It must have happened Monday night, probably after midnight. Because Tuesday morning was the first time I saw the five words spray-painted – all black, capital letters – on the gray concrete overpass wall on the north side of a downtown bridge.
WE ARE
ANONYMOUS.
EXPECT US.
Tagged on the wall like some ominous or underground haiku, the short message bears the name of an Internet-based group – Anonymous – responsible for a global swath of hacktivism broad, wide and deep.
I’d heard of Anonymous before. Just never so … locally.
Hacktivism is a rough term for online civil disobedience, as hacking meets activism. Sort of a 21st century monkey-wrenching. Except now it’s computer server-wrenching.
Despite often operating outside the law, Anonymous has a strict code of ethics. Its law-breaking is not car-jacking or drug-dealing, but rather an attempt to right the wrongs in the world as they see it.
Many folks love them; others, clutching arrest warrants, are hunting them. It’s good to remember that blind obedience to the law rarely gets us anywhere. At least anywhere past fascism.
In recent years, Anonymous has identified to police online sexual predators – who are targeting children – which led to their arrest.
After the 2009 Iranian government rigged the presidential election, as many believe, Anonymous helped create an underground website to be used by pro-democracy Iranian activists, despite threats from the government to make that site illegal.
During the Arab Spring, Anonymous supported protests in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria by hacking into government websites, shutting them down and then aiding pro-democratic Internet activists there.
The people who operate the Syrian Department of Defense website, for example, woke up one morning to find a pro-democracy symbol emblazoned on their website.
Pranksters. And you thought a Youtube video of the water-skiing donkey was funny.
When Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange, came under global criticism, Anonymous fought back, shutting down or hacking into the websites belonging to Mastercard, Paypal, VISA (for refusing to allow donations to be made to Wikileaks) and Amazon (for refusing to host Wikileaks on its website).
Anonymous also has hacked into or shut down websites belonging to the Spanish government, the Church of Scientology, the Orlando Chamber of Commerce, Westboro Baptist Church (the folks who carry the “God Hates Fags” signs), Bank of America and the CIA.
I have trouble opening email sometimes. Imagine hacking into the CIA website.
Last weekend, Anonymous, or at least someone pretending to be Anonymous, pledged to “erase” the New York Stock Exchange from the Internet as a way to support the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests, which are spreading throughout the U.S.
(In Tennessee, the Occupy movement has spread to several cities, including Chattanooga, as organizers plan to meet tomorrow night, at 6, in Miller Park.)
Similar to a recent promise to take down Facebook, this Wall Street hack is doubtful, as more trusted messages from Anonymous have been circulated, claiming a hoax.
Either way, it points to something I don’t think we fully realize yet. The Internet has become the town square, the battlefield and the Wild West for the 21st century.
Cyber-warfare is already being waged among groups and nations. The Iranian government lost its ability to enrich uranium for nuclear power (or weapons) after a virus named Stuxnet ate up their computer system faster than that Japanese guy eats Krystals.
Guess who created Stuxnet? The U.S. and Israeli governments. And guess who, theoretically, can now develop the capability to return fire?
The Iranian government.
For democracy-lovers, the Internet provides the freest speech of all. The U.S. government is considering legislation that would create a “kill switch,” giving the president power to totally shut down U.S. access to Internet or government agencies the power to block certain websites.
Anonymous claims to represent something larger than all of this: a conscientious attack on the forces of injustice and censorship.
By Tuesday afternoon, their graffiti on the bridge had been painted over, their message covered up, their words deleted.
I get the sense they would laugh at such a thought.
David Cook can be reached at davidcook@blumail.org.