Hacktivists see information technology as a new form of social protest
Erika Pearson, in the first issue of the Hacktivist e-zine calls Hacktivism "the end product of a meeting of hackers (tech. skills) and political/social activists. In very basic terms, the hackers provided the weaponry and the activists located the target."
However Pearson also notes that political activists have begun to use the Internet as a valuable organizing weapon, a finding also of the FBI/NIPC. "Activists are finding that, by coming online, they are expanding not only the range of tools at their disposal, but also the ways they can connect with like minded individuals and groups." Adds Pearson, "they can approach their targets on a dual level, both through real-life and virtual forms of protest."
The political threat to the Web comes from what hactivists call "international bookburning," the domain-name filtering of politically incorrect information. The Hacktivismo Declaration, issued on 4 July 2001, says ...
"Most countries use intimidation and filtering of one, kind or another including the Peoples Republic of China, Cuba, and many Islamic countries. Most claim to be blocking pornographic content. But the real reason is to prevent challenging content from spreading through repressive regimes. This includes information ranging from political opinion, 'foreign' news, women's issues, academic and scholarly works, religious information, information regarding ethnic groups in disfavor, news of human rights abuses, documents which present drugs in a positive light, and gay and lesbian content, among others."
Hacktivists see themselves as the last saviors of free speech on the Web, and willing to go to the barricades for what they believe ...
"We are sickened by these egregious violations of information and human rights. The liberal democracies have talked a far better game than they've played on access to information. But hackers are not willing to watch the custodians of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights turn them into a mockery. We are willing to put our money where our mouth is."
