From hacker to #OpISIS

The Cyber Activists Who Want to Shut Down ISIS, Reuters / Paul Spella / The Atlantic

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Freedom of speech can be so tricky. If you're a hate-monger like the late Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church it's O.K. to say things like "Thank God for dead soldiers" at the funeral of a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq. But if you're whistleblower Edward Snowden releasing classified information revealing the extent of the NSA's snooping, you're a traitor. There is a Whistleblower Protection Act but it appears to be limited to "federal whistleblowers who work for the government and report agency misconduct." It didn't help Edward Snowden. WikiLeaks did.

Then there are hactivists. Many consider organizations such as Anonymous annoying, even dangerous. Not all agree. Author John Mellow at PC World quoted Yochai Benkler of Harvard Law School as saying "'Audacious' Hactivists Make Social Statement..." My apologies for not quoting directly from Hacks of Valor: Why Anonymous Is Not a Threat to National Security, but I chose not to sign up for my one free article a month at Foreign Policy.

But since the Charlie Hebdo shooting of Jan 2015 in Paris, Anonymous has taken on the new role of waging war against ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). Looking again at Foreign Policy, a most prestigious magazine published by the FP Group, there's the article Anonymous Vs. The Islamic State, an eye-opener (at least in my view). This from the article:

For more than a year, a ragtag collection of casual volunteers, seasoned coders, and professional trolls has waged an online war against the Islamic State and its virtual supporters. Many in this anti-Islamic State army identify with the infamous hacking collective Anonymous. They are based around the world and hail from every walk of life. They have virtually nothing in common except a passion for computers and a feeling that, with its torrent of viral-engineered propaganda and concerted online recruiting, the Islamic State has trespassed in their domain. The hacktivists have vowed to fight back.

Another article, this one in The Atlantic, describes The Cyber Activists Who Want to Shut Down ISIS.

About the online recruiting--it's beginning to look like we have to collectively work at bringing youth back from their isolation: Loneliness: a silent plague that is hurting young people most.


-- Marge