VOL  NO                  What is the relationship between contemporary digital media and contemporary society? Is it possible to a„rm that digital media are without sin and exist purely in a complex socio-political and economic context within which the users bring with them their ethical and cultural complexities? This issue, through a range of scholarly writings, analyzes the problems of ethics and sin within contemporary digital media frameworks. LEA is a publication of Leonardo/ISAST. Editorial Address Leonardo Electronic Almanac Copyright 2013 ISAST Sabanci University, Orhanli – Tuzla, 34956 Leonardo Electronic Almanac Istanbul, Turkey Volume 19 Issue 4 September 15, 2013 Email ISSN 1071-4391 [email protected] ISBN 978-1-906897-26-0 The ISBN is provided by Goldsmiths, University of London. Web Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Volume 19 Issue 4 » www.leoalmanac.org lea publishing & subscription information » www.twitter.com/LEA_twitts » www.flickr.com/photos/lea_gallery Without Sin: Freedom and Editor in Chief » www.facebook.com/pages/Leonardo-Electronic- Lanfranco Aceti [email protected] Almanac/209156896252 Taboo in Digital Media

Co-Editor Özden Şahin [email protected] Copyright © 2013 Leonardo, the International Society for the Arts, volume Editors Managing Editor Sciences and Technology Lanfranco Aceti & Donna Leishman John Francescutti [email protected] Leonardo Electronic Almanac is published by: Editorıal managers Art Director Leonardo/ISAST Deniz Cem Önduygu [email protected] 211 Sutter Street, suite 501 Sheena Calvert & Özden Şahin San Francisco, CA 94108 Editorial Board USA Peter J. Bentley, Ezequiel Di Paolo, Ernest Edmonds, Felice Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA) is a project of Leonardo/ Frankel, Gabriella Giannachi, Gary Hall, Craig Harris, Sibel Irzık, The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technol- Marina Jirotka, Beau Lotto, Roger Malina, Terrence Masson, ogy. For more information about Leonardo/ISAST’s publica- Jon McCormack, Mark Nash, Sally Jane Norman, Christiane tions and programs, see http://www.leonardo.info or contact Paul, Simon Penny, Jane Prophet, Jeffrey Shaw, William [email protected]. Uricchio Leonardo Electronic Almanac is produced by Cover Passero Productions. Deniz Cem Önduygu Reposting of this journal is prohibited without permission of Leonardo/ISAST, except for the posting of news and events listings which have been independently received.

The individual articles included in the issue are © 2013 ISAST.

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LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC VOL 19 NO 4 ISSN 1071-4391 ISBN 978-1-906897-26-0 Job: A1310_06_MusicTech Publication: LEA Journal Size: 6.5” x 9.5” (no bleed) [177.8 mm x 254 mm trim] Color(s): b/w Material Type: jpg (300 dpi) Line Screen: Delivery: email: Issue Date: Closing Date: 10.15.13 Proof: F Date: 10.14.13 C ONTENTS CONTENTS

Leonardo Electronic Almanac Volume 19 Issue 4

10 POST-SOCIETY: DATA CAPTURE AND ERASURE ONE CLICK AT A TIME Lanfranco Aceti

16 WITHOUT SIN: FREEDOM AND TABOO IN DIGITAL MEDIA Donna Leishman

26 LIKE REALITY 162 SEDUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES AND INADVERTENT VOYEURS Birgit Bachler EFFECT Simone O’Callaghan 36 MEDIA, MEMORY, AND REPRESENTATION IN THE DIGITAL AGE David R. Burns 178 SOCIAL AS POLITICAL Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli 52 DIFFERENTIAL SURVEILLANCE OF STUDENTS Deborah Burns 198 CONTENT OSMOSIS AND THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SOCIAL MEDIA 66 ANA-MATERIALISM & THE PINEAL EYE: Don Ritter BECOMING MOUTH-BREAST Johnny Golding 220 RE-PROGRAM MY MIND Debra Swack 84 DANCING ON THE HEAD OF A SIN: TOUCH, DANCE AND TABOO 236 THE PREMEDIATION OF IDENTITY MANAGEMENT IN Sue Hawksley ART & DESIGN Sandra Wilson & Lilia Gomez Flores 100 “THERE MUST BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS, SALLY…” Ken Hollings 256 , ALTERITY, DIVINITY Charlie Gere 114 COPYRIGHT AND DIGITAL ART PRACTICE Smita Kheria 268 DO WE NEED MORALITY ANYMORE? Mikhail Pushkin 128 CURATING, PIRACY AND THE INTERNET EFFECT Alana Kushnir 280 THE ECONOMIES OF LANGUAGE IN DIGITAL SPACE/S Sheena Calvert 148 PRECARIOUS DESIGN Donna Leishman

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Post-Society: Data Capture and Erasure Stultifera Navis towards its destiny inexorably, bringing In order to discuss the present post-societal condition, One Click at a Time all others with them. one would need first to analyze the cultural disregard that people have, or perhaps have acquired, for their Having segregated themselves in a prison of their own personal data and the increasing lack of participation doing, the politicians look at all others as being part of in the alteration of the frameworks set for post-data. a large mad house. It is from the upper deck of a gilded prison that politicians stir the masses in the lower This disregard for personal data is part of cultural decks into a frenzy of fear and obedience. forms of concession and contracting that are deter- “Oh, in the name of God! Now I know what it feels belief or faith that their lives are in good hands, that of mined and shaped not by rights but through the mass like to be God!” the state. Why should it be in this discourse, whose forms we loss of a few rights in exchange for a) participation Frankenstein (1931) have seen to be so faithful to the rules of reason, in a product as early adopters (Google), b) for design Nevertheless it speaks of a ‘madness’ of the politician that we find all those signs which will most mani- status and appearance (Apple), c) social conventions They must have felt like gods at the NSA when as a category. A madness characterized by an alien- festly declare the very absence of reason? 3 and entertainment (Facebook) and (Twitter). they discovered that they were able to spy on any- ation from the rest of society that takes the form of one. What feels ridiculous to someone that works isolation. This isolation is, in Foucauldian terms, none Discourses, and in particular political discourses, no Big data offers an insight into the problem of big loss- with digital media is the level of ignorance that other than the enforcement of a voluntary seclusion in longer mask the reality of madness and with it the es if a catastrophe, accidental or intentional, should people continue to have about how much every- the prison and the mad house. feeling of having become omnipotent talks of human ever strike big databases. The right of ownership one else knows or can know about ‘you.’ If only madness in its attempt to acquire the impossible: that of the ‘real object’ that existed in the data-cloudwill people were willing to pay someone, or to spend a The prisons within which the military, corporate, finan- of being not just godlike, but God. become the new arena of post-data conflict. In this bit of time searching through digital data services cial and political worlds have shut themselves in speak context of loss, if the crisis of the big banks has dem- themselves,they would discover a range of services increasingly of paranoia and fear. As such the voluntary As omnipotent and omniscient gods the NSA should onstrated anything, citizens will bear the brunt of the that have started to commercialize collective data: prison within which they have sought refuge speaks allow the state to ‘see.’The reality is that the ‘hands’ of losses that will be spread iniquitously through ‘every- bought and sold through a range of semi-public busi- more and more the confused language that one may the state are no longer functional and have been sub- one else.’ nesses and almost privatized governmental agencies. have imagined to hear from the Stultifera Navis. stituted with prostheses wirelessly controlled by the Public records of infractions and crimes are available sociopaths of globalized corporations. Theamputation The problem is therefore characterized by multiple for ‘you’ to know what ‘your’ neighbor has been up Paranoia, narcissism and omnipotence, all belong to of the hands happenedwhile the state itself was mer- levels of complexity that can overall be referred to as to.These deals, if not outright illegal, are character- the delirium of the sociopaths, 1 who push towards rily looking somewhere else, tooblissfullybusy counting a general problem of ethics of data, interpreted asthe ized by unsolved ethical issues since they are a ‘sell- the horizon, following the trajectory set by the ‘de- the money that was flowing through neo-capitalistic ethical collection and usage of massive amounts of ing’ of state documents that were never supposed to ranged minds.’ financial dreams of renewed prosperity and Napole- data. Also the ethical issues of post-data and their be so easily accessible to a global audience. onic grandeur. technologies has to be linked to a psychological un- It is for the other world that the madman sets sail derstanding of the role that individuals play within so- Concurrently as I write this introduction, I read that in his fools’ boat; it is from the other world that he The madness is also in the discourse about data, de- ciety, both singularly and collectively through the use the maddened Angela Merkel is profoundly shocked comes when he disembarks. 2 prived of ethical concerns and rootedwithinpercep- of media that engender new behavioral social systems that her mobile phone has been tapped into – this tions of both post-democracy and post-state.So much through the access and usage of big data as sources is naive at best but also deeply concerning: since to This otherworldliness – this being an alien from anoth- so that we could speak of a post-data society, within of information. not understand what has happened politically and er world – has increasingly become the characteristic which the current post-societal existence is the con- technologically in the 21st century one must have of contemporary political discourse, which, detached sequence of profound changes and alterations to an Both Prof. Johnny Golding and Prof. Richard Gere been living on the moon.Perhaps it is an act or a from the reality of the ‘majority’ of people, feeds into ideal way of living that technology – as its greatest sin – present in this collection of essays two perspectives pantomimestagedfor the benefit of those ‘common’ the godlike complex. Foolishness and lunacy reinforce still presents as participatory and horizontal but not as that, by looking at taboos and the sinful nature of people that need to continue living with the strong this perspective, creating a rationale that drives the plutocratic and hierarchical. technology, demand from the reader a reflection on

