‘Remember;
Remember the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason, the plot. For I see no reason
why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot’
Yet today it seems that everyone
has indeed forgot. One has to wonder
what it is that they think they are doing whilst they burn an effigy of a man
on their bonfires. Those who know the burning mans name, Guy/Guido Fawkes,
often still do not know why we burn him. Fawkes effigy is burned today due to
the minor yet vital roll he played in Robert Catesby’s plan in the Gun Powder
Plot of 1605 which aimed to blow up parliament, an early example of organised
terrorism which served religious and political purposes. Bonfire night is the
celebration of this plots failure and it still embodies the barbarity that the
17th century monarchs used to punished traitors. These punishments
ranged from 4chan. It is interesting
how many people are unaware of them, yet they may actually pose a threat.
displaying their decapitated heads upon pikes to serve as a warning
to others to other extremes as to having the individual being hung (publicly with
a noose), drew (by a cart through the city whilst lifeless and nude) and
quartered (by four horses attached to the bodies arms and legs being pulled in
four different direction), all of which Mr Fawkes endured after lengthy torture.
But recently, what this man signifies has changed again shown with the
appearance of an Internet army, ‘Project Anonymous’, so named after the default
setting for post by none members of the site.
The group surfaced in 2003, but have become
more know in later years from 2008 and are part of the rising trend of
‘Hackivisum’ that promote freedom of speech and include many other sub groups
of hackivists such as the 1985’s ‘Peoples Liberation Front’, which made attacks
on government websites and have had several arrests. They have no leaders but
are a mass collective of people from around the globe, some of which are
hackers and work as an anarchist global Internet intelligence. Any one may
join; but if they loose anonymity, they loose membership to Anonymous. However
alias’ are used to communicate with the media such as ‘Commander X’ and ‘Doc’ which often attempt to challenge the initial
misconception of the group being directed by angry or bored youths. In an
article entitled Serious Business from the Baltimore City Paper, Chris
Landers prints an email from alias Doc, which helps to explain the form of this
group.
“[Anonymous
is] the first Internet-based super-consciousness. Anonymous is a group, in the
sense that a flock of birds is a group. How do you know they're a group?
Because they're travelling in the same direction. At any given moment, more
birds could join, leave, and peel off in another direction entirely.” (Chris Landers, 2008, Serious
Business)
In a You Tube
video, their most viewed way of communicating with the public, a member stated,
“You want to see Anonymous rise up? Try to shut down the message, try to
squash the message. Try to kill our speech. Then you’ll see what anonymous can
do.” A menacing promise to the power this group of people have. This is from
the trailer for the film ‘We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists ‘.
It seems that
the graphic novel and film ‘V for Vendetta’ that altered the image of Guy
Fawkes by having their hero ‘V’ fighting for the public’s freedom, a side of
the Gun Powder Plot seldom told, whilst adorning a Guy Fawlks mask biased on
the artist etch illustration, by William
Harrison Ainsworth's in a 1840 novel,
has evolved on the Internet in the previously named group, who’s self
description is “We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not
forget. Expect us” and become a meme* known for most Internet fanatics.
The group claim to have a set
agenda as shown by the interview of a member of Anonymous explained to The
Baltimore City Paper that “Any one who wants to can be Anonymous and work
towards a set of goals. We have a set agenda that we all agree on and we all
coordinate and act, but all act independently towards it, without any want for
recognition. We just want to get something we feel important done.” Claiming
not to be terrorists, against what the US media is allege them to be,
companies such as ‘Pay-Pal’, ‘Amazon’, ‘Visa’ and ‘MasterCard’ beg to differ
after attacks they launched on them. This group also aided ‘WikiLeaks’ in the
incidents earlier this year.
In response to
the terrorist accusation, Anonymous had this to say,
“It has come to our attention that the
media and Scientologists have been spreading mass
rumors of our "terrorist" acts. Though we feel that the rumors are
so ridiculous that any normal person
would never fall for such propaganda, we understand
some have been led astray. Long ago, Anonymous was nothing more than a handful of teenagers on image boards.
Over time, Anonymous grew and evolved into
a much more powerful and logical entity…. some Anonymous have acted out, [but] they do not represent Anonymous as a
whole. … [When] Anonymous acts, we act
as one…who is Anonymous? You are Anonymous. Your parents…your brothers and sisters and friends … doctors,
students, priests, atheists, and stay-at-home mothers
are Anonymous. Everyone who wishes to protect freedom and destroy oppression is Anonymous. Do not let
those who wish to suppress truth taint your view of Anonymous. We are not terrorists, but are your greatest
allies. We wish to liberate you
from suppression and oppression, and no matter how many of us fall in battle, Anonymous cannot be defeated.”
With this in
mind, it is clear that there is another treat with in the group that of the
‘minority’ seizing power and abusing all that Anonymous can achieve.
