Anonymous (group)

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The picture on this (de)motivational poster is often used on websites associated with Anonymous

Anonymous (used as a mass noun) is a label and Internet meme adopted within Internet culture to represent the actions of many online community users acting anonymously, usually toward a loosely agreed-upon goal. It is generally considered to be a blanket term for members of certain Internet subcultures.[1]

Actions attributed to Anonymous are undertaken by unidentified individuals who apply the Anonymous label to themselves.[2] After a series of controversial, widely-publicized protests and reprisal DDoS attacks by Anonymous in 2008, incidents linked to its cadre members are said to be increasingly common.[3]

Although not necessarily tied to a single online entity, many websites are strongly associated with Anonymous. This includes notable imageboards such as 4chan and Futaba, their associated wikis, Encyclopedia Dramatica, and a number of forums such as Something Awful and Enturbulation.org[4].

Contents

Origins as a concept and meme

The name Anonymous itself is inspired by the perceived anonymity under which users post images and comments on the Internet. Usage of the term Anonymous in the sense of a shared identity began on imageboards. A tag of Anonymous is assigned to visitors who leave comments without identifying the originator of the posted content. Users of imageboards sometimes jokingly acted as if Anonymous were a real person. As the popularity of imageboards increased, the idea of Anonymous as a collective of unnamed individuals became an internet meme.[5]

Anonymous broadly represents the concept of any and all people as an unnamed collective. Definitions tend to emphasize the fact that the term cannot be readily encompassed by a simple definition, and instead it is often defined by aphorisms describing perceived qualities.

[Anonymous is] the first internet-based superconsciousness. 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, peel off in another direction entirely.

—Landers, Chris, Baltimore City Paper, April 2, 2008.[6]

Composition

Anonymous consists largely of users from multiple imageboards and internet forums. In addition, several wikis and Internet Relay Chat networks are maintained to overcome the limitations of traditional imageboards. These modes of communication are the means by which Anonymous protesters participating in Project Chanology communicate and organize upcoming protests. [7][8]

A "loose coalition of Internet denizens",[9] the group is banded together by the internet, through sites such as 4chan,[7][9], 711chan,[7] 420chan, Something Awful, Fark, Encyclopedia Dramatica,[10] Slashdot, IRC channels,[7] and YouTube.[1]

Social networking services, such as Facebook, are used for the creation of groups which reach out to people to mobilize in real-world protests.[11]

Anonymous has no leader or controlling party, and relies on the collective power of its individual participants acting in such a way that the net effect benefits the group.[9]

A common tactic of Anonymous is to claim during "raids" that they are the work of eBaum's World, a site highly detested by Anonymous for alleged theft of content from other sites.

Anyone who wants to can be Anonymous and work toward a set of goals…We have this agenda that we all agree on and we all coordinate and act, but all act independently toward it, without any want for recognition. We just want to get something that we feel is important done…

—Anonymous, as quoted by Chris Landers in the Baltimore City Paper, April 2, 2008.[6]

Raids and invasions

The activities in this section were attributed to Anonymous either by their perpetrators or in the media. The actions taken by Anonymous do not seem to follow any single shared agenda. Those identifying with the term often take action simply for amusement. This is known within sites affiliated with Anonymous as "doing it for the lulz".

Habbo raids

A popular target for organized raids by Anonymous is Habbo, a popular social networking site designed as a virtual hotel. The first major raid, known as the "Great Habbo Raid of '06", occurred on June 12 2006. In the raid (and most others that occur), users signed up to the Habbo site dressed in avatars of a black man wearing a grey suit and an Afro hairstyle (in style of Samuel L. Jackson in the movie Pulp Fiction)[12] and blocked entry to the pool, declaring that it was "closed due to AIDS",[13][14], flooding the site with internet sayings,[14] and forming swastika-like formations.[14] When the raiders were banned, they complained of racism.[14] In response, the Habbo admins often ban users with avatars matching the profile of the raiders even months after the latest raid.

