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On Hacktivism

Posted by michael on from the mine-eyes-have-seen-the-coming dept.

z84976 writes "Oxblood Ruffin, of cDc fame, has produced a nice article discussing various aspects of hactivism and some of the approaches used by their own Hacktivismo group in supporting freedom (of thought, mainly) on the internet. Check it out over at The Register when you get a chance."

3 of 228 comments (clear)

  1. World War III by loosenut · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The article quotes McLuhan: "World War Three will be a guerilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation."

    I firmly believe that this is true, and is going on right now. But I wonder if it is appropriate to mix this concept with hacktivism. Consider Bush's current position. He's convinced most of the world (most of the US, anyway) that he should be given free reign to wage war anywhere in the country, all in the name of fighting terrorism. I'll keep theories about military-industrial complex profits to myself, at this point.

    The point is, he is using major media outlets to spread his message, and in the mainstream media, very few people are questioning him. And at the moment, it is the mainstream media that carries the perception that it reflects the national consciousness.

    Not enough people have switched off their TVs and let their corporate newspaper subscriptions expire to make hacktivism effective. It's unfortunate, and I expect (hope) things will change in the coming years, but for now, it's largely irrevelevant.

    1. Re:World War III by subhuman666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The only problem with mainstream versus independant media sources is that the majority of US citizens tend to believe that anything that hasn't been reported by a major media outlet isn't verfiable. It's kind of funny actually, considering mainstream media rarely reports anything other than common knowledge and murders in Hollywood(check out CNN's front page)...it's also a little sad, because this seems to be all society wants to hear.

  2. Pick your cause before you pick the site... by Rorschach1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To quote cDc at DefCon a couple of years ago.

    Personally I think 'hacktivism' is a grossly overused excuse for vandalism. Hacking sites as a 'service' to the operators is passe... now the kiddies have to act like they've got some sort of noble political agenda.