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the role that ethics plays or no longer plays within difference between a German head of state or a blue My gratitude to Dr. Donna Leishman whose time and contemporary mediated societies. collar worker; the NSA can spy on both and digital effort has made this LEA volume possible. data are collected on both. Concepts of technological neutrality as well as eco- I also have to thank the authors for their patience in nomic neutrality have become enforced taboos when If anything was achieved by the NSA it was an egali- complying with the LEA guidelines. the experiential understanding is that tools that pos- tarian treatment of all of those who can be spied sess a degree of danger should be handled with a upon: a horizontal democratic system of spying that My special thanks go to Deniz Cem Önduygu who has modicum of self-control and restraint. does not fear class, political status or money. This is shown commitment to the LEA project beyond what perhaps the best enactment of American egalitarian- could be expected. The merging of economic and technological neutral- ism: we spy upon all equally and fully with no discrimi- ity has generated corporate giants that have acquired nation based on race, religion, social status, political Özden Şahin has, as always, continued to provide valu- a global stronghold on people’s digital data. In the affiliation or sexual orientation. able editorial support. construction of arguments in favor or against a modi- cum of control for these economic and technological But the term spying does not quite manifest the pro- Lanfranco Aceti giants,the state and its political representatives have found level of Panopticon within which we happen Editor in Chief, Leonardo Electronic Almanac thus far considered it convenient not to side with the to have chosen to live, by giving up and squandering Director, Kasa Gallery libertarian argument, since the control was being ex- inherited democratic liberties one right at a time, ercised on the citizen; a category to which politicians through one agreement at a time, with one click at a and corporate tycoons and other plutocrats and high- time. er managers believe they do not belong to or want to be reduced to. These are some of the contemporary issues that this 1. Clive R. Boddy, “The Corporate Psychopaths Theory of new LEA volume addresses, presenting a series of the Global Financial Crisis,” Journal of Business Ethics 102, The problem is then not so much that the German writings and perspectives from a variety of scholarly no. 2 (2011): 255. citizens, or the rest of the world, were spied on. The fields. 2. Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization: A History of taboo that has been infringed is that Angela Merkel, a Insanity in the Age of Reason, trans. Richard Howard head of state, was spied on. This implies an unwillingly This LEA volume is the result of a collaboration with (London: Routledge, 2001), 11. democratic reduction from the NSA of all heads of Dr. Donna Leishman and presents a varied number 3. Ibid., 101. state to ‘normal citizens.’ The disruption and the vio- of perspectives on the infringement of taboos within lated taboo is that all people are data in a horizontal contemporary digital media. structure that does not admit hierarchical distinctions and discriminations. In this sense perhaps digital data This issue features a new logo on its cover, that of are violating the last taboo: anyone can be spied upon, , Steinhardt School of Culture, creating a truly democratic society of surveillance. Education, and Human Development.

The construction of digital data is such that there My thanks to Prof. Robert Rowe, Professor of Music is not a normal, a superior, a better or a worse, but and Music Education; Associate Dean of Research and everything and everyone is reduced to data. That Doctoral Studies at NYU, for his work in establishing includes Angela Merkel and any other head of state. this collaboration with LEA. Suddenly the process of spying represents a welcome reduction to a basic common denominator: there is no

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authority within contemporary culture nor is there an another sadly seems hopelessly incongruent in today’s Without Sin: easy mutual acceptance of what is ‘right and proper’ increasingly skeptical context. Co-joined to the dissi- after all we could be engaging in different iterations of pation of perceptible political entities – the power dy- “backward presence” or “forward presence” 3 whilst namics of being ‘good’ rather than ‘bad’ and or ‘sinful’ Freedom and Taboo in interacting with human and non-human alike (see appears to be one of most flimsy of our prior social Simone O’Callaghan’s contribution: “Seductive Tech- borders. The new reality that allows us to transgress Digital Media nologies and Inadvertent Voyeurs” for a further explo- and explore our tastes and predictions from a remote ration of presence and intimacy). and often depersonalized position feels safer (i.e. with less personal accountability) a scenario that is a fur- Editing such a broad set of responses required an ther exacerbated space vacated by the historic role of editorial approach that both allowed full expansion the church as a civic authority. Mikhail Pushkin in his INTRODUCTION of each paper’s discourse whilst looking for intercon- paper “Do we need morality anymore?” explores the nections (and oppositions) in attempt to distil some online moral value system and how this ties into the “Without Sin: Freedom and Taboo in Digital Media” is Human relationships are rich and they’re messy commonalties. This was achieved by mentally placing deleterious effect of the sensationalism in traditional both the title of this special edition and the title of and they’re demanding. And we clean them up citation, speculation and proposition between one mass media. He suggests that the absence of restric- a panel that was held at ISEA 2011. The goal of the with technology. Texting, email, posting, all of these another. Spilling the ‘meaning’ of the individual con- tive online social structure means the very conscious- panel was to explore the disinhibited mind’s ability things let us present the self, as we want to be. We tributions into proximate conceptual spaces inhabited ness of sin and guilt has now changed and potentially to exercise freedom, act on desires and explore the get to edit, and that means we get to delete, and by other papers and looking for issues that overlapped so has our capability of experiencing the emotions taboo whilst also surveying the boarder question of that means we get to retouch, the face, the voice, or resonated allowed me formulate a sense of what tied to guilt. 6 Sandra Wilson and Lila Gomez in their the moral economy of human activity and how this is the flesh, the body – not too little, not too much, might become future pertinent themes, and what now paper “The Premediation of Identity Management in translates (or not) within digital media. The original just right. 1 follows below are the notes from this process. Art & Design – New Model Cyborgs – Organic & Digi- panelists (some of whom have contributed to the this tal” concur stating that “the line dividing taboos from edition) helped to further delineate additional issues Sherry Turkle’s current hypothesis is that technology What Social Contract? desires is often blurred, and a taboo can quickly flip surrounding identity, ethics, human socialization and has introduced mechanisms that bypass traditional into a desire, if the conditions under which that inter- the need to better capture/understand/perceive how concepts of both community and identity indeed that Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live action take place change.” we are being affected by our technologies (for good we are facing (and some of us are struggling with) an without a common power to keep them all in awe, or bad). array of reconceptualizations. Zygmunt Bauman in his they are in that condition which is called war; and The Free? essay “From Pilgrim to Tourist – or a Short History of such a war as is of every man against every man. The issue of freedom seems to be where much of In the call for participation, I offered the view that con- Identity” suggests that: (Thomas Hobbes in chapter XIII of the Leviathan 4) the debate continues – between what constitutes temporary social technologies are continuously chang- false liberty and real freedoms. Unique in their own ing our practical reality, a reality where human experi- One thinks of identity whenever one is not sure Deborah Swack’s “FEELTRACE and the Emotions approach Golding’s and Pushkin’s papers challenge ence and technical artifacts have become beyond if where one belongs; that is, one is not sure how (after Charles Darwin),” Johnny Golding’s “Ana-Ma- the premise that is implied in this edition’s title – that intertwined, but for many interwoven, inseparable – if to place oneself among the evident variety if terialism & The Pineal Eye: Becoming Mouth-Breast” ‘Freedom and Taboo’ even have a place at all in our this were to be true then type of cognizance (legal behavioral styles and patterns, and how to make and Kriss Ravetto’s “Anonymous Social As Political” contemporary existence as our established codes of and personal) do we need to develop? Implied in this sure that people would accept this placement as argue that our perception of political authority is morality (and ethics) have been radically reconfig- call is the need for both a better awareness and juris- right and proper, so that both sides would know somewhere between shaky towards becoming erased ured. This stance made me recall Hobbes’s first treaty diction of these emergent issues. Whilst this edition how to go on in each other’s presence. ‘Identity’ is altogether. Whilst the original 17th century rational for where he argued that “commodious living” (i.e. moral- is not (and could not be) a unified survey of human the name given to the escape sought from that sublimating to a political authority – i.e. we’d default ity, politics, society), are purely conventional and that activity and digital media; the final edition contains uncertainty. 2 back to a war like state in the absence of a binding moral terms are not objective states of affairs but are 17 multidisciplinary papers spanning Law, Curation, social contract – seems like a overwrought fear, the reflections of tastes and preferences – indeed within Pedagogy, Choreography, Art History, Political Science, Our ‘post-social’ context where increased communica- capacity for repugnant anti-social behavior as a con- another of his key concepts (i.e. the “State of Nature”) Creative Practice and Critical Theory – the volume at- tion, travel and migration bought about by technologi- sequence of no longer being in awe of any common ‘anything goes’ as nothing is immoral and or unjust. 6 It tempts to illustrate the complexity of the situation and cal advances has only multiplied Bauman’s conditions power is real and increasingly impactful. 5 Problemati- would ‘appear’ that we are freer from traditional in- if possible the kinship between pertinent disciplines. of uncertainty. Whilst there may be aesthetic tropes cally the notion of a government that has been cre- stitutional controls whilst at the same time one could within social media, there is no universally accepted ated by individuals to protect themselves from one argue that the borders of contiguous social forms (i.e.

