Angelos Assignment #3

http://www.osnews.com/story/24109/4chan_Hits_PayPal_MasterCard_Others_for_WikiLeaks_Snubs
There has been a lot of talk lately about Wikileaks, a website that obtains and posts information that would usually otherwise be unobtainable for the average person to get a hold of. The site made quite a stir recently when it began to release the first of thousands of leaked confidential documents that included communication between the U.S. State Department and embassies from around the world. The site’s spokesperson, Australian journalist Julian Assange, has received both praise and criticism ranging from awards to placement on wanted lists and even calls for his death. On some parts of the internet he is championed as a hero for free speech and the rights of the people. It was on one of these sites, 4chan, that a group called Anonymous originated.


In light of recent events, there have been a number of companies that cut WikiLeaks off from making use of their services. Anonymous didn’t take kindly to this and retaliated in a way only web users can. They launched several maneuvers known as DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks, designed to flood the bandwidth of particular servers and force the offending sites offline. Among the websites affected were Visa.com and Paypal.


The purpose of this post, however, is not to discuss the ethics of Wikileaks or to explore whether or not the site should be shut down. Instead, it is merely a recent example of what a group of strangers from across the globe can do when they feel like they have been wronged. People who live thousands of miles apart and have never met join together against a common foe to drive home a point that they want to make.


This isn’t the first time that a group of internet users have pulled together to intervene in the events of the “real world.” While the attacks mentioned in the article above are obviously an inconvenience for many people, organized internet activities are sometimes helpful rather than harmful. One story of cyber do-gooders that made news around the country occurred in February of 2009, when members of 4chan tracked down the name and address of a boy who uploaded a video of himself torturing a cat (http://www.inquisitr.com/18170/4chan-b-goes-after-cat-abusers-wins/). The abuser was arrested and a new home was found for the feline victim.


This is the information age. Anyone can become a minor celebrity with a little bit of time and luck, though it sometimes happens without their approval or even their knowledge. It’s astounding what one person can do with access to the right tools and, quite frankly, that makes the internet both a scary place and an amazing place. It seems funny to me that the anonymity the web provides often has one of two effects on people: they either use it as a mask to act out without consequence, or they use it to perform genuine random acts of kindness. It is good to know, though, that users don’t only use their power for evil deeds. It’s encouraging to hear that, though anonymous, there are still some people who care about affecting the world in a positive way.