Hacktivism (from hack and activism) is often understood as the writing of code, or otherwise manipulating bits, to promote political ideology - promoting expressive politics, free speech, human rights, or information ethics. The term was coined by Omega, a member of CULT OF THE DEAD COW, during an IRC session in 1996.^[1] Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change. ... In communications, a code is a rule for converting a piece of information (for example, a letter, word, or phrase) into another form or representation, not necessarily of the same type. ... BITS may have any of the following meanings: In computer science, bits are binary digits, which may each have the value one or zero. ... An ideology is a collection of ideas. ... Politics is a process by which decisions are made within groups. ... Freedom of speech is the right to freely say what one pleases, as well as the related right to hear what others have stated. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... Ethics (from Greek ἦθος meaning custom) is the branch of axiology, one of the four major branches of philosophy, which attempts to understand the nature of morality; to distinguish that which is right from that which is wrong. ... cDc Paramedia Logo CULT OF THE DEAD COW, also known as cDc, is a computer hacker and DIY media organization founded in 1984 in Lubbock, Texas. ... Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of instant communication over the Internet. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ...

Acts of hacktivism are carried out in the belief that proper use of code will have leveraged effects similar to regular activism or civil disobedience. Fewer people can write code, but code affects more people. Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change. ... It has been suggested that Civil and social disobedience be merged into this article or section. ...

Hacktivist activities span many political ideals and issues. Freenet is a prime example of translating political thought (anyone should be able to speak) into code. Hacktivist.net is an example of hacktivism in action. Hacktivismo is an offshoot of CULT OF THE DEAD COW; its beliefs include access to information as a basic human right. Screenshot showing a freesite, a freenet-hosted page. ... Hacktivismo logo Hacktivismo is an offshoot of the CULT OF THE DEAD COW, whose beliefs include access to information as a basic human right. ...

Hacktivism is a controversial term. Some argue it was coined to describe how electronic direct action might work toward social change by combining programming skills with critical thinking. Others use it as practically synonymous with malicious, destructive acts that undermine the security of the Internet as a technical, economic, and political platform. Direct action is a method and a theory of stopping objectionable practices or creating more favorable conditions using immediately available means. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... HTML and JavaScript in an IDE that uses color coding to highlight various keywords and help the developer see the function of each piece of code. ... are you kiddin ? i was lookin for it for hours ... Malice is a legal term referring to a partys intention to do injury to another party. ... A German Thrash metal band formed in Lörrach, Germany in 1983. ... Computer security is a field of computer science concerned with the control of risks related to computer use. ... By the mid 20th century humans had achieved a level of technological mastery sufficient to leave the surface of the planet for the first time and explore space. ... Buyers bargain for good prices while sellers put forth their best front in Chichicastenango Market, Guatemala. ... A political platform is a list of the principles which a political party supports in order to appeal to the general public for the purpose of having said partys candidates voted into office. ...

Controversy

Some people describing themselves as hacktivists have taken to defacing websites for political reasons, such as attacking and defacing government websites as well as web sites of groups who oppose their ideology. Others, such as Oxblood Ruffin (the "foreign affairs minister" of Hacktivismo), have argued forcefully against definitions of hacktivism that include web defacements or denial-of-service attacks ([1]). In common usage, to deface something refers to the act of marking or removing the part of an object (especially images, be they on the page, in illustrative art or as sculpture) designed to hold the viewers attention. ... An ideology is an organized collection of ideas. ... Oxblood Ruffin Oxblood Ruffin is a Canadian hacker. ... This article is about a journal. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Depending on who is using the term, hacktivism can be a politically constructive form of civil disobedience or an anarchic gesture; it can signal anticapitalist protest or commercial protectionism; it can denote spammers or anti-abortion activists, counter-surveillance experts or open source advocates. Critics of hacktivism fear that the lack of a clear agenda make it a politically immature gesture, while those given to conspiracy theory hope to see in hacktivism an attempt to precipitate a crisis situation online. Anarchism is the name for both a political philosophy and manner of organizing society, derived from the Greek αναρχία (without archons or without rulers). Thus anarchism, in its most general meaning, is the belief that all forms of rulership are undesirable and should be abolished. ... An anti-capitalist poster printed by the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911. ... Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between jurisdictions, through methods such as high tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and anti-dumping measures, in an attempt to protect industries in a particular locale from competition. ... Spamming is commonly defined as the sending of unsolicited bulk e-mail - that is, email that was not asked for (unsolicited) and received by multiple recipients (bulk). ... Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... A conspiracy theory attempts to explain the ultimate cause of an event (usually a political, social, or historical event) as a secret, and often deceptive, plot by a covert alliance of powerful people or organizations rather than as an overt activity or as natural occurrence. ...

Notable hacktivist events

• One of the earliest documented hacktivist events was the "Strano Network sit-in," a strike action directed against French government computers in 1995.
• One of the more notorious examples of hacktivism was the modification of Indonesian web sites with appeals to "Free East Timor" in 1998 by Portuguese hackers.
• On December 29, 1998, the Legions of the Underground (LoU) declared cyberwar on Iraq and China with the intention of disrupting and disabling internet infrastructure. On January 7, 1999, an international coalition of hackers (including Cult of the Dead Cow, 2600 's staff, Phrack's staff, L0pht, and the Chaos Computer Club) issued a joint statement ([2]) condemning the LoU's declaration of war. The LoU responded by withdrawing its declaration.
• Internet users alerted to the concept of ECHELON, an electronic communications scanner filtering any and all satellite, microwave, cellular, and fiber-optic traffic, coined the notion of "Jam Echelon Day," trying to disrupt the surveillance and alert the public.
• The Electronic Disturbance Theater and others staged a week of disruption during the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, conducting sit-ins against Republican web sites and flooding web sites and communication systems identified with conservative causes. This received mixed reviews from the hacktivist community.
• Hacktivists managed to break into computer systems at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center in India to protest against nuclear weapons tests.
• Hacktivists set up web sites such as McSpotlight.org and Bhopal.net to criticize multinational corporations.
• Bronc Buster, later a member of Hacktivismo, disabled firewalls to allow Chinese Internet users uncensored access.
• Hacktivists worked to slow, block, or reroute traffic for web servers associated with the World Trade Organization, the World Economic Forum, and the World Bank.

The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... It has been suggested that Human rights in France be merged into this article or section. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... December 29 is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 2 days remaining. ... Cyberwar is a somewhat over-hyped term for a variety of uses of technology in warfare. ... January 7 is the seventh day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... 2600 may refer to: 2600 Hz, the tone used by a blue box to gain control of telephone networks 2600: The Hacker Quarterly, a magazine named after the above tone The Atari 2600 was a popular video game console The ARP 2600 was a synthesizer The stable public release of... Phrack is an underground ezine made by and for hackers that has been around since November 17, 1985. ... L0pht Heavy Industries (pronounced loft) was a famous hacker collective located in the Boston, Massachusetts area between 1992 and 2000. ... The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) is one of the biggest and most influental hacker organisations. ... Antenna 4 (through the wire) in former Echelon intelligence gathering station at Silvermine, Cape Peninsula, South Africa. ... A scanner is a radio receiver that automatically tunes, or scans, 2 or more discrete frequencies. ... 2004 Republican National Convention Logo President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney accepted their partys nomination to run for second terms. ... Flag Seal Nickname: The Big Apple, The Capital of the World[1], Gotham [2], Metropolis Location Location in the state of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,214. ... A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more persons nonviolently occupying an area for protest, often political, social, or economic change. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... See Bhabha Atomic Research Centre ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 kilometers (11 mi) above the hypocenter. ... A multinational corporation (MNC) or transnational corporation (TNC) is one that spans multiple nations; these corporations are often very large. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... The term Web server can mean one of two things: A computer that is responsible for accepting HTTP requests from clients, which are known as Web browsers, and serving them Web pages, which are usually HTML documents and linked objects (images, etc. ... WTO Logo The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international, multilateral organization, which sets the rules for the global trading system and resolves disputes between its member states, all of whom are signatories to its approximately 30 agreements. ... The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Geneva-based foundation whose annual meeting of top business leaders, national political leaders (presidents, prime ministers and others), and selected intellectuals and journalists is usually held in Davos, Switzerland. ... Logo of the World Bank The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, in Romance languages: BIRD), better known as the World Bank, is an international organization whose original mission was to finance the reconstruction of nations devastated by WWII. Now, its mission has expanded to fight poverty by means...

Quotes

"...on the Internet, the code is the law." —Lawrence Lessig, Stanford Law School professor

"Expressive politics is the struggle to free what can be free from both versions of the commodity form—its totalising market form, and its bureaucratic state form."—McKenzie Wark

Lawrence Lessig Lawrence Lessig (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic. ... Stanford Law School is a graduate school of Stanford University located in Stanford, California in the Silicon Valley. ...

See also

• Hacker culture
• Hacker ethic
• Citizen Lab
• Crypto-anarchism
• E-democracy
• Electronic advocacy
• Electronic civil disobedience
• Internet activism
• Internet democracy
• Open source government
• Culture jamming
• HackThisSite

The hacker culture is the voluntary subculture which first developed in the 1960s among hackers working on early minicomputers in academic computer science environments. ... In modern parlance, the hacker ethic is either: the belief that information-sharing is a powerful positive good, and that it is an ethical duty of hackers to share their expertise by writing free software and facilitating access to information and computing resources wherever possible; and/or the belief that... The Citizen Lab [founded 2001] is an interdisciplinary research and development lab located at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto. ... Crypto-anarchism is a philosophy that expounds the use of strong public-key cryptography to enforce privacy and individual freedom. ... E-democracy (a neologism and contraction of electronic democracy) is the utilization of electronic communications technologies, such as the Internet, in enhancing democratic processes within a democratic republic or representative democracy. ... Electronic advocacy (also known as cyber-activism,online organizing, and internet activism) is an emerging social work practice in which technologies such as email, web sites, and podcasts are used for cause-related fundraising, lobbying, volunteering, community building, and organizing. ... Electronic civil disobedience, also known as ECD or cyber civil disobedience, can refer to any type of civil disobedience in which the participants use information technology to carry out their actions. ... Internet activism uses Internet communications technologies to enable faster communications and coordination by citizen movements. ... Internet democracy is a derivative term for e-democracy (electronic democracy), especially related to projects and concepts centered on using the Internet (and not other electronic communications technologies like short message services or teletext) for deliberative and participatory aims. ... Open source government primarily refers to use of open source software and technologies in traditional and non-traditional government organizations and government operations such as voting and email. ... Culture jamming is the act of transforming existing mass media to produce negative commentary about itself, using the original mediums communication method. ... What is HackThisSite HackThisSite is a very popular hacker training ground. ...

References

1. ^ http://www.cultdeadcow.com/cDc_files/cDc-0384.html

External links

• Hacktivist.net Popular site of hacktivist opinions and information
• Hacktivism in the Culture Jammers Encyclopedia
• Hacktivismo's Projects Page
• Hack This Site! Hacktivist training ground
• What is Hacktivism?
• White Hat, Black Hat, Grey Hat links
• Hacktivism information and discussions
• Hacktivism in the context of body modification (usage coined by Lukas Zpira)