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procedures, networks, our relationship to objects and and the Divine” and cites Martin Jay’s essay “Scopic by everyone all the time.” 13 Smita Kheria’s “Copyright setting, on a screen at home” and that “the appeal of things) seem to have dissipated alongside our capacity Regimes of Modernity” 8 which in turn explores a va- and Digital Art practice: The ‘Schizophrenic’ Position the real becomes the promise of access to the reality to perceive them. The problematic lack of an estab- riety of significant core concepts of modernity where of the Digital Artist” and Alana Kushnir’s “When Curat- of manipulation.” 16 The notion of better access to lished conventional commodious living such as Bau- vision and knowledge meet and influence one another. ing Meets Piracy: Rehashing the History of Unauthor- the ‘untruth’ of things also appears in Ravetto’s paper man’s idea that something is ‘right and proper’ is under Gere/Jay’s line of references resurrect for the reader ised Exhibition-Making” explore accountability and “Anonymous: Social as Political” where she argues challenge by the individualized complexity thrown up Michel Foucault’s notion of the “Panopticon” (where power relationships in different loci whilst looking at that “secrecy and openness are in fact aporias.” What from our disinhibited minds, which can result in benign surveillance is diffused as a principle of social organi- the mitigation of creative appropriation and reuse. It is is unclear is that, as society maintains its voyeuristic or toxic or ‘other’ behaviors depending on our person- zation), 9 Guy DeDord’s The Society of the Spectacle clear that in this area serious reconfigurations have oc- bent and the spectacle is being conflated into the ba- ality’s variables. 7 Ravetto describes how Anonymous i.e. “All that once was directly lived has become mere curred and that new paradigms of acceptability (often nality of social media, are we becoming occluded from consciously inhabits such an ‘other’ space: representation”) 10 and Richard Rorty’s Philosophy counter to the legal reality) are at play. meaningful developmental human interactions? If so, and the Mirror of Nature (published in 1979). 11 The we are to re-create a sense of agency in a process Anonymous demonstrates how the common latter gave form to an enduringly relevant question: Bauman’s belief that “One thinks of identity whenever challenged (or already transformed) by clever implicit cannot take on an ethical or coherent political are we overly reliant on a representational theory of one is not sure if where one belongs” 14 maybe a clue back-end data gathering 17 and an unknown/unde- message. It can only produce a heterogeneity of perception? And how does this intersect with the into why social media have become such an integral clared use our data’s mined ‘self.’ Then, and only then, spontaneous actions, contradictory messages, and risks associated with solipsistic introjection within non part of modern society. It is after all an activity that dissociative anonymity may become one strategy embrace its contradictions, its act of vigilante jus- face-to-face online interactions? The ethics of ‘look- privileges ‘looking’ and objectifying without the recipi- that allows us to be more independent; to be willed tice as much as its dark, racist, sexist, homophobic ing’ and data collection is also a feature of Deborah ent’s direct engagement – a new power relationship enough to see the world from our own distinctive and predatory qualities. Burns’s paper “Differential Surveillance of Students: quite displaced from traditional (identity affirming) needs whilst devising our own extensions to the long Surveillance/Sousveillance Art as Opportunities for social interactions. In this context of social media over genealogy of moral concepts. Perception Reform” in which Burns asks questions of the higher dependency it may be timely to reconsider Guy-Ernest Traditionally good cognition of identity/society/rela- education system and its complicity in the further Debord’s ‘thesis 30’: Somewhere / Someplace tionships (networks and procedures) was achieved erosion of student privacy. Burn’s interest in account- Perpetual evolution and sustained emergence is one through a mix of social conditioning and astute mind- ability bridges us back to Foucault’s idea of panoptic The externality of the spectacle in relation to the of the other interconnecting threads found within the fulness. On the other hand at present the dissipation diffusion: active man appears in the fact that his own ges- edition. Many of the authors recognize a requirement of contiguous social forms has problematized the tures are no longer his but those of another who for fluidity as a reaction to the pace of change. Geog- whole process creating multiple social situations (new He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who represents them to him. This is why the spectator rapher David Harvey uses the term “space-time com- and prior) and rather than a semi-stable situation knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints feels at home nowhere, because the spectacle is pression” to refer to “processes that . . . revolutionize (to reflect upon) we are faced with a digital deluge of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon everywhere. 15 the objective qualities of space and time.” 18 Indeed of unverifiable information. Perception and memory himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation there seems to be consensus in the edition that we comes up in David R. Burns’s paper “Media, Memory, in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he Underneath these issues of perception / presence / are ‘in’ an accelerated existence and a concomitant and Representation in the Digital Age: Rebirth” where becomes the principle of his own subjection 12 identity / is a change or at least a blurring in our politi- dissolution of traditional spatial co-ordinates – Swack he looks at the problematic role of digital mediation cal (and personal) agency. Don Ritter’s paper “Content cites Joanna Zylinska’s ‘human being’ to a perpetual in his personal experience of the 9/11. He recalls the In panoptic diffusion the knowingness of the subject Osmosis and the Political Economy of Social Media” “human becoming” 19 whilst Golding in her paper discombobulating feeling of being: “part of the digi- is key – as we move towards naturalization of surveil- functions as a reminder of the historical precedents reminds us that Hobbes also asserted that “[f]or see- tal media being internationally broadcast across the lance and data capture through mass digitization such and continued subterfuges that occur in mediated ing life is but a motion of Limbs” 20 and that motion, world.” Burns seeks to highlight the media’s influence power relationships change. This is a concern mir- feelings of empowerment. Whilst Brigit Bachler in comes from motion and is inextricably linked to the over an individual’s constructed memories. From a rored by Eric Schmidt Google’s Executive Chairman her paper “Like Reality” presents to the reader that development and right of the individual. But Golding different perspective Charlie Gere reminds us of the when considering the reach of our digital footprints: “besides reality television formats, social networking expands this changing of state further and argues prominence (and shortcomings) of our ocular-centric “I don’t believe society understands what happens sites such as Facebook have successfully delivered a where repetition (and loop) exist so does a different perspective in his discussion of “Alterity, Pornography, when everything is available, knowable and recorded new form of watching each other, in a seemingly safe experience:

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CONCLUSION

The usual culprits of time and space (or time as and explore the taboo. Ken Hollings’s paper “THERE In the interstices of this edition there are some Regarding de-contextualization of the image / identity distinct from space and vice versa), along with MUST BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS, SALLY… questions/observations that remain somewhat unan- – there seems to be something worth bracing oneself identity, meaning, Existenz, Being, reconfigure via Faults, lapses and imperfections in the sex life of ma- swered and others that are nascent in their formation. against in the free-fall of taxonomies, how we see, a relational morphogenesis of velocity, mass, and chines” – presents a compelling survey of the early They are listed below as a last comment and as a how we relate, how we perceive, how we understand intensity. This is an immanent surface cohesion, origin of when humans began to objectify and try gateway to further considerations. that even the surface of things has changed and could the compelling into a ‘this’ or a ‘here’ or a ’now,’ a live through our machines starting with disembodi- still be changing. There is no longer a floating signi- space-time terrain, a collapse and rearticulation of ment of voice as self that arose from the recording Does freedom from traditional hierarchy equate to fier but potentially an abandoned sign in a cloud of the tick-tick-ticking of distance, movement, speed, of sound via the Edison phonograph in 1876. Golding empowerment when structures and social boundar- dissipating (or endlessly shifting) signification. Where born through the repetitive but relative enfolding and Swack mull over the implications of the digital on ies are also massively variable and dispersed and are once: of otherness, symmetry and diversion. embodiment and what it means now to be ‘human’ as pervasive to the point of incomprehension/invalida- we veer away from biological truth and associated tion? Or is there some salve to be found in Foucault’s The judges of normality are present everywhere. Golding’s is a bewildering proposition requiring a moral values towards something else. Sue Hawksley’s line that “’Power is everywhere’ and ‘comes from We are in the society of the teacher-judge, the frame of mind traditionally fostered by theoretical “Dancing on the Head of a Sin: touch, dance and taboo” everywhere’ so in this sense is neither an agency nor doctor-judge, the educator-judge, the ‘social- physicists but one that may aptly summarize the reminds us of our sensorial basis in which: a structure,” 23 thus nothing is actually being ‘lost’ in worker’-judge; it is on them that the universal reign nature of the quandary. The authors contributing to our current context? And is it possible that power has of the normative is based; and each individual, this edition all exist in their own ways in a post-digital Touch is generally the least shared, or acknowl- always resided within the individual and we only need wherever he may find himself, subjects to it his environment, anthropologist Lucy Suchman describes edged, and the most taboo of the senses. Haptic to readjust to this autonomy? body, his gestures, his behaviour, his aptitudes, his this environment as being “the view from nowhere, and touch-screen technologies are becoming ubiq- achievements. 24 detached intimacy, and located accountability.” 21 uitous, but although this makes touch more com- Conventional political power (and their panoptic Wilson and Gomez further offer a possible coping monly experienced or shared, it is often reframed strategies) seem to be stalling, as efforts to resist and There now is no culturally specific normal in the dif- strategy by exploring the usefulness of Jay Bolter through the virtual, while inter-personal touch still subvert deep-seated and long-held governmental se- fuse digital-physical continuum, which makes the and Richard Grusin’s “pre-mediation” as a means to tends to remain sexualized, militarized or medical- crecy over military/intelligence activities have gained materiality and durability of truth very tenuous indeed; externalize a host of fears and reduce negative emo- ized (in most Western cultures at least). increased momentum while their once privileged data a scenario that judges-teaches-social workers are tions in the face of uncertainty. The imperative to cre- joins in the leaky soft membrane that is the ethics of having some difficulty in addressing and responding ate some strategies to make sense of some of these Within her paper Hawksley provides an argument sharing digitally stored information. to in a timely manner, an activity that the theoretically pressing issues is something that I explore in my own (and example) on how the mediation of one taboo speculative and methodologically informed research contribution in which I offer the new term Precarious – dance – through another – touch – could mitigate Through dissociative strategies like online anonymity as contained within this edition can hopefully help Design – as a category of contemporary practice that the perceived moral dangers and usual frames of so- comes power re-balance, potentially giving the indi- them with. is emerging from the design community. Precarious cial responsibility. Swack raises bioethical questions vidual better recourse to contest unjust actions/laws Design encompasses a set of practices that by ex- about the future nature of life for humans and “the but what happens when we have no meaningful social pressing current and near future scenarios are well embodiment and containment of the self and its sym- contract to direct our civility? Its seems pertinent to Donna Leishman positioned to probe deeper and tease out important biotic integration and enhancement with technology explore if we may be in need of a new social contract Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design underlying societal assumptions to attain understand- and machines.” Whilst Wilson and Gomez’s go on to that reconnects or reconfigures the idea of account- University of Dundee, UK ing or control in our context of sustained cultural and discuss Bioprescence by Shiho Fukuhara and Georg ability – indeed it was interesting to see the contrast [email protected] technological change. Tremmel – a project that provocatively “creates Hu- between Suchman’s observed ‘lack of accountability’ http://www.6amhoover.com man DNA trees by transcoding the essence of a hu- and the Anonymous collective agenda of holding Embodiment man being within the DNA of a tree in order to create (often political or corporate) hypocrites ‘accountable’ In theory our deterritorialized and changed relation- ‘Living Memorials’ or ‘Transgenic Tombstones’” 22 – as through punitive measures such as Denial-of-Service ship with our materiality provides a new context in an example of a manifest situation that still yields a attacks. which a disinhibited mind could better act on desires (rare) feeling of transgression into the taboo.

