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Pirate Culture and Hacktivist Mobilization: the Cultural and Social 414833NMSXXX10.1177/1461444811414833Lindgren and LundströmNew Media & Society Article new media & society 13(6) 999 –1018 Pirate culture and hacktivist © The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permission: mobilization: The cultural sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1461444811414833 and social protocols of nms.sagepub.com #WikiLeaks on Twitter Simon Lindgren Umeå University, Sweden Ragnar Lundström Umeå University, Sweden Abstract This article uses the case of Twitter activity under the #WikiLeaks hashtag to address issues of social movements online. The aim is to analyze the potential of elusive web spaces as sites of mobilization. Looking at linguistic and social aspects, our main questions were: What are the characteristics of the communication in terms of common discursive codes versus fragmentation? In what respects can social order be distinguished, and to what extent are connections between users simply random? Are there any prominent patterns as regards the commitment of participators over time? With the help of tools from semantic, social network and discourse analysis, we were able to show that common codes, networks of connections and mobilization do exist in this context. These patterns can be seen as part of the elaboration of a ‘cognitive praxis’. In order to organize and mobilize, any movement needs to speak a common language, agree on the definition of the situation and formulate a shared vision. Even though it is global and loosely-knit, Twitter discourse is a space where such processes of meaning-production take place. Keywords discourse, hacktivism, social networks, Twitter, Wikileaks Corresponding author: Simon Lindgren, Department of Sociology, Umeå University, SE90187, Umeå, Sweden Email: [email protected] 1000 new media & society 13(6) In this study, we will focus on the practice of online politics within pirate and hacktivist cultures, and we will do so through a case study of how creators, supporters and users of the much debated WikiLeaks website engage and are mobilized through the Twitter micro blogging service. In our present day and age, there is much debate about the role played by new digital media for political participation, campaigning and for the mobili- zation of social movements (Boehlert, 2009; Chadwick and Howard, 2008; Kahn and Kellner, 2003). While some claim that the internet will, or in fact already has, radically altered the face of collective action (Mason, 2008), others are more skeptical (Keen, 2007). Employing a constructionist conception of social space (Lefebvre, 1974), this article uses the case of Twitter posts relating to WikiLeaks to analyze the actual potential of elusive and fluid web spaces as sites of mobilization and opposition. In line with current literature on digital culture (Benkler, 2006; Rheingold, 2002), one can conceive of political grassroots projects carried out online in terms of peer- production. From that perspective, the culture surrounding WikiLeaks on Twitter can be seen as an example of a ‘networked public’ (Ito, 2008), a participatory and collaborative environment where technology and tactics are used and developed, where interests are shared, where meanings are appropriated, re-made and re-distributed and where enthusiasts and volunteers create something together. It is, however, important to note – not the least because much literature about new media has a utopian bias – that the full potential of cooperation and democratization is not necessarily realized in a completely frictionless and symmetric way. Some participants exert more power than others, and some have greater abilities than others to partici- pate (Jenkins, 2006: 3). Henry Jenkins (2006: 133) distinguishes between interactivity and participation. His idea is that strictly technological aspects of certain media forms allow for differing degrees of interactivity: Reading a newspaper allows for a lesser level of interactivity than a video game in which players can act upon the world that is represented. Participation, on the other hand, does not rely on technology as such, but instead on the ways in which media use is shaped by cultural and social protocols. Protocols are under- stood in this article as the materialized and materializing codes that lie underneath col- lective action in digital networks (Galloway, 2004). The aim of this article is to study the protocols of Twitter activity relating to WikiLeaks. This will be done with a focus on the linguistic as well as on the social exchange that characterizes this particular networked public. Our main questions are: • What are the characteristics of the communication in terms of common discursive codes versus fragmentation? • In what respects can social order be distinguished, and to what extent are connec- tions between users simply random? • Are there any prominent patterns as regards the commitment of participators over time? These questions were derived from Quentin Jones’ (1997) writings on ‘virtual settle- ments’. According to Jones, an online place where group communication takes place has to meet four basic conditions to be labelled as a virtual settlement: ‘(1) a minimum level Lindgren and Lundström 1001 of interactivity; (2) a variety of communicators; (3) a virtual common-public-space where a significant portion of interactive group-CMCs occur’; and ‘(4) a minimum level of sustained membership’ (See http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101. 1997.tb00075.x/full). We will use these four criteria to address the question of whether an essentially borderless and elusive site such as the symbolic space of a Twitter hashtag can be thought of in terms of a virtual settlement. How is the culture surrounding the hashtag constituted? How are participators positioned? Which fundamental patterns does its social interaction adhere to? Background and concepts What we propose to call pirate culture – social contexts online where information is remixed, re-appropriated, shared and re-circulated – is therefore an emerging source of power. Pirate culture takes in groups, media projects, interventions and networks that resist, or seek to develop different forms of, the dominant ways of doing media and poli- tics. These include new social movements, radical citizen journalism, extremist media, remix culture, copyleft, peer-to-peer and fan culture. WikiLeaks, a so-called hacktivist project started in 2007, is an international organiza- tion posting documents that would otherwise be unavailable to the public through its website (http://wikileaks.org). Among the more notable leaks are the 2003 standard oper- ating procedures of the US Army at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp (leaked in 2007), the contents of Sarah Palin’s private Yahoo email account during the 2008 US presidential campaign, the 2009 leak of 570,000 pager messages sent during the day of the 9/11 attack in 2001 and the 2007 Baghdad airstrike video (leaked in 2010). The much debated organization, directed by Australian journalist Julian Assange, has won several media awards and has received a lot of attention from the news media. Activists connected to WikiLeaks have often reported that they have been harassed and monitored by govern- ments, police and intelligence agencies. The ‘About us’ section on the website states that: WikiLeaks is a multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public. Since July 2007, we have worked across the globe to obtain, publish and defend such materials, and, also, to fight in the legal and political spheres for the broader principles on which our work is based: the integrity of our common historical record and the rights of all peoples to create new history. […] WikiLeaks combines the protection and anonymity of cutting-edge cryptographic technologies with the comfortable presentation style of Wikipedia, although the two are not otherwise related. Our network also collects materials in person and from postal drops. We also run a network of lawyers and others to defend our work and our sources. WikiLeaks information is distributed across many jurisdictions, organizations and individuals. Once a document published it is essentially impossible to censor. The WikiLeaks site is hosted by a company based in Sweden which offers ‘refugee hosting’. The company website at http://prq.se states that their ‘boundless commitment 1002 new media & society 13(6) to free speech has been tested and proven over and over again. If it is legal in Sweden, we will host it, and will keep it up regardless of any pressure to take it down’. According to Wikipedia, this company is owned by two of the people behind the much publicized and prosecuted file sharing tracker The Pirate Bay. The term hacktivism, an aspect of pirate culture, refers in its broadest sense to ‘the fusion of hacking and activism; politics and technology’ (metac0m, 2003). It is about situations and strategies where digital tools are used with the purpose of campaigning and working for social and cultural change (Jordan, 2002; Jordan and Taylor, 2004). Sociologist Tim Jordan (2008) identifies three forms of digital political action that are often perceived as aspects of hacktivism. These are: • mass embodied online protest; • internet infrastructure and information politics; and • communicative practices and activity organizing The hacktivism which is an integral part of WikiLeaks – the acquisition, as well as the distribution, reception and appropriation of the documents
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