No longer just an adjective in the English language, “Anonymous” is now also used to refer the countless members of Internet subculture who choose to protect their identities from the world. Just about everyone has felt the effect of Anonymous’ presence online and off. From the net’s ubiquitous lolcats that can has cheezburger or Rick Astley at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the mass of nameless, faceless computer users known collectively as Anonymous are responsible for these social phenomenon. More interestingly, Anonymous has also been responsible for raids, invasions, activism, protests, and public defamation, via both legal and illegal means, with both good and malevolent intentions. The idea of remaining anonymous on the Internet has been a topic of debate for nearly two decades, but in recent years, imageboards like 4chan and Futaba 2chan alongside wikis and forums like Encyclopedia Dramatica have proven themselves breeding grounds for users with a dangerous sense of unity and ability to willingness to make a difference in the world around them. Often, Anonymous’ goal is to cause as much mischief as is possible without causing real harm. Cases include mass [vulgar] posting on sites such as the anti-profanity “No Cussing Club” and inciting fear on Oprah’s talk show. For the most part, these practical jokes are not much different than your 8th grade friends prank calling the teacher, just on a much larger scale. But there is great power in numbers. Under the blanket of modern technology, it seems that members of Anonymous consider themselves masked anti-heros. There are countless examples of how Anonymous has pulled together to cause real harm. For one, Anonymous was credited with an attack on Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email account last year. After discovering the password, a user posted it along with screenshots of personal photos and emails to 4chan. Since, they have been posted and re-posted to the point that they are publicly available online and can be found with a simple Google image search. The culprit, David Kernell a.k.a. Rubico, was easily discovered because of several mistakes he made when bragging to posters on 4chan. Luckily, Anonymous has shown that power in numbers does not necessarily mean a digital Ku Klux Klan. In addition to terrorizing Sarah Palin, Anonymous has done some good in bringing awareness to the common man regarding topic the media might otherwise glance over. Project Chanology, led by members of Anonymous, is a group set out to bring about knowledge of the dangers of The Church of Scientology, a religion formed in the US in 1954. After an interview with Tom Cruise, an avid Scientologist, leaked onto YouTube in 2008, the Church attempted to remove it claiming it was unfairly edited to misprepresent the religion and was intended only for current members of the Church. Once 4chan discovered the video, it was immediately reposted and remains available to this day. Subsequently, Anonymous began to band together in public protest of Scientology and was called to arms via a series of videos. Perhaps most interesting about these videos is that they alert the public that Anonymous is not an elite group of hackers, but rather your everyday man and woman who choose to take action through the force of a faceless army
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 04:11:47 +0000
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