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References and Notes

1. Sherry Turkle, “Connected But Alone?,” (TED2012 talk, 9. Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the 17. Mirko Schäfer highlights the role of implicit participation 2012), http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_to- Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage Books, in the success of the Web 2.0. a situation where user gether.html (accessed October 30, 2013). 1977), 195-228. activities are implemental unknowingly in interfaces and 2. Zygmunt Bauman, “From Pilgrim to Tourist, or a Short 10. Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (New York: back-end design. History of Identity,” in Questions of Cultural Identity, eds. S. Zone Books, 1994 first published 1967), Thesis 1. . Mirko Schäfer, Bastard Culture! How User Participation Hall and P. Du Gay (London: Sage Publications, 1996), 19. 11. Richard Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (Princ- Transforms Cultural Production (Amsterdam: Amsterdam 3. Luciano Floridi, “The Philosophy of Presence: From eton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979), 6-7. University Press, 2011), 249. Epistemic Failure to Successful Observation,” in PRES- 12. Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the 18. David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry ENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 14 (2005): Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Pantheon, 1977), into the Origins of Cultural Change (Cambridge, MA: 656-667. 202-203. Blackwell, 1990), 240. 4. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (Charleston, South Carolina: 13. Holman W Jenkins Jr., “Google and the Search for the Fu- 19. Joanna Zylinska, Bioethics in the Age of New Media (Cam- Forgotten Books, 1976), Ch. XIII. ture: The Web icon’s CEO on the mobile computing revo- bridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2009), 10. 5. Whitney Philips, “LOLing at Tragedy: Facebook Trolls, lution, the future of newspapers, and privacy in the digital 20. Hobbes, Leviathan, 56. Memorial Pages (and Resistance to Grief Online,” First age,” The Wall Street Journal, August 14, 2010, http:// 21. Lucy Suchman, “Located Accountabilities In Technology Monday 16, no. 12 (December 5, 2011), http://firstmonday. online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704901104575 Production,” 2010, http://www.sciy.org/2010/05/22/ org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3168/3115 (accessed 423294099527212.html (assessed October 30, 2013). located-accountabilities-in-technology-production-by- August 31, 2013). 14. Bauman, ‘From Pilgrim to Tourist, or a Short History of lucy-suchman/ (accessed April 30, 2013). . As perhaps Friedrich Nietzsche would argue… He has Identity,’ 19. 22. Shiho Fukuhara and Georg Tremmel, Bioprescence, 2005 previously described “orgies of feelings” that are directly 15.“The alienation of the spectator to the profit of the con- http://www.biopresence.com/description.html (accessed linked to our capacity to feel sin and guilt. “To wrench the templated object (which is the result of his own uncon- August 2013). human soul from its moorings, to immerse it in terrors, ice, scious activity) is expressed in the following way: the more 23. Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: The Will to flames, and raptures to such an extent that it is liberated he contemplates the less he lives; the more he accepts Knowledge, (London, Penguin, 1998), 63. from all petty displeasure, gloom, and depression as by recognizing himself in the dominant images of need, the 24. Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, a flash of lightning” Friedrich Nietzsche, The Genealogy less he understands his own existence and his own desires. 304. of Morals, trans. Horace Samuel (New York: Russell and The externality of the spectacle in relation to the active Russell, 1964), 139. man appears in the fact that his own gestures are no lon- 6. Hobbes, Leviathan, 409. ger his but those of another who represents them to him. 7. Consequential subsets within a disinhibited mind are dis- This is why the spectator feels at home nowhere, because sociative anonymity (you don’t know me) and dissociative the spectacle is everywhere.” Debord, The Society of the imagination (its just a game), which can lead to benign Spectacle, Thesis 30. actions such as random acts of kindness or being more 16. Mark Andrejevic, Reality TV, The Work of Being Watched affectionate or potentially toxic (exploring more violent (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004): assertive sides of ones nature) and ‘other’ behaviors. 120-122. . See: John Suler, “The Online Disinhibition Effect,” Cyber- Psychology and Behavior 7 (2004): 321-326. 8. Martin Jay, “Scopic Regimes of Modernity,” in Vision and Visuality, ed. Hal Foster (Seattle: Bay Press 1988), 6.

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ABSTRACT Figure 1. Demonstrators in Vienna with Guy Fawkes masks at the Stop Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) pro- tests. Photoby Haeferl, 2012.Used with permission via the Cre- The revolution of social media has been heralded in by utopian appeals to ative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. reinvigorate social networks and democratic politics. While many social media sites are designed for users to post images, messages, comments or preferences, these same sites are used to profile their users. With massive corporate datamining and government information gathering anonym- ity and privacy are quickly disappearing. This paper explores how the web gathering that calls itself Anonymous has made anonymity a political issue. I aim to show that Anonymous upsets dichotomies that are fundamental to traditional political thought and practice, like identification and anonym- ity, liberation and control, dissent and accountability, privacy and piracy. As a result the discourse of ethics and accountability becomes more and more entangled with politics.

search engine’ group). 2 These same technologies, their messages. The terms of use, however, require ANONYMOUS however, can be co-opted equally effectively by accounts with names, addresses, and methods of governments, secret service organizations and their payment. Identity has become a performance, but a nemesis (global terrorist organizations and rogue performance that is not exclusively enacted by the states) to gather and control information while person who identifies herself as the user. Identity per- SOCIAL AS POLITICAL monitoring, censoring, and tracking users, whistle- formance is not individual but collective, constructed by blowers, and political activists (as the Iranian and from feedback, tagging, linking, time-stamping, and Egyptian governments did following the protests of tracing the movements, comments, friends, contacts Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli 2009 and 2010). Contrary to the hype, there is no and purchases of the user. That is, identity perfor- inherent connection between social media and ideals mance is always folded within an act of profiling, Department of Cinema and Technocultural Studies of democracy and freedom, thus making the ethics which is euphemistically called ‘life streaming.’ 3 Social University of California, Davis of their use more and more entangled with political media may facilitate user-generated acts that are [email protected] contingencies. What interests me here is a subset of networked and distributed, but they also persistently these entanglements, namely, the ethics and politics identify their actors. of identification and the resistance to practices of per- sistent identity – e.g., archiving, tracing and tagging of Traditional forms of anonymity, however, are no longer one’s activities online like posts, purchases, downloads, the answer. Web anonymity, networks of anonymity INTRODUCTION and searches. like The Onion Router (Tors), or a darknet (private distributed file sharing) would seem to provide pro- “We will stop at nothing until we’ve achieved our ideas, and events. 1 Western media, for instance, has tection to dissidents and dissident groups seeking goal. Permanent destruction of the identification attributed the success of dissident movements in Iran, PRACTICING ANONYMITY IN THE AGE OF refuge from the overreach of the state. But those role.” — Anonymous Tunisia, Egypt and Libya to Twitter, Facebook, and SECURITIZATION who subscribe to a security-first stance (advocating Wikileaks. Social media produce radical spontaneity in legalizing Internet control, surveillance and censor- Social media is routinely tied to utopian appeals to the form of flashmobs and swarms, but also globally Web 2.0 has enabled social networking services to ship of possible terrorists or pornographers) have reinvigorate democracy opening up spaces for free distribute evidence exposing the brutality and cor- connect users with similar interests (including political argued that networks of anonymity that unlink a user’s speech and providing instant access to information, ruption of various regimes (e.g., China’s ‘human flesh ones), allowing them to broadcast and disseminate actions from her IP address have only helped to un-

