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Anonymous Speaks About Australian Gov't. Attacks
daria42 writes "The loose-knit collective of individuals known as 'Anonymous' has broken its silence about the distributed denial of service attacks on the Australian government. An individual (who insisted he or she is not a spokesperson for the group) said the attacks were more effective at stopping the government's Internet filtering project than signing a petition, and that the attacks could go on for months." The site where some members of Anonymous are said to hang out, 4chan, got a visibility boost yesterday when its founder moot spoke at the TED conference.
We are legion.
Let's just check this box to post as AC and...
I've never heard of this site, "fourchan". It seems like its a pretty cool activist site. Can someone tell me more about it? I'd go there, but my ISP is blocking it :(
It's more of an activity. Possibly a culture. It certainly doesn't have anyone who speaks for the group as a whole.
Pool's Closed.
Yeah, let me know when you see Anonymous on there. They're totally a bunch of black shadowy figures hanging out in /b/. Also, last time I checked, this was 4chan rule #4:
4chan has a reputation for being a launchpad for this sort of thing, but it's not, at least, not any more. Go blame IRC, go blame any of the dozen clone boards, but it's not 4chan now.
--- Mr. DOS
Wooosh.
There aren't any spokespeople for anonymous, because there isn't any structure to the group. By definition, everyone in it is a "nobody." That's kind of the point.
Except "Anonymous" is the bastard hybrid of a punch of bored 14 year old script kiddies, an unholy horde of angry-at-the-world genuinely decent at coding 20 somethings, and a frightning legion of bored in-it-for-the-lulz near or middle aged men.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
It is an appropriate response to a figurehead politician making these rules, because it is a bunch of anonymous peons that are implementing them. The peons hide behind the facade of a government which they don't have to take responsibility for their actions.
Governments love when an individual speaks out, because they can release a bureaucratic horde of government employees to crush them. An individual who cannot be expected to address numerous rules, regulations and pressures a government can bring against them.
So Anonymous vs the government, as far as I am concerned is a fair fight.
Summary says:
"An individual (who insisted he or she is not a spokesperson for the group) said..."
TFA says exactly the opposite:
"...received a reply from an individual claiming to be a spokesperson."
Authenticity of said spokesperson: YMMV.
Sig matters not. Judge me by my sig, do you?
Hello, I am a middle aged man but in it for the CP.
DDOS is civil disobedience. They're just loading a site a bunch of times, making the site useless. It's no scarier than protesters having a sit-in, making the area they occupy useless. In fact, it's very similar.
Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
If your response to a DDOS attack on the a few websites is "a state of intense fear", you need to get out more.
Except "Anonymous" is the bastard hybrid of a punch of bored 14 year old script kiddies
Wrong, because this would be a blatant violation of 4chan rules:
If you are under the age of 18, or it is illegal for you to view the materials contained on this website, discontinue browsing immediately.
So it is obvious that 14 year olds (along with people from Australia and Iran) are not allowed to access 4chan because of the rules.
Ref: 4chan roolz!
of the stupidest lamest waste of time on the internet
comes the most effective force for progressive change
the one thing that an idiot has, that a wise man does not seem to have, is freedom to act
when your education acclimates you to acceptance of a lame status quo, then your education is worth less than being an idiot
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The will of the people is the true purpose of democracy. Regardless of the fact that people are doing this anonymously, this is similar in line to the rebellion against a tyrannical government. Just because the tyranny is not as bad (censorship of porn), and the attack by the people (DDoSing government websites) does not make it a "joke" or an immature prank. If the government was actively rounding up thousands of people from a certain ethnic group for "cleansing", you could expect everyone to gather guns to kill them. Since it is not that serious, you get a less serious, albeit effective response. It made them realize what the public wants. And I don't believe this is a symptom of the "vocal minority" simply because people don't get involved with something for no financial gain, unless they genuinely believe in it, and while it could be the act of a few, it is most likely the act of many. Even if it were a vocal minority, in the US, the constitution was created to protect the freedom of the minority. I don't know how Australia views it's minorities, but I would hope a country that everyone considers "western" holds the same ideal. Anonymous is the true unhindered will of the people. It does not give in to socially acceptable norms, or anything that hides what someone truly wants. If people want porn, they will do so under anonymous. Anonymous is legion.
Actually its a bit more than that. You could say that slashdot is the "Bastard hybrid of a punch of bored 18 year old CS students, a completely misinformed group of editors, and a legion of bored in-IT-for-the-money near or middle aged men. The only difference between Slashdot readers and Anonymous is that Anonymous makes an impact on the world.
So - whatever your views about them are, positive or negative, realize that they do earn some merit.
Like the sibling post says, many slashdotters ARE 4channers.
I never really said they were bad, I don't consider 4chan any more evil than I do a hurricane. If anything I think of Anonymous as a sort of physical collective superego and id for the internet with no mediating ego, they're more like a force of nature than anything else.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."