However, it has been quoted from a member that they are
“In it for the lulz” (a phrase meaning 'for the fun of it') which makes it hard to see any threat along side the
comedic content they post. Yet, the fact that it has many anon people posting
as part of Anonymous an amount of variation is to be expected, some serious
members and some ‘bored 15 year-old’. One of their lesser attacks includes a
hacked MySpace account, which were plastered with gay pornography and a virus
sent to him and his entire friends list. Another was a campaign to soil the new
Harry Potter Book ending.
Anonymous has also suitably formed a vendetta towards
Scientology (Project Chanology, also called Operation Chanology) and claim
in a You Tube cast (January 21, 2008) to have been watching them for a
number of years and accuse them of misinformation and suppression of dissent.
They have vowed to destroy them “or the good of your followers, for the good of
mankind and for the laughs” and are prepared for a long campaign against them.
Anonymous believes them to be brainwashing believers, which is another form of
censorship. The religion has responded in saying, "The Church of Scientology has ramped up the offensive against Anonymous, accusing the
group of religious bigotry and claiming they are sick, twisted souls.”
Anonymous
staged a 150 person protest outside a Church
of Scientology center in Orlando,
Florida but on February 10, 2008, worldwide protest of over ninety three city
occurred, which included over 7,000 people
all wearing the ‘V’ masks. The second wave of protest was held on 15th
March 2008, the third protest was help that April named ‘Operation Reconnect’ and the fourth and fifth, ‘Operation
Sea Arrrgh’ in May and June. It is clear from the numbers this group can
generate, that they do in fact mean business.
With the events
of ‘PIPA and SOPA’ (abbreviations for and ‘Protect
IP Act’ and ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’),
Anonymous kicked into full force against the government once again with many
aids such as the Wikipedia Blackout and the Google modifying it home page to
have the ‘Google’ blacked out. A post on
You Tube appeared prior to the event as it did before Nov 5th last
year when the group threaten to take down Facebook (which didn't go to plan)
and spoke to the public about why these two petitions would detrimentally
affect the freedom and fun found in the Internet.
The government
is taking them seriously as 22-year-old,
self-confessed loner from Newcastle,
Matthew George knows very well now. Matthew George was exposed as a
member of ‘Anonymous’ and faced penalties of and now are the group’s privacy
warning. He often raises the question of whether or not a user of the Internet
can ever be Anonymous, which backs up the groups underlying message of anarchy
against control.
In 2009 Matthew “decided to go [online] and have a look
[at] what was happening. There were a couple of thousand people on online chat
... They were all young. I was talking to the other so-called
ringleaders."
These ringleaders were to conceive "Operation
Titstorm" - a coordinated Internet attack by Anonymous members on
Conroy's website and that of the prime minister. The attack would be launched
on February 12 at 8am and would bombard the sites with Spam, sending 7.5
million hits per second, disabling them for three days.
"We hoped to achieve a bit of media attention to why
Internet censorship was wrong but people kind of got confused by the message
because of the name - they thought we all wanted to look at porn.” This was the
first time he was involved with the group. It was also his last as in June he
was charged with cyber-terrorism and was fined £400. At the time of his
participation, he believed this to be a legal public protest.
The group is also associated with a project for freedom
of sex and sexuality and is currently gathering input. Their aim sated that “We
aim to completely change the way society thinks about sex and art. Both of the
aforementioned are natural impulses that have been manipulated and distorted in
ways that continue to perpetuate cultural instability and stagnation. By
allowing participants complete and total anonymity…will leave … [people]
license to interpret and imagine conclusions or beginnings.” This shows that
they are not only concerned with government censorship, but also social censorship.
The reason behind them going with this idea, is that they are hoping that to
brake down the social walls of sexual repression, will be to break down the
walls of social discriminating and promote a more friendly and unbiased
attitude from one stranger to another. By doing this they are making the public
their potential member by forming them into one force, even before they have
join. In fact, it makes them a half formed member and them stronger in the
reality of the public, not just in the online community.
When you reflect
back to the two stories’, one fictional one fact, Anonymous stole their face
from, the threat is clearly evident, and being that in both a threat on
parliament is made and in the film/novel is carried out. They seem to be acting
in the public favor and against all the things that the government tries to
hide from us. They may be acting in this way to prevent the government becoming
the way they are in the film/graphic novel, being that more like a regime of
control and suppression.
Whether or not
Anonymous is valid threat or not is arguable, but I believe it shouldn't be
taken lightly as there is a great amount of evidence to show their power, and I
believe both the public and the government should treat them with cautious
respect, as they hold many of the keys to the internet and seem able to upset
its structure, for what could our world be reduced to with out structure? And
how much structure could be destroyed if you took down the Internet its self?
This is an achievable reality that they may pursue if there reality protests
are ineffective and they cannot post any longer.
‘We are
Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.’