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Figure 2. Trollface by Whynne, 2008. Open clipart, used with permission via the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

dermine not only security but social values and public Google, Facebook, AOL, Paltalk, Skype, Youtube, and “dissensus” – a form of political action that interrupts discourse. 4 Anonymity erodes responsibility and Apple). 6 At the other end of surveillance, the desire identity and reveals a series of gaps between the sub- thus the liability for posting or disseminating unlaw- or need to evade government and corporate monitor- ject and the citizen, ethics and the social, politics, the ful materials like terrorist threats, , ing has lead political activists and dissenters to de- police or the Party Wagon. 8 libel, spamming, hate speech, or pirated works. But as velop alternative uses of social media, and to rethink understandable as these fears may be, they also miss their relation to political agency. In doing so, they have may not know who else is in Anonymous. The hackers Anonymous forces us to rethink privacy away from both the fact that anonymity is no longer, and cannot return triggered a crucial development: the emergence of a that make up Anonymous have turned their pseud- individual and collective identities, but it also draws to, what it used to be. In an age where most of our brand new notion of anonymity. onym into a brand name of a unique kind. It is, so to attention to the relations between the user’s personal personal information is accessible online, anonymity speak, a free-standing one – a brand in and of itself autonomy, political surveillance, and the role of third is more apparent than real. Most websites already use The web gathering that calls itself Anonymous simul- – because the relation between brand and branded is parties like Comcast, AOL, Google, Yahoo, Apple, etc. Google Analytics code, Feedburner, Site Search, or taneously embodies and reveals the entangled politics posited as unknown and potentially unknowable. That is, it makes us aware of the fact that there is a net- Absence to track each user’s navigation of the Internet, and ethics of persistent identity, privacy and security work of anonymous amorphous agencies behind the and simple tools like eWhois make it easy for anyone on the Internet. Anonymous is doing something much screen, whether in the form of client-server relations to unmask anonymous bloggers. more interesting and politically important than practic- (services and contracts), programing-networked com- ing and celebrating anonymity: it upsets dichotomies munications relations (protocols) or information-data- Anonymity has thus become the ethical choice of that are fundamental to traditional political thought bases-systems mapping (mediation and representation). people who run or own a server (or at least have and practice, like identification and anonymity, per- These configurations show themselves in the form of access to the exit-node) – their choice is to require forming identity and persistent identity, liberation and interfaces, which is a way of not showing themselves the disclosure of personal or allow for user’s privacy. control, dissent and accountability, privacy and piracy. at all. Anonymous may give a face to or at least point As argued by Daniel Howe and Helen Nissenbaum, The use of the moniker ‘anonymous’ has been com- to the masking of maneuvers between visibility and political and moral choices are already embodied in mon practice throughout history to obscure the legal secrecy, but it cannot be divorced from this amorphous the design parameters of Internet service providers, name of an individual author. 7 However, once we power behind the screen. search engines, remailers, proxies, and Internet Relay move from traditional individual uses of the moniker Chat rooms themselves. 5 Whether we see anonymity to the new collective ones exemplified by Anonymous, Figure 3. Anonymous Anarchist Flag by Kizar, 2011. Used with In a TED talk, Gabriella Coleman argues that, “Anony- as either desirable or irresponsible, social media have the term ‘anonymous’ comes to signify a new and permission via the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike mous is by nature and intent difficult to define,” but rendered individual privacy and government and cor- much expanded kind of anonymity that can potentially 3.0 Unported license. anonymous has also become a “formidable PR machine porate secrecy almost impossible to sustain. include everyone and anyone. This change of scale that dramatizes the importance of anonymity and changes the very meaning of anonymity and its pos- It has become a conspicuous and well-recognizable privacy in an era when both are rapidly eroding.” 9 Ir- In this new regime of exposure, being identified has sible political uses. sign attached to actions, videos, code, posts, and man- reducible to traditional political or ethical categories become another form of vulnerability, both for indi- ifestos, and yet one that hides rather than identify the – libertarian, anarchist or leftist activism, ethical or un- viduals and governments. The US government does Both an adjective and a noun and one that has the ‘corporate author’ of such products. Anonymous can ethical – Anonymous simultaneously enacts liberation not appreciate publicity of its support of Stuxnet and same spelling in the singular and plural – Anonymous only be identified (locally and at certain times) through and control, dissent and a lack of accountability, privacy Flame cyberattacks against Iran’s nuclear program, is a perfect floating signifier or, rather, a signifier of its networked acts or exchanges, but these events do and piracy. It is anonymous itself but practices identi- nor does it welcome public knowledge of its illiberal something that is defined as existing and yet unidenti- not involve everyone (or perhaps anyone) who uses fication of others, exposing the names of over 1,500 mechanisms of surveillance and control they have de- fiable. By claiming membership in Anonymous, an in- the name Anonymous. Rather, Anonymous seems to users of a child pornography site in Operation Darknet; ployed in the name of security (like the National Coun- dividual makes her possible identification much more function both as a hive and a meme that modulates the shady dealings of Aaron Barr the CEO of HB Gary terterrorism Center’s combing of massive amounts of difficult because Anonymous is a collective of anony- and modifies its messages, changes threads, and re- (a technological security company); or millions of Sony stored datasets of American citizens, and the Prism mous individuals, each of whom can use that moniker. configures the hive with every act or thread. Far from PlayStation Network user accounts. 10 And while ex- surveillance project conducted by the National Se- It also reduces the chances of one member of Anony- achieving a form of consensus and traditional collec- posing individual users’ names, Operation Darknet also curity Agency in collaboration with Microsoft, Yahoo, mous informing on others under duress because she tivity, these acts produce what Jacques Rancière calls conducted Directed Denial of Service (DDos) attacks