Hal Turner raid

Main article: Hal Turner

According to Turner, in December 2006 and January 2007, individuals who identified themselves as Anonymous took Turner's website offline, and cost him thousands of dollars in bandwidth bills. He retaliated by sending a "formal legal notice of criminal activity in violation of several federal laws" by email to 7chan, multacom, and multicom, as well as redirecting his domain to 420chan.org, causing that site to take a bandwidth hit as well. He also sued 4chan, 7chan, and other websites in court over copyright infringement. However, he lost his plea for an injunction and failed to receive letters from the court.

Project Chanology

Main article: Project Chanology
Protest by Anonymous against the practices and tax status of the Church of Scientology.

The group gained worldwide press for Project Chanology, the protest against the Church of Scientology.[15]

On January 14, 2008, a video produced by the Church featuring an interview with Tom Cruise was leaked to the Internet and uploaded to YouTube. [16][17][18] The Church of Scientology issued a copyright violation claim against YouTube requesting the removal of the video.[19] In response to this, Anonymous formulated Project Chanology.[7][20][21][22] Calling the action by the Church of Scientology a form of Internet censorship, members of Project Chanology organized a series of denial-of-service attacks against Scientology websites, prank calls, and black faxes to Scientology centers.[23]

Message to Scientology.ogv
"Message to Scientology", January 21, 2008

On January 21, 2008, individuals claiming to speak for Anonymous announced their goals and intentions via a video posted to YouTube entitled "Message to Scientology", and a press release declaring a "War on Scientology" against both the Church of Scientology and the Religious Technology Center.[22][24][25] In the press release, the group states that the attacks against the Church of Scientology will continue in order to protect the right to freedom of speech, and end what they believe to be the financial exploitation of church members.[26] A new video "Call to Action" appeared on YouTube on January 28, 2008, calling for protests outside Church of Scientology centers on February 10, 2008.[27][28] On February 2, 2008, 150 people gathered outside of a Church of Scientology center in Orlando, Florida to protest the organization's practices.[29][30][31][32] Small protests were also held in Santa Barbara, California,[33] and Manchester, England.[30][34] On February 10, 2008, about 7,000 people protested in more than 93 cities worldwide.[35][36] Many protesters wore masks based on the character V from V for Vendetta (who in turn was influenced by Guy Fawkes), or otherwise disguised their identities, in part to protect themselves from reprisals from the Church.[37][38]

Anonymous held a second wave of protests on March 15, 2008 in cities all over the world, including Boston, Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Vancouver, Toronto, Berlin, and Dublin. The global turnout was estimated to be "between 7000 and 8000", a number similar to that of the first wave.[39] The third wave of the protests took place on April 12, 2008.[40][41] Named "Operation Reconnect", it aimed to increase awareness of the Church of Scientology's disconnection policy.[16]

On October 17, 2008, an 18-year-old self-described member of Anonymous stated he would plead guilty to involvement in the January 2008 DDoS attacks against Church of Scientology websites.[42]

Protests continued, and took advantage of media events such as the premiere of the Tom Cruise movie Valkyrie, where the venue was chosen in part to reduce exposure to the protests.[43]

Epilepsy Foundation forum invasion

On March 28, 2008, Wired News reported that "Internet griefers"—a makeshift term for people who cause grief[44]—assaulted an epilepsy support forum run by the Epilepsy Foundation of America.[45] JavaScript code and flashing computer animations were posted with the intention of triggering migraine headaches and seizures in photosensitive and pattern-sensitive epileptics.[45] According to Wired News, circumstantial evidence suggested that the attack was perpetrated by Anonymous users, with the initial attack posts on the epilepsy forum blaming eBaum's World. Members of the epilepsy forum claimed they had found a thread in which the attack was being planned at 7chan.org, an imageboard that has been described as a stronghold for Anonymous. The thread, like all old threads eventually do on these types of imageboards, has since cycled to deletion.[45]

