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Download Thesis This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Who Are Anonymous? A Study Of Online Activism Collins, Benjamin Thomas Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 01. Oct. 2021 Who Are Anonymous? A Study Of Online Activism Benjamin Thomas Collins King's College London, War Studies 2016 1 Abstract The activist network “Anonymous” has protested and launched cyber-attacks for and against a spectrum of socio-political causes around the world since 2008. The subsequent coverage and debate have described Anonymous but has generally done little to explore their political, cultural and historical contexts. Anonymous are an important development in how we use communications technologies for political means and ends. Their reactionary political positioning and pop-culture imagery from the role of moveable type printing in the Reformation to the Electric Telegraph as a technological and social precursor of the internet. This thesis uses contemporary media coverage of Anonymous’ actions, prior research in the field of “Anonymous Studies” and Anonymous-authored primary source materials to answer these questions of Anonymous’ historical development, motivation and direction. This thesis expands on this central historical narrative through examining Anonymous’ use of pop-culture as political shorthand, how their methods and visual style have been adopted by others; as well as the political, legal and social responses to Anonymous by their targets and the “internet culture” from which they came. Anonymous is a decentralised activist/protest community who define themselves through opposition. Anonymous position themselves as the antithesis of everything their current target is or represents, establishing solidarity and common cause among an otherwise disparate community. This almost always a takes place as a reaction to causes which have already reached a critical mass of mainstream attention. Despite the reduction of Anonymous’ novelty and impact over time, their methods have become templates for conducting aggressive and irregular political actions through the internet. This thesis combines research avenues which have not been directly connected to Anonymous or each other, expanding the small but growing field of “Anonymous Studies,” providing a strong historical and analytical basis for future research. 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr Thomas Rid, David Betz and Neville Bolt for their supervision across the many iterations of this thesis over the last four years. I would also like to thank Robert Black for the opportunities to present the ideas underpinning this thesis to new and different audiences, an experience which helped to move my efforts in the right direction. Finally I would like to thank Sarah Nichol for giving me perspective, support and the occasional gentle yet firm reminder to unplug from the hive mind every now and again. 3 Table of Contents Glossary of Terms.......................................................................................................................6 Chapter One – Introduction.........................................................................................................7 Research Questions.....................................................................................................10 Methodology...............................................................................................................15 Literature Review........................................................................................................27 Chapter Overview.......................................................................................................41 Chapter Two – From 4chan to Political Mobilisation...............................................................46 4chan and /b/...............................................................................................................47 The growth of proto-Anonymous, /b/-day and the self-fulfilling prophecy...............62 The first digital skirmishes and the formation of proto-Anonymous.........................63 Conclusion..................................................................................................................70 Chapter Three – The Connected Society...................................................................................71 Martin Luther, the Printing Press and the Reformation..............................................74 Copyright, the Church and the fight back for information control.............................80 The proximity of history; the Electric Telegraph, Public Libraries and Facebook.....82 Conclusion..................................................................................................................91 Chapter Four – Project Chanology and Payback......................................................................93 Project Chanology – Anonymous steps into the light.................................................94 The snowballing of Payback and Avenge Assange...................................................109 Conclusion................................................................................................................117 Chapter Five – Anonymous and the Rewiring of Pop-Culture Imagery.................................119 The imagery of Anonymous......................................................................................120 Gunpowder, treason and plot; Anonymous and Guy Fawkes...................................126 The Spectacular Culture Industry and the political re-appropriation loop...............129 The counter-appropriation of Anonymous................................................................141 Conclusion................................................................................................................150 Chapter Six – Serious business and the end of the lulz...........................................................152 Wikileaks, Tunisia and LulzSec................................................................................153 LulzSec.....................................................................................................................161 The end of the Lulz...................................................................................................165 Anonymous and beyond – the Syrian Electronic Army, Lizard Squad and the Fancy Bears.........................................................................................................................175 Conclusion................................................................................................................183 Chapter Seven – The Other Side of the Mask.........................................................................185 The long tail of communications technologies as a political tool.............................185 Anonymous and the legal system.............................................................................190 The International Response to Anonymous..............................................................198 4 “We r legun” - The Internet Responds to Anonymous..............................................207 Conclusion................................................................................................................220 Chapter Eight – Should we continue to expect Anonymous?.................................................222 The broader sphere of digital activism – where does Anonymous fit?.....................223 Post-LulzSec degradation and dilution of attention..................................................227 The Anonymous Paradox..........................................................................................232 Anonymous versus ISIS; a war of perception...........................................................241 Conclusion................................................................................................................255 Chapter Nine – Conclusion.....................................................................................................257 Anonymous – should we continue to expect them?..................................................263 Future Research........................................................................................................281 Bibliography............................................................................................................................283
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