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THE ANONYMOUS BRAND

on Lolita City – a child pornography sharing website countability even when the alleged ‘secrets’ are publi- “We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not for- According to Michael Bernstein and his collaborators, that is accessible in anonymity via the Tor Project’s en- cally known. 13 On the other hand, protecting private give. We do not forget. Expect us.” — Anonymous roughly 90% of all messages on are posted un- crypted service – thus making Anonymous appear more information (secrecy), like the openness required by der the site’s default identity, ‘Anonymous.’ 17 Those as a vigilante than a black hat hacker group. Another accountability, obliges individuals to expose high qual- If in the last eight years Anonymous has moved from messages are not only anonymous but also ephemeral. iteration of Anonymous has supported free speech and ity personalized information – like passwords, places an obscure collective of pranksters, trollers, geeks, Because 4chan has no long-term archives, old mes- radical democracy in Iran, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Pales- of residence, dates of birth, types of transactions, ac- hackers, and creators of memes to a serious political sage threads are automatically deleted when new tine, and Libya on twitter by conducting DDoS – attacks counts, holdings, places of work, credit reports, politi- force and/or a cyber security threat. It has also be- ones come in and make space for themselves. What in the Middle East, hacking government and military cal affiliations, donations, etc. – and at the same time come the topic of much cultural discourse and a grow- remains are threads that are trending. Originally meant websites, providing secure servers and mobile devices most of this information is easily accessible online ing body of academic literature, such as Brian Knap- to save storage costs, this mechanism has become, as to activists, and posting government emails (as in the (most personal information is already open). ‘Secrecy’ penberger’s documentary We Are Legion: The Story Poole points out, ‘both practical and philosophical.’ It case of the Iranian government). Most recently, Anony- and ‘openness’ have become so co-implicated that of the Hacktivists (2012); more short documentaries disrupts the idea that digital identity should follow you mous has claimed to have thwarted Karl Rove attempt they can no longer be considered diametrically op- on Al Jazeera; near-weekly columns in The Guardian, across time (as it does on Facebook), linking what you to steal the 2012 US presidential election by blocking posed as much as they can be used to define each Ars Technica, Wired; TED talks (Gabriella Coleman and say when you are young to whatever you might be- him from hacking voting machines in so-called battle- other. Christopher Poole); nightly news commentary; as well come, or subjecting every human transaction to moni- ground states. Western media, academics and political as anthropological and legal literature (Coleman, Yokai toring and the possibility of identity authentication. 18 activists have all applauded Anonymous for such acts. Both stances are aporetic in that they rest on the Benkler, etc). 14 As a result, we begin to understand Instead, because of 4chan’s heavy traffic, a message At the same time it has also been labeled a cyberterror- same obsolete notion of ethics that demands the the genealogy of Anonymous and its logic, not just the can vanish within hours or even seconds of its posting. ist organization by the media, the US government, and rights of the individual. Deeply embedded within chronicle of its various and changing iterations. law enforcement agencies when it threatens Scientolo- our legal systems, democratic ideology, and social This is not to say that there is no archive of 4chan’s gists (); when it supports Wikileaks; relations is a problematic but enduring Durkheimian Anonymous emerged in October 2003 from the mes- messages. Users have created 4chanarchive.org to when it performs DDoS attacks against the FBI, the CIA, divide between the individual and society. Émile Dur- sage board 4chan that Christopher Poole developed document what they call ‘epic threads.’ According to the UN, and NATO; or when it hacks Sony’s PlayStation kheim’s model of social relations understands society when he was fifteen. It had over 12 million users last Poole, the mere fact that 4chan does not archive all site, Google, Lockheed-Martin, and NASA. 11 is an overarching, organic entity that determines the year making it a significant site of online activity.15 of its posts and threads, enables users to be wrong. structure of social and conceptual relations, limiting 4chan was modeled on, and modified the source code Being wrong or posting something offensive does Crucially, Anonymous demonstrates that while secrecy individual desires and providing ethical guidelines. of, the Japanese image board Futaba Channel that al- not mean that one has to publicly deal with it in per- and openness are taken to stand for two unambigu- Yet, the law is not designed to protect society or eth- lowed all participants to post anonymously. It started petuity because of data permanence. Anonymity af- ously opposite positions, they are, in fact, aporias. ics as such, but to insure individual interests – those with only two categories: /a/ for anime and /b/ for ev- fords each user a certain amount of freedom to post Government and law enforcement demand that the same interests that are allegedly curtailed by society erything else. It is this /b/ site that became the breed- anything she wants without being held permanently agency of certain military and political actions remain itself. This assumption continues to put ethics at ing ground for that configuration that is now known accountable, which, of course, also allows for trolling, unknown to protect national security, while citizens de- odds with the law or the law at odds with itself, pit- as Anonymous or b/tards, as they call themselves. As , cyber-bullying, stalking, posting misogynist, mand the right to hold governments and corporations ting rights to privacy against excessive privatization. Julian Dibbell explains: homophobic, or racist posts and plenty of pornogra- accountable by exposing their secret workings through Anonymous challenges our concepts of classification phy. Partially meant to repel , the “intentional anonymous communication. ‘Secrecy’ and ‘openness,’ of the individual and the social and judgments of right /b/ is where 4chan makes good on what its ano- offensiveness” of “these rude boys of the internet” therefore, have different definitions when applied to and wrong, making it very difficult to talk about them. nymity promises: the freedom to say anything with- may be “radically democratic” in their practice of free governments as opposed to its citizens. Companies But more importantly, it makes it imperative that we out the obligation to suffer consequences. Anarchy speech and collective ways in which they determine and government agencies that trace and monitor indi- rethink the terminology we are using to discuss rights, sets the tone for the site in general… It’s out of /b/ which threads will survive, or what operations they will viduals under the rubric of the Patriot Act or the Civil authorship, authority, freedom, and individuality in an that swarms of online troublemakers – trolls, in In- deploy. 19 Coleman, Benkler and even some Anons, Contingencies Act are not subject to the same level age that has been increasingly subject to regulation ternet parlance – occasionally issue forth to prank, have attempted to distinguish the political activism of oversight as individuals. 12 Governments, however, of individuals and deregulation of corporate interests, hack, harass, and otherwise digitally provoke other (AnonOps) from the more free form posts that, more often use the term ‘secret’ as a means to avoid ac- copyright protection, and financial volatility. online communities and users. 16 often than not, include pornographic images, racist

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PRACTICING ANONYMOUS POLITICS the normative dialectic of opposition, that is, to some form of centralization. Dissenters need to have a set “All your carefully picked arguments can be easily political agenda, and leaders accountable for the con- ignored.” — Anonymous sequences of their actions. Morozov, however, seems to forget that such identification practices return us to Anonymous occupies an uncomfortable space be- politics based on individual rights and fixed ideology. tween a variety of Internet cultures. It shares values But, as individuals, dissidents are targeted by govern- and practices with the open source movement (open ments (in the form of surveillance and security), infil- and sexist statements, however, calls for political action The hack of cyber-security company HB Gary is a access to information, free software, crowdsourced trated, and discredited (as Barr’s case clearly shows). are also embedded in the deluge of intentionally offen- good example of this mixture between politics and projects), radical democratic principles (civil disobedi- Individuals have also have become targets of corpo- sive posts. Such anonymity, therefore, is not intrinsically parody. Aaron Barr, one of the company’s top execu- ence instantiated in DDoS attacks and graffiting web- rations (in the form of insidious, covert marketing), democratic or radical, since it can create toxic environ- tives, was planning to offer digital-espionage services sites), and the opposition to the “security first” ap- driving the new information economy. As Alexander ments that silence voices – particularly those of the tra- to clients (including the US government, Disney and proach to Internet governance and the surveillance of Galloway and Eugene Thacker point out: “individu- ditionally disenfranchised, i.e., women, people of color, Sony) before it was hacked by Anonymous. In an communications networks inherent in that stance. 23 ated subjects are the very producers and facilitators and the LBGT communities that Anonymous ridicules attempt to garner media attention (and promote At the same time, it also partakes in the so-called dark of networked control. Express yourself! Output some often and explicitly. 20 If /b/ believes in a law, it is that his company) Aaron Barr claimed that he infiltrated side of Internet freedom (lutz, pornography, flaming, data! It is how distributed control functions best.” 27 “nothing is sacred,” that everything is corruptible, dismis- AnonOps groups, and that he was going to bring the defacing and blocking websites). 24 The multiple and What Morozov’s model overlooks is that anonymous sible, subject to ridicule, and that “anything you say will ‘leaders’ of the group down by exposing its members. contradictory relations that constitute Anonymous criticism of authority and the exposure of govern- be held against you.” The refusal to accept any idea Barr’s plan backfired when his boasts attracted the and make it so difficult to define it also destabilize the ment and corporate networks are already political. As shows that Anonymous is neither the “radical demo- attention of a few Anons who hacked into his Twitter grounds for critiquing its actions. Anonymous ques- Anupam Chander points out, Deibert, Rohozinski, and cratic structure” and “irreverent democratic culture” and email accounts, iPad (wiping it clean), HB Gary’s tions traditional notions of criticism as it undoes tradi- Morozov are too quick to dismiss the influence of so- seen by Coleman and Benkler, but rather the embodi- emails, financial and tax documents. They also hacked tional notions of identity and anonymity. cial media on liberation movements since information ment of a truly radical practice of criticism – though their software products and their data, wip- technology has “long proven a key vector for change.” one that might favor the male-dominated gamer and ing both of them together and their backups. While the ‘security first model’ exaggerates the threat He adds: “Even if that change is not uniformly in the hacker culture. 21 of hacktivism to expose protected information and direction of human liberty, access to information has What started as a paranoid defensive hack ended interfere with command and control operations, undeniable power.” 28 Most posts on /b/ are decoupled from any identity, and up unearthing Barr’s own plans against Anonymous, Evgeny Morozov’s ‘net delusion model’ (that takes 4chan does not allow any user to claim a name or an Wikileaks and other hackers. Barr had proposed Coun- hacks and leaks to be ineffective) underestimates the idea. Everyone can choose to speak in any name, or en- ter Intelligence Program tactics to infiltrate dissident potential of Internet activism, even if it is only driven act any idea whether it is a prank, a hack or a reaction groups, to create division amongst supporters of by ‘irreverence, playfulness, and spectacle.’ 25 For to government or corporate oppression. While there Wikileaks, and to promote disinformation to discredit Morozov, AnonOps is only a form of ‘slackevism,’ an- is an agreement against self-aggrandizement (even those who would end up using it – one target was other net delusion of grandeur. He argues that these through the use of pseudonyms) amongst the Anons, Glen Greenwald of Slate and The Guardian, who sup- attacks might even be counterproductive to the goals but various iterations have taken up specific political ports Wikileaks. Ironically, Barr advocated the same of protecting Internet freedom from corporate and cause. /b/ has, therefore, transformed from a message ‘illegal’ and ‘unethical’ tactics (black hat hacking and government control since they are spectacular but not board to a site where political operations are devised information leaks) that he denounced in Anonymous sustainable as a political strategy: and hatched. As a consequence Anonymous has split and Wikileaks. Barr’s emails also revealed the complic- into different factions with their own private channels ity of private security companies with governments Without greater bureaucratization, formal mecha- of communications: those who are in it for ‘lutz,’ the and corporations against dissident groups, exposing nisms for decision-making, and, more importantly, ‘lolcats’ who consider trolling to be their ‘motherfucking the extraordinary mobilization of power and resources the capacity to accept responsibility when those art’; and those ‘moralfags’ whose collectives have creat- to squash grassroots political movements critical of decisions bring unfortunate consequences, Anony- ed Anonymous Operations (AnonOps), which, as Cole- traditional political authority. It also demonstrated mous may end up posing as great of a threat to man points out, is not random but ‘ultra-coordinated that anonymity is key to such movements. It was only Internet freedom as its main nemesis, the U.S. motherfuckery.’ AnonOps are the iterations of Anony- when Barr boasted of infiltrating Anonymous that he government. 26 mous that have organized high profile hacks, giving it its exposed himself as a mole and a threat to the group, international reputation as hackers and pranksters. It is enabling their counter-offence.22 Morozov assumes that in order to wield political Figure 4. Operation Payback by Kolanich, 2011. Used with the combination of the two factions that gives Anony- power dissident groups must move away from the permission via the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike mous its complex, but distinct character. decentralization typical of the Internet and return to 3.0 Unported license.

