5 replies to this topic

[Fani]

[Anonymous message to US]


Have you heard of this group?
What do you think of its actions? To what extent do you agree?

[Sandwich]

I'm not really a fan personally. I think these people have been watching way too many films and just because they've got the technology smarts to mess with systems, doesn't mean that they should use them to push their own agendas. That's the danger of computing, I suppose, that it's always got exploitable aspects which are almost impossible to fully eradicate - and if you know how, anyone can screw it up.

We live in a democratic state where there's a clear way for issues to be brought to public attention. It's really unnecessary and in fact undemocratic to have a small savvy minority (and by savvy as a generalisation I mean only in the respect of technology) trying to harass and terrorise institutions of government in order to push forwards their own agenda.

In the nicest possible sense, people who dress up in cloaks and masks to make videos from V for Vendetta don't seem mentally quite right to me. Certainly I find it hard to credit anything they say because if they're living some kind of weird parallel fiction involving dressing in fancy dress and fake voices. They seem strange in the sense that I also find Scientologists and conspiracy theorists strange. If you have a case to make and you're serious about it, why on earth dress up in weird clothes and go about it in this silly manner? I have a lot of time to listen to sense, but don't even know how to go about filtering this possibly-possibly-not nonsense. I don't know if it's true or bull****. The costumes, the hacking etc. say to me bull**** - why else go about it in this manner? Government spies aren't going to come and 'silence' them in the night... although perhaps they think this, given that they clearly DO watch and emulate films!

All in all, I think it's an abuse of 'power' - power in the sense of the knowledge to screw these systems up. They're attracting a great deal more attention than they should about bizarre issues for the wrong reasons.

Also they spelt their own names wrong

[haydenj96]

We joke about Anonymous in ITGS all the time. I think that Anonymous is undermining everything that we stand for--the majority will/minority rights, things going through the process, etc. What they are doing is first of all illegal. Second it is not always what everyone thinks. Third, they never actually try to, I don't know, work things out diplomatically with the stakeholders involved that usually have every right to do what they are doing, even if it's not popular.

So no, I don't support them.

[Ezak]

Anonymous is not a group. In essence, the only thing in common of all attacks, or so called "operations", are that they share the same name. Different people will partake at different occasions.

[Wykked Wytch]

Ezak, on Apr 12, 2012 - 07:56, said:

Anonymous is not a group. In essence, the only thing in common of all attacks, or so called "operations", are that they share the same name. Different people will partake at different occasions.

This. The most common misconception that seems to pop up when people talk about Anonymous is that they are some sort of organization with leaders, group goals, and carefully-made plans. Saying Anonymous is one unified group makes about as much sense as saying that Anonymous is one author. It's just a title that internet activists, trolls, and hackers use to obfuscate their identity. Of course, news bulletin after news bulletin proves that the media cannot grasp this simple concept, and in most cases simply reinforce the perception of Anonymous as a bunch of young delinquents in order to grab people's attention.

Therefore, when you say "I support Anonymous" you are not really supporting anyone at all. You are supporting their actions but not the person(s) behind the actions.

[Jyrgen]

I think hackers in general are quite cool, when they're shaking things up a bit without doing actual harm. In fact, the best attacks are only to demonstrate obvious security flaws that should be fixed.

That said I think the whole Anonymous thing is a bit cheesy.