#anonymousinternetfreedom

 It’s interesting that we’re talking about Anonymous this week, with the current situation of RU Wireless being DDOS’d and having been unavailable for the past few days. Though the intent of the proclaimed “Rutgers hacker” isn’t necessarily clear, he or she is no doubt quite anonymous and is possibly not organized. In many ways, this “ExFocus” (his or her Twitter account name) person is representative of the actions and agenda defining the collective group of hacktivists (hacker-activists) and geeks, Anonymous. According to Gabriella Coleman and Jessica L. Beyer’s essays on Anonymous, the “group” is not led by any particular leader, and began very simply on 4chan as people who participated in “lulz”, or online trolling. Anonymous entered the political activist realm when they decided to being trolling the Church of Scientology, then further amended their agenda to promote and ensure the freedom of the Internet. Their agenda evolved to incorporate radical hacking and activism in the Middle East, with cases such as Anonymous challenging the Syrian government or supporting Egypt’s Internet revolution.

Imagining the Rutgers hacker as an anonymous hacker who decided to DDOS the Rutgers network for whatever purpose, he is endorsing Anonymous’s banner of an “anti-leader and anti-celebrity ethic”, attacking Rutgers University as an institution. What’s significant about Anonymous, however, is that the banner targets organizations and even the government, left unchecked. Anonymous’s actions are mostly unaccounted for, since it identifies itself as a banner rather than as a collective group. Similar to Exfocus’s actions, Anonymous’s actions are considered controversial, and even problematic; however, their prominence on the Internet “has become a political gateway for geeks (and others) to take action”, representing ideals of information freedom and radical activism (Coleman).