The Center for Democracy and Technology (not democratic technology) has a self-serving editorial up that piously intones, Cyberattacks are Not a Legitimate Advocacy Tactic.
Say, welcome to the Newly-Acquired Conscience Society, guys. We missed you during the past gadzillion attacks by Anonymous and Lulzsec and all the other hacksters when you had nothing to say. (If there is a condemnation of Anonymous and their use of the DDOS attack as "civil disobedience, I missed it, and please provide the link.)
But I suspect CDT is *only* saying this now as a chapeau under which it will press its campaign against CISPA, the latest cybersecurity bill that this time has the support of Facebook, IBM and other Big IT companies. Good!
Says CDT:
With the support of Internet users, CDT and other groups have been working hard to make sure the legislation is narrowly focused on security, not surveillance. But launching cybersecurity attacks against the bill's supporters is unethical and counterproductive. It shows fundamental disrespect for both the democratic process and the privacy and speech rights of Internet users. It also provides additional ammunition for those who say radical and sweeping cybersecurity measures that violate privacy are warranted.
Well, yeah. That's because indeed they are warranted. Your little script-kiddie friends and the larger hands-on serious thugs who cause millions of dollars of damage really have gotten to be a major, mega problem. I never dreamed when I first encountered these people seven years ago that they would actually grow to attack the Pentagon or threaten to take down all of Facebook. But that's how they are -- totalitarian. Freedom of speech for me, not for thee. No business but our business.
And then, the hilarity of these clowns quoting John Perry Barlow. Imagine! He, who incited the legion of hackers to come forward and defend WikiLeaks. Look at what he wrote on Twitter, above, calling to the foot soldiers to defend WikiLeaks. Disgusting.
I confronted JPB about this in person, live, at a panel during Social Media Week last year. He claimed that he was concerned about the DDOS attack as a form of social protest and seemed to lean -- unlike others on the panel, including Evgeny Morozov -- toward disavowing it -- claiming even that he tried to "rein in" some of the over-zealous Anonymous.
I cited not only that tweet of his, but his incendiary Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace, which I've countered thoroughly with a Declaration of Independence from Cyber-Utopians for the sake of real freedom.
I asked him just what the hell he thought he was doing incited masses to defend WikiLeaks -- when the way the "public" (as WikiLeaks coyly and mendaciously put it) was defending WikiLeaks was by Anonymous taking down the servers of Paypal and MasterCharge and Paypal.
He answered extremely lamely that he intended for people to...make mirror sites. Really, JP? Make mirror sites? That's why they needed to be militarized foot soldiers?
He claimed that self-governance and ethics would develop on its own with this lovely bunch in this lovely autonomous realm of cyberspace.
Guess what, Gramps, it didn't. You heedless and hedonistic hippies were unable to create it out of the depths of your own selfishness and your fuck-you attitude toward anyone who challenged your unaccountability or disagreed with you. Good Lord, the Internet has spawned everything from assaults on gays to incitement to racial hatred to murderous jihad, and has caused enormous damage to industry and jobs from rampant copyleftism and coercive "sharing". You -- you band of boys out of Lord of the Flies -- are going to tell us with a straight face that you can govern this place yourselves, thank you very much?
I asked Barlow where he thought those ethics would come from. He instinctively knew that his answer would seem weak because he said, "You're not going to like this" -- because he knew that I would insist that governance and ethics come not from coders in cyberspace, not from a bunch of affluent hipsters with ambitious "better world" ideas that mainly lined their pockets, but from organic institutions of real life -- democratic states with separation of powers under the rule of law, with courts and legislatures and elected executives that would hold sway over his gang.
He replied that the ethics was going to "come from us." Oh? You and what army? Cue Bette Midler to sing "What if God were one of us?" or would it have to be sung in reverse? I need a miracle every day!
Says CDT:
Perhaps John Perry Barlow’s Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace said it best: “We believe that from ethics, enlightened self interest and the commonweal, our governance will emerge.” Saying no to attacks as an advocacy tactic must be part of our ethical core.
Too little, too late -- and completely mealy-mouthed when it comes to standing up to Anonymous!
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