able to bring about dramatic and sudden social change in a manner that bypasses established due process, they have also...
- John Doe
The name "John Doe" is used as a placeholder name for a male party in a legal action, case or discussion whose true identity is unknown or must be withheld for legal reasons. The name is also used to refer to a male corpse or hospital patient whose identity is unknown...
- Libertine
A libertine is one devoid of any restraints, especially one who ignores or even spurns accepted morals, and forms of behavior sanctioned by the larger society. The philosophy gained new-found adherents in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, particularly in France and Britain. Notable among these...
- Multiple-use name
A multiple-use name is a name used by many different people. It is a strategy that has been adopted by many unconnected radical and cultural groups, where the construct of personal identity has been criticised.Examples of multiple user names include:...
- My name is Legion
Legion, the demon of Gadarenes, appears frequently as a character in popular culture. The Christian New Testament gospels of Mark, Luke and Matthew describe an incident in which Jesus meets a man, or men, possessed by demons who, when asked what their name is, respond:The quotation has been...
- Online disinhibition effect
In psychology, the online disinhibition effect refers to the way people behave on the Internet with less restraint than in real-world situations...
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Composition
- Emergence
In philosophy, systems theory and science, emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. Emergence is central to the theories of integrative levels and of complex systems.-Definitions:...
- Spontaneous order
Spontaneous order is the spontaneous emergence of order out of seeming chaos; the emergence of various kinds of social order from a combination of self-interested individuals who are not intentionally trying to create order. The evolution of life on Earth, language, Wikipedia, and a free market...
- Self-organization
Self-organization is a process of attraction and repulsion in which the internal organization of a system, normally an open system, increases in complexity without being guided or managed by an outside source...
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Project Chanology
- Flash mob
A flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails...
- Hacktivism
Hacktivism is "the nonviolent use of illegal or legally ambiguous digital tools in pursuit of political ends...
- Streisand effect
The Streisand effect is an Internet phenomenon where an attempt to censor or remove a piece of information backfires, causing the information to be publicized widely and to a greater extent than would have occurred if no censorship had been attempted. Examples of such attempts include censoring a...
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External links
Department of Justice Anonymous Member Arrest Press Release,
MediaShift Idea Lab, PBS
Audio/video media (Video broadcast.) (Radio broadcast)