RealTechNews[unreliable source?] reported that the forum at the United Kingdom–based National Society for Epilepsy was also subjected to an identical attack. It stated that "apparent members of Anonymous" had denied responsibility for both attacks and posted that it had been the Church of Scientology who carried them out.[46] News.com.au reported that the administrators of 7chan.org had posted an open letter claiming that the attacks had been carried out by the Church of Scientology "to ruin the public opinion of Anonymous, to lessen the effect of the lawful protests against their virulent organization" under the Church's fair game policy.[44] The Tech Herald[unreliable source?] reported that when the attack began, posts referenced multiple groups, including Anonymous. The report attributes the attack to a group named "The Internet Hate Machine" (a reference to the KTTV Fox 11 news report), who claim to be part of Anonymous, but are not the same faction that are involved in the campaign against Scientology.[47]

Some Anonymous participants of Project Chanology suggest that the perpetrators are internet users who merely remained anonymous in the literal sense, and thus had no affiliation with the larger anti-Scientology efforts attributed to Anonymous.[47] During an interview with CNN, Scientologist Tommy Davis accused Anonymous of hacking into the Epilepsy Foundation website to make it display imagery intended to cause epileptic seizures. Interviewer John Roberts contended the FBI said that it "found nothing to connect this group Anonymous (with these actions)", and that it also has "no reason to believe that these charges will be leveled against this group".[48] The response was that the matter was on the hands of local law enforcement and that there were ongoing investigations.[48]

Defacement of SOHH and AllHipHop websites

The second in a series of five defaced SOHH banners and headline feeders, vandalized by hackers.

In late June 2008, users who identified themselves as Anonymous claimed responsibility for a series of attacks against the SOHH (Support Online Hip Hop) website.[49] The attack was reported to have begun in retaliation for insults made by members of SOHH's "Just Bugging Out" forum against eBaumsworld's users. The attack against the website took place in stages, as Anonymous users flooded the SOHH forums, which were then shut down. On June 23, 2008, the group which identified themselves as Anonymous organized DDOS attacks against the website, successfully eliminating 60% of the website's service capacity. On June 27, 2008, the hackers utilized cross-site scripting to deface the website's main page with satirical images and headlines referencing numerous racial stereotypes and slurs, and also successfully stole information from SOHH employees.[50]

Following the defacement, the website was shut down by its administration. AllHipHop, an unrelated website, also had its forum raided. By the evening of June 27, 2008 AllHipHop.com was back online and released an official statement in which it referred to the perpetrators as "cyber terrorists" and announced that it would cooperate with SOHH "...to ensure the capture of these criminals and prevention of repeat offenses." On June 30, 2008 SOHH placed an official statement regarding the attack on its main page. The statement alleged that the attackers were "specifically targeting Black, Hispanic, Asian and Jewish youth who ascribe to hip-hop culture," and listed several hip hop oriented websites which it claimed were also attacked by the hackers. It concluded with a notice that it would be cooperating with the FBI.[49]

When interviewed, Felicia Palmer, co-founder of SOHH, confirmed that an FBI probe was ongoing, and that each time the website was attacked, data on the suspects was retrieved. Palmer indicated that some of the attackers were "located within the United States, between the ages of 16-21" and that a few of them were based in Waco, Texas. Initially under the impression that the hackers were pranksters, she came to believe they were "beyond pranksters" and the attack was racist in nature.[50]

Dusty the cat

In mid-February 2009, two videos featuring the physical abuse of a domestic cat named Dusty by a person calling himself "Timmy" were posted on Youtube. The 4chan community, outraged by the abuse, was able to track down the originator of the videos, a fourteen-year-old from Oklahoma, and passed his details to his local police department. As a result of this the teen was arrested and the cat was treated by a vet and taken to a safe place. [51][52][53]

Texas pool incident

In July 2008, Mary Alice Altorfer, a resident of Austin, Texas, found a "pool's closed" sign poster taped to her apartment complex's gated pool door. Alerting the local police and media she asserted her belief that the sign was racist and intended to intimidate her two bi-racial grandchildren, both of whom she had brought to the pool the day prior. After initial news reports she started receiving many phone calls. Several of the calls, which Altorfer saved on her answering machine, attempted to explain the meme and assure her that her grandchildren had not been threatened. Regardless, the vast majority of the phone calls were prank calls intended to harass. A second sign was anonymously placed on the pool door days later, displaying Altorfer in an afro haircut edited over the "pool's closed" caricature, with a new caption reading "pool's open".[13]

KTTV Fox 11 news report

KTTV Fox 11 investigative report on Anonymous.

