Hacktivism in the Cyberstreets

[Chuck0 <chuck@tao.ca>]

[: hacktivism :]

Hacktivism in the Cyberstreets
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=9223

In early May an activist calling himself "Reverend Billy" called for thousands of computer owners to
fire up their modems for an assault on Starbucks. From unseen corners of the globe, they'd converge
on the company's Web site -- hoping to overload it. 

Though the media portrays hackers as secretive, destructive intruders, some individuals and groups
are openly committing online attacks in the name of furthering specific causes. It can be a symbolic
massing on a Web page which, with enough participants, makes it inaccessible to others -- or more
invasive "monkey-wrenching" to disable a site's equipment. Others just want to bypass government
restrictions they see as unfair. But they're all trying to fuse their passions to their technology, using
the power of the Internet to discover new forms of social protest. 

[: snip - see url for rest of article :]



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