Vision: How Hacker Activists Are Risking Jail for Everyone's Right To Internet Freedom

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http://www.alternet.org/world/151392/vision:_how_hacker_activists_are_risking_jail_for_everyone's_right_to_internet_freedom

AlterNet / By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd

Vision: How Hacker Activists Are Risking Jail for Everyone's Right to Internet Freedom

Since WikiLeaks, authorities have been more aggressive about arresting citizen cyber activists. Yet new actions by the biggest "hacktivists" show they're willing to risk it.

June 24, 2011 |

Last week, British authorities arrested an alleged member of the self-proclaimed “hacktivist” collective LulzSec, accusing the 19-year-old of breaking into websites belonging to the US Senate and the CIA. Ryan Cleary, allegedly outed by “snitches,” was arrested in Essex in a joint raid with the FBI, on the same day LulzSec claimed in a blog post it had obtained the database of the entire British census. “It’s a very significant arrest,” Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson told the Independent. “The challenges around cyber crime are extraordinarily significant and deeply worrying.”

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But with their power comes righteousness. While some hackers' actions are just bent on mischief -- Josh Holly, for instance, the 19-year-old who breached teen queen Miley Cyrus' email and leaked her suggestive photos -- the two largest groups, LulzSec and Anonymous, are increasingly dedicated to First Amendment ideals -- freedom of information and the right of the people to know what their government is doing in their name. As a whole, their tactics might be a little more radical than your average protester engaging in street actions. But they're also extremely effective. This week, the two banded their amorphous groups together to declare "war" on governments and banks everywhere, stating in a manifesto, “Whether you're sailing with us or against us, whether you hold past grudges or a burning desire to sink our lone ship, we invite you to join the rebellion. Together we can defend ourselves so that our privacy is not overrun by profiteering gluttons. Your hat can be white, gray or black, your skin and race are not important. If you're aware of the corruption, expose it now, in the name of Anti-Security.” (There is, thank goodness, already an awesome, LulzSec-approved, Anti-Sec theme song, by the hacker/rapper YTCracker.)

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But in December, Anonymous' Coldblood agreed. In an interview with the BBC, he said, "I see this as becoming a war. Not a conventional war. This is a war of data. We are trying to keep the internet open and free for everyone, just as the internet has been and always was. But in recent months and years we have seen governments, the European Union trying to creep in and limit the freedom we have on the internet."

As First Base Technologies' Peter Wood put it to the BBC on June 22, "I can't condone anyone breaking the law... but I do understand where they are coming from." Another way to look at it: "hacktivism" is the future of peaceful protest; these brave, super-smart cyber activists are defending all of our right to expression, defending our freedom on the battleground of now and the future. As more and more governments want to clamp down on the way we can use the internet, the best of the hacktivists are working on keeping it free.

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