On July 26, 2007, KTTV Fox 11 News based in Los Angeles, California aired a report on Anonymous, calling them a group of "hackers on steroids", "domestic terrorists", and collectively an "Internet hate machine". The report covered an attack on a MySpace user, who claimed to have had his MySpace account "hacked" into seven times by Anonymous, and plastered with images of gay pornography. The MySpace user also claimed a virus written by Anonymous hackers was sent to him and to ninety friends on his MySpace contact list, crashing thirty-two of his friends' computers. The report featured an unnamed former "hacker" who had fallen out with Anonymous and explained his view of the Anonymous culture. In addition, the report also mentioned "raids" on Habbo, a "national campaign to spoil the new Harry Potter book ending", and threats to "bomb sports stadiums".[54]

The news report became the source of many internet memes. Among the mocked features of the report were the stock footage used of an exploding van, the hyperbole and alarmist phrases used to describe the idea of anonymity, naming Anonymous as a domestic terrorist organization, and the suggestion that buying a dog and curtains could protect victims from Anonymous.

The day following the Fox report, Wired News blogger and journalist Ryan Singel derided the report, stating that the "hacker group" in fact consisted of "supremely bored 15-year olds", and that the news report was "by far the funniest prank anyone on the board has ever pulled off".[55] In February 2008, an Australia-based Today Tonight broadcast included a segment of the Fox report, preceded by the statement: "The Church of Scientology has ramped up the offensive against Anonymous, accusing the group of religious bigotry and claiming they are sick, twisted souls."[56]

Internet vigilantism reports

On December 7, 2007, the Canada-based Toronto Sun newspaper published a report on the arrest of the alleged Internet predator Chris Forcand.[57] Forcand, 53, was charged with two counts of luring a child under the age of 14, attempt to invite sexual touching, attempt exposure, possessing a dangerous weapon, and carrying a concealed weapon.[58] The report stated that Forcand was already being tracked by "cyber-vigilantes who seek to out anyone who presents with a sexual interest in children" before police investigations commenced.[57]

A Global Television Network report identified the group responsible for Forcand's arrest as a "self-described Internet vigilant group called Anonymous" who contacted the police after some members were "propositioned" by Forcand with "disgusting photos of himself". The report also stated that this is the first time a suspected Internet predator was arrested by the police as a result of Internet vigilantism.[59]

See also

Internet portal
Composition
Project Chanology

References

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  56. ^ Bryan Seymour (reporter) (2008-02-11). "Anonymous takes Scientology war to streets" (newscast). Today Tonight (Seven Network). http://au.todaytonight.yahoo.com/article/490551/lifestyle/anonymous-takes-scientology-war-streets. Retrieved on 2008-02-20. 
  57. ^ a b Jonathan Jenkins (2007-12-07). "Man trolled the web for girls: cops". CANOE (Toronto Sun). http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2007/12/07/4712680-sun.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-19. 
  58. ^ Constable George Schuurman, Public Information, for Detective Constable Janelle Blackadar, Sex Crimes Unit (2007-12-06). "Man facing six charges in Child Exploitation investigation, Photograph released, Chris Forcand, 53". News Release (Toronto Police Service). 
  59. ^ Gus Kim (reporter) (2007-12-08). "Internet Justice?". Global News (CanWest Global Communications). 

External links

Wikisource
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: "Anonymous" anti-Scientology protests
Sister project Wikinews has related news: Project Chanology
Department of Justice Anonymous Member Arrest Press Release,

Central District of California. http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/cac/pressroom/pr2008/140.html. 

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