Information Activism: Anonymous as a Cheater
Summary
In 2008, Anonymous launched ‘Project Chanology’ which was a direct attack on scientology. They ordered pizza’s to be delivered on scientology addresses, they attacked scientology websites with DDoS attacks and kept calling their main phone line. All in all, Anonymous played with the information outlets of scientology to take an activist standpoint against scientology. Here, activism is not solely about getting to the streets or letting your message heard, but it becomes about the control of flows of information.
Anonymous transgresses boundaries of what activism is about, by using ‘new’ information tactics, furthermore, they transgress laws: worldwide many Anonymous’ members have been arrested. I propose to analyse Anonymous as a cheater that plays with information and with rules. And, just as cheaters, they raise questions on the rules, on what it means to be an activist, what the position is of protest online and more. In this thesis, I will formulate a new materialist conceptualization of cheating that will aid towards an understanding of what I will call Anonymous’ information activism. This research project is not about the question whether Anonymous is wrong or right, but rather it is about how we can understand these practices in their entanglements with the world. This is not an ethical question, but a call for a better understanding of the events pre-judgement. In this context, I am posing the question: How can we understand the cheater Anonymous as a key example of information activism?