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Although the image of the Fawkes’ mask had been And yet this type of dissensus does not give a collec- used in many posts, it was not until the Anons took tive voice to the anonymous – it does not give them to the streets in 2008 (when they protested against a ‘new’ or ‘different’ identity. It makes the criticism Scientology) that the mask became the most recog- of control and surveillance systems and, therefore, nizable meme of Anonymous. politics only possible if it remains anonymous. While the web-gathering that calls itself Anonymous claims Its acts of disappropriation – like the hacking of per- to be legion, terms like, the “multitude” (Antonio sonal accounts of Sony or BART customers, making Negri, Michael Hardt, Paolo Virno), 31 the “common” Figure 5. Still from V from “V for Vendetta,” by Nicholas Ramey, 2010. copies of their credit card numbers, and posting them (Virno) 32 or “commonwealth” (Negri, Hardt), 33 or on the Internet – are not aimed at stealing private the “spectral” do not apply here. Anonymous demon- information but rather at exposing how little those strates how the common cannot take on an ethical I have no interest in either demonizing or romanti- Not only does the Guy Fawkes effigy disidentify those companies (and the corporate world in general) are or coherent political message. It can only produce a cizing Anonymous or the operations attributed to it who wear it, but it has also been decontextualized concerned with protecting our personal information. heterogeneity of spontaneous actions, contradictory because to do so would construe them as an entity and modified so many times between 1605 and the By calling attention to the unavoidable vulnerability of messages, and embrace its contradictions, its act of with an identity, and thus ignore precisely what makes time it became commercially available that it can only passwords, emails and personal information, Anony- vigilante justice as much as its dark, racist, sexist, ho- them politically interesting – their pursuit – as an represent the most general features of the “epic fail mous demonstrates how secrecy, privacy and data mophobic and predatory qualities. There is no possible Anonymous put it – of the “destruction of the identifi- guy.” The Guy Fawkes mask has been part of British protection is altogether unsustainable. Operations call for purity, whether in the form of common good, cation role.” Unlike the Occupy Wall Street movement popular culture since the 17th century to commemo- Sony and BART proved how easy it was and still is normalcy, equality, or justice. Anonymous embraces that makes appeals to ethics and democratic values, rate the foiling of the Catholic conspirators’ plot to kill to expose personal information, thus intimating that every aspect of ‘humanity’ – the criminal, the nefari- Anonymous is neither ethical nor democratic. There King James I and the members of parliament. Every identity (and much of the property that is now acces- ous, sadistic, hacker, activist, or lolcat who is only in it is only the influence of the meme and its potential to 5th of November, effigies of Fawkes are still burned, sible through ‘proof’ of identity) are inherently inse- for the lutz. go viral. Influence is measured by the repetition of an but the mask has also been rebranded in more posi- cure, fluid, and appropriable by anyone who wishes image (the ‘lolcat,’ the Guy Fawkes mask, or the ‘pe- tive terms by and David Lloyd in their and has the skills to hack them. Bank robberies (now Although Anonymous is more readily connected to dobear’ they use to brand pedophiles), of an idea or of graphic novel, V for Vendetta (1981), and by Jaimes typically infrequent and limited to small branches) are actions than to criticism of ideas, each operation a call to action (Operation Sony, Operation Payback, McTeigue and the Wachowskis in the filmic adaptation perceived only as ‘local glitches’ that cause financial involves a form of targeted criticism. The relentless Bradical, Occupy, etc.). It is only the memes that go of the novel (2006). The mask is now worn by the losses but do not question the notion of private prop- trolling and flaming of anyone and everyone (includ- viral that end up enacted on. Men and women can be hero-avenger V to give a face to anonymous dissent erty. Instead, the frequency and the ease of exposures ing even oneself) or of any idea serve the purpose of seen wearing Anonymous masks at Occupy events of government sponsored violence, atrocities, surveil- of even the most powerful agencies and the safest of indifferentiation. That is, all individuals and ideas are they have contributed to organize, but those masks do lance and control of information. V for Vendetta also corporate databases make a general point about the subject to criticism – and for Anonymous “nothing is not signify consensus or (anonymous) identity; they suggests that some of those who use the mask during very notion of identity and of the new identity-based sacred.” Radical criticism and ridicule alike operate as rather instantiate disidentification, disapprorpriation, the 5th of November celebrations may be in fact com- property and transactions. It is far easier to break into a Nietzschean form of transvaluation of values that indifferentiation and dissensus. memorating Guy Fawkes’ plot rather than its undoing. a database and copy the information than it is to break force us to rethink concepts that stand at the core of While Anonymous does not seem to be interested in into a bank and walk out with bags of cash, and the our legal structures and ideological discourses – con- For Anonymous, identity is a meme that has typically Jacobean politics, it appropriated the mask as a sign reality is that most financial transactions rely on data- cepts like the social, public space, the unique individual, taken the form of a commercially bought or cop- of the spirit of resistance to state and corporate op- bases instead of cash. 30 While Anonymous may pres- and rights belonging to that individual. ied mask – the imagined effigy of the 17th century pression, the epic failure of Fawkes, the carnivalesque ent their actions as motivated by an ethics or transpar- Gunpowder Plot conspirator, Guy Fawkes, who was subversion of state and corporate control of informa- ency and disclosure, the end result of their hacks is to tortured and executed for his attempt to blow up the tion, and the representation of collective anonymity as show that, no matter whether one thinks of identity, English Parliament on November 5, 1605. 29 a political force of dissensus, that is, of politics as an secrecy, and privacy as ethical or not, they are simply interruption (rather than establishment) of consensus. and factually unsustainable.

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CITIZENS OF THE CORPORATE CONTRACT

“Anonymous is ideas without origin.”— Anonymous interactions between individuals that the market place the various private banks to target and arrest Occupy tions are secondary to human existence. 43 Once can serve as a metaphor.” 37 The remarkable crimi- Wall Street protesters, and the sharing of information these categories have collapsed so has our notion of Anonymous does not challenge as much as it exposes nalization of Anonymous and the mobilization of law between the government and telecommunications ethics (as predicated on the common good). Anony- the impact of the information age on the ‘social con- enforcement resources to eradicate it may also signify under the PATRIOT and Civil Contingencies acts. 39 In mous demonstrates how ethics is rhetorical. Excessive tract’ between the citizen and the state. It reveals that a recognition that it opposes the logic of the market many cases these control mechanisms are not known privatization endangers private rights by feeding a the ‘social contract’ – even as a convenient fiction as (they have not yet hacked for private gain) and resists to the citizens, which means that control and surveil- system where the egoism of those individuals who Immanuel Kant and Thomas Hobbes envisioned – is the commercialization of public space. Yet, one can lance trump, privacy and freedom of speech. Ironically, make laws and govern states has been eating away at no longer tenable either as a symbol of consent argue that the profanity, misogyny, hate speech, troll- at the same time the US government extends war- the notion of individual rights themselves. Since the (John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau) or of the pro- ing, stupidity of 4chan’s /b/ site looks a lot more like rantless wiretapping, the Supreme Court allows for individual cannot be neutral, we must find new terms tection of citizens from each other’s baser desires public discourse than other more controlled and campaign donors to anonymously donate unspecified for thinking about ethics (rather than personal respon- (Hobbes). 34 While contracts mediate many ‘social’ message boards. It gives space to all discourse and sums of money under the Citizen’s United ruling. sibility), that are no longer predicated on the logic of activities (especially, in our context, those involving tactics, including those used by governments to hack, either/or, ethical or unethical. Anonymous claims to telecommunications) this proliferation of contracts swarm and spam its perceived enemies. These policies have heighted public awareness about be a-ethical, which is in fact shown by the nature of its obviously marks a shift away from the centralized the relationship of anonymity to free speech, but as attack on BART following the company’s attempt to power of the state toward decentralized market- The hype about social media’s ability to connect indi- Michael Froomkin points out, there is no explicit legal block Internet service in its stations to avoid potential driven relations. Our contemporary contract society viduals, to open up a space for creativity, to dissemi- right to anonymity, as recently evidenced by Doe v. public demonstrations against the acts of its police may stress agency and autonomy over the role of nate information, and to allow for free speech seems Reed. 40 Brandeis famously associated privacy with department. BART’s action did amount to censorship government, but this is only to conceal that such con- to be increasingly limited to those contractual ar- the right to be ‘left alone.’ 41 Today, however, nobody but how do we justify Anonymous publishing indi- tractual relations “undercut rather than reinforce the rangements. This of course means that rights to free is out of the reach of technologies of imaging and vidual names and addresses of their customers. At the autonomy” or liberty of its client-citizens. 35 speech to public protest and acts of civil disobedience identification, thus reducing privacy to the ability to same time, how can we justify the fact that BART (but on the Internet are less clear than in traditional public remain anonymous, that is, to be unidentifiable when also Sony) failed to encrypt customer’s personal infor- With all of its private contracts, social media has fur- space. Our legal doctrine needs to catch up to the being reached or not left alone. It is, therefore, un- mation? Anonymous has also pointed out how deeply ther eroded this notion of the social. It was Margaret consequences of technological advancements that clear why anonymity should only apply to an individual embedded hacking is in media culture: the fact that Thatcher who clearly articulated the divestment of undermine individual privacy: author or donor, and not to activists. The law requires private companies like HB Gary and Strafor will con- government in ‘the social’ when she stated: a public /private distinction, but in this distinction it tract with governments and other private companies People are increasingly connecting their per- only uses the social as a means of undermining it. 42 to target groups and individuals; or the relationship I think we’ve been through a period where too sonal computers to the Internet and peer-to-peer What I mean by this is that the individual that appears of The UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron to News many people have been given to understand that file-sharing networks and leaving their private in the law and in theories of democracy is presented of the World‘s hackers Andy Coulson and Rebecca if they have a problem, it’s the government’s job to information vulnerable. Constitutional precedent as both part of and opposed to society. Take for ex- Brookes. cope with it. ‘I-have a problem, I’ll get a grant.’ ‘I’m and statutory protections for electronic com- ample the construction of property, privacy and the homeless, the government must house me.’ They’re munications and storage did not anticipate law right to free speech: it is the individual alone that ap- casting their problem on society. And, you know, enforcement’s collaboration with private parties pears in law, not the social. The social remains as an APPROPRIATING THE FACE OF FAILURE there is no such thing as society. There are indi- or individuals’ powerful surveillance capabilities in abstraction – the general will for Rousseau, the Levia- vidual men and women, and there are families. 36 cyberspace. 38 than of Hobbes, and ‘the people’ in whose name most “If you fail in epic proportions, it may just become a modern democratic constitutions invoke. winning failure.” — Anonymous The individual has been recast as the nexus between The sharing of information between government and consumer and producer. As Marylyn Strathern puts it, commercial entities exceeds the social contract. For Notions of the social and the individual are obsolete, Some alleged members of Anonymous have come out “We live under a regime that would like to render invis- Instance, the IRS contracts out its collection of debts and the triumph of identification (including individual of secrecy and others have been outed, but this has ible any social relationship that cannot be modeled on to private companies, the Domestic Security Alliance self-expression) has made it appear as if human rela- not destabilized Anonymous’ goals, which are not to Council has brought together Homeland Security with disguise individual identities but to destroy the very

