Crude, Inconsistent Threat: Understanding Anonymous

Anonymous is not an organization, but really a set of actions under a shared meme.

Unifying principles:
1. Do it for the lulz.
2. Internet censorship is bad.
3. Don’t hurt cats.

Anonymous is not a hacker collective, some people who identify with Anonymous are hackers, but this term does not apply to everyone. Hate being told what to do and love to troll.

Definition of meme: “a cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one person to another by non-genetic means (as by imitation); “memes are the cultural counterpart of genes”

Specific internet users know about specific internet memes (examples given include over 9000 (link), a more recent meme would be nyan cat (link) )

Anonymous is a meme, not a single cohesive group. There is no leader.

Attacks can be: releasing documents (doxing)/private information, annoying them in real life (IRL) via pizza delivery or getting the law enforcement involved, defacing websites, DDoS*
*making a website unavailable to users. Considered by some to hinder free speech and is therefore hypocritical.

Attacks need to be funny, often target those with USI, target censorship, sometimes a moral issue (to avoid “troll’s remorse”). The more of these traits a target exhibits the more likely an attack is to occur.

Specific actions:
1. “Pool’s Closed” at Habbo Hotel
2. Revealing internet predators
3. Attacking Scientology (“Project Chanology) using a promotional video of Tom Cruise.
4. Epilepsy Raid – adding flashing items to website to induce epilepsy
5. Protest of filter laws in Australia that prevented viewing pornography featuring small boobs
6. Took Hal Turner’s white supremacist website offline
7. DDoS attack on websites that were anti-Wikileaks, Paypal etc.
8. Attacked HBGary, a security firm investigating the identities of people who work under Anonymous
9. Helped create channels of communication for protestors in Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia

Subgroups of Anonymous:
Moralfags – think Anonymous should be used to to counteract injustice.
Newfags – just got interested in Anonymous.
Oldfags – have been a part of the culture for a while
Hatefags – anti-Moralfags, interested in trolling as much as possible. In it for the lulz over everything thing.

Potential for infighting within Anonymous do to the lack of organized thought/differing ideologies. Examples of this include Backtrace Security where a group of people who formerly identified with Anonymous revealing identities of contributors.

Is this a satisfactory analysis of Anonymous or is it too inconclusive?
Has Anonymous really moved away from 4chan according to Crenshaw (as Coleman is pointing to) or have there been enough apolitical attacks that stem from the board to keep their connection relevant?
Coleman seems to approach Anonymous as a distinct group while Crenshaw uses the concept of meme (distinguishing it from a cohesive organization) to define Anonymous, what is more convincing and why?

Anonymous: From the Lulz to Collective Action

• Any individual or group can take Anonymous as their name, functioning as an “improper name.”
• Some members of Anonymous are hackers, some are “geeks” who hold many different media literacies such as video editing, and the rest are just familiar with the cultural codes of those who associate with Anonymous.
• Anonymous was born out of 4chan, originally associated with trolling, the primary motive being “for the lulz”.
• However, Anonymous trolled the Church of Scientology because Scientologists attempted to prevent viewing of an internal promotional video. The author considers this series of raids a turning point in the way the Anonymous name was deployed.
• Mark Bunker then asked Anonymous to launch a more serious attack on the church, which he sees as a cult. After this, a group of people who associate with the Anonymous name appeared publicly to protest Scientology. However, their “IRL” protest used internet references such as “mudkipz” and there were a prevalence of Guy Fawkes mask.
• “I came for the lulz but stayed for the outrage” – actions justified under the Anonymous ethos and the element of “lulz” hasn’t subsided from even the more serious attacks on the the church. There is a difficulty balancing the serious nature of the outrage and the desire for lulz.
• In September of 2010, Anonymous also launched “Operation Payback”, a series of politically motived DDoS attacks on the MPAA website for taking down The Pirate Bay, a popular torrent website.
• These attacks originated on 4chan, similar to the raids on Scientology.
• When major companies like PayPal and Mastercard prevented support for Wikileaks, Anonymous shifted the focus of Operation Payback toward those groups, shutting down their websites in retaliation.
• After the government of Tunisia blocked access to Wikileaks, Anonymous also DDoSed the government’s website. Anonymous also attempted to release information to residents of Tunisia, because of the limited internet access they had.
• This is a turning point because it shows an interest in human rights campaigns, not just censorship and internet freedom.
• Although Anonymous is open to everyone, there are still power dynamics in play.
• Protests are often organized through two separate groups via Internet Relay Chat, a program that most people know very little about even though it is not difficult to use.
• Also there is a hierarchy within IRC, ops control the groups, have the power to kick people out, etc.
• Authority is also manifested in policies that are generally enforced for the whole group.
• No leaders or names, if you posit yourself in this way you are at risk for a personal attack.
• Lulz serves to make political work, which can be depressing, more palatable and enjoyable to pursue.
• Anonymous is more coherent than Crenshaw argues, they have more political snuff than the rest of 4chan and trolling and enjoy being dissociated from it.
• Anonymous is a political gateway for geeks.

Is Coleman’s argument skewed by leaving out other raids that Anonymous has done that are less political since 2008 (such as Jessi Slaughter, briefly mentioned in the article and videos below)?

Is DDoS-ing a website hypocritical because it denies freedom of speech?

Why is there a need for Anonymous to be a purely political group? The lulz don’t exist in a vacuum, doesn’t it make sense that there will be occasional overlap?

Prelude to next week…

TOR Wars

Anonymous sect doing something interesting/noble … hacking underground child porn forums.