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References and Notes

function of identity and identification. Anonymous is indefinite, open-end, and unknown collectives that Embassy in London and beyond) or Edward Snowden 1. I am referring to works like Clay Shirky’s Here Comes not an identity but only a name – a name that marks create different and increasingly generic significations (whose political asylum in Russia or South America Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organiza- the absence of a name. If anonymous is anyone and every time the mask is deployed. This is a never- remains uncertain), it could be that, years from now, tion (New York: Penguin Books, 2009); James Hughes’s everyone, or any idea and every idea, then anything ending process and the image of anonymity is always stylized masks of ‘Assange’ or ‘Snowden’ will be sold Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond can be claimed by Anonymous, thus voiding any con- subject to numerous modifications. What distinguish- and used for the same purpose that we now buy the to the Redesigned Human of the Future (New York: West trol over who does or says what in its name. Oddly, es the mask from individuals actors or even gestures masks of ‘Guy Fawkes.’ In both cases, ‘epic fail’ may be View Press, 2004); Mark Pesce’s “The State, the Press this helps us to rethink the role of Julian Assange, who, of identification with such figures – as evidenced by generative of somebody else’s success. ■ and Hyperdemocracy,” in The Drum (13 December 2010); happy to have become the globally-known celebrity the signs that some Anons carry like ‘I am Julian,’ ‘I Ray Kurzwiel’s The Singularity is Near (New York: Penguin face of Wikileaks, would seem to be diametrically op- am Bradley Manning,’ or ‘don’t worry we are from the Books, 2006); and Rebecca MacKinnon’s Consent of the posed to Anonymous’ commitment to untraceability internet’ – is that the mask does not represent any in- Acknowledgements Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom and anonymity. 44 dividual, a cause or even a medium but rather infinite (New York: Basic Books, 2012). modulation or the power of a meme to go viral. Anon- I would like to thank Mario Biagioli, Anupam Chander, and 2. News Media sites from The Atlantic, Business Week, Al- In fact I suggest that at this point Assange functions ymous demonstrates that the meme like the process Donna Leishman for all of their insightful comments on this Jazeera, The Guardian, US News World Report, to radio more as a face than a person – a quasi-mask that has of going viral (that marketers have tried so hard to paper. shows on PBS and Democracy Now, and television news some interesting similarities to and differences from harness) is also a practice of dissensus that operates on NBC, CNN, CBS, BBC, and many others all reported the the effigy of Guy Fawkes as appropriated by Anony- by the means of disappropriation (handing images and positive effects of social media (Facebook and Twitter) mous. While Assange – both his face and name – is ideas over to an unorganized public) and indifferentia- had on the ‘Arab Spring.’ obviously highly specific and individual, it does func- tion (allowing for multiple competing or even contra- 3. The term lifestream dates back to the mid-nineties and tion at some level as the ‘brand’ of Wikileaks not un- dictory ideas to use the same image). Depending on was defined as a system of organizing one’s personal like the ways the term ‘anonymous’ and the ‘generic’ what happens people like Assange (at the Ecuadorian electronic information into chronological order and into Guy Fawkes function for Anonymous. Assange’s real one central location. For a history of the use of the term face functions like a mask not because it hides his and its current meaning as the networked performance identity (which it certainly does not) but in the sense of identity that exceeds user-generated control, see Anne that it ends up masking the operations of Wikileaks. Helmond, “Lifetracing. The Traces of a Networked Life,” in There is nothing about the specificity of Assange’s Networked: a (networked_book) about (networked_art), face that makes this possible – only its hyper-visibility July 2, 2009, http://helmond.networkedbook.org/ (ac- and recognizability which is the joint result of As- cessed March 2013). sange’s desire for celebrity and the surveillance sys- 4. See: Jeremy Clark, Philippe Gauvin, and Carlisle Adams, tem’s relentless attempt to trace certain actions to a “Exit Node Repudiation for Anonymity Networks,” in Les- name and a face. It is precisely because Assange has sons From the Identity Trail, eds. Ian Kerr, Valerie Steeves become a global icon that his face has developed a and Carole Lucock, 399 (Oxford: Oxford University Press: ‘blinding’ effect over Wikileaks. It is by becoming an 2009). They argue, “in cryptography, repudiation means icon of identity and identifiability (for Assange) that disclaiming responsibility for an action. Cryptographers it functions as a mask (for other individuals). The Guy have proposed anonymity network protocols that would Fawkes effigy, instead, functions as a generic mask allow network node operators to avoid undue liability for of generic (not tradition, individual) anonymity. This Figure 6. Anonymous supporters of Bradley Manning at illegal communications that have been anonymized by the mask has lost the ability to identify long-gone Guy an SF rally for Bradley Manning’s article 32 hearing and network.” While they are concerned in individual privacy Fawkes, or anyone else. Unlike the mask used by the birthday, by the Bradley Manning Support Network, 2011. such as the practice of using pseudonyms – handles like protagonist V in V for Vendetta, Anonymous does not Used with permission via the Creative Commons Attribu- screen names, user names or e-mail addresses – they represent the ‘vox populi.’ It presents, instead, random tion-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. argue that the use of anonymity networks that would turn

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IP addresses into pseudonyms making it difficult to discern The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/ 10. Peter Bright’s “Anonymous Speaks: the inside story of the 2012 they continue to attack governments (Israel, Syria, UK, who is legally responsible. See also Ronald Deibert, John jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data (accessed June 6, 2013), HB Gary Attack,” Ars technica, February 15, 2011, http:// US) for overreach, and religious groups like the Westboro Palfrey, Rafal Rhohozinski and Jonathan Zittrain, Access http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/series/glenn- arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/02/anonymous-speaks- Baptist Church (whose members threatened to picket the Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights, and Rule in greenwald-security-liberty+world/prism (accessed June the-inside-story-of-the-hbgary-hack/ (accessed March 16, funerals of children slaughtered in the Sandy Hook mass- Cyberspace (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2010). 17, 2013), http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/11/ 2013). shooting) for what they see as hate crimes. 5. See: Daniel C. Howe and Helen Nissenbaum, “Trackmenot: microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data (accessed July 11, 11. The attacks on the FBI, CIA, UN, and NATO were con- 15. This is remarkable given that its operating system is based Resisting Surveillance in Web Search,” in Lessons From the 2013). After Greenwald’s original interviews with Edward ducted because Anonymous found these law enforcement on pre-Web 2.0 or, as Christopher Poole puts it, “a decade- Identity Trail, 417-440. See also Wendy Hui Kyong Chun’s Snowden there have been thousands of articles on the agencies abusing their authority. Similarly, members of old code and decade-or-two-old paradigm” of the bulletin “On Software, or the Persistence of Visual Knowledge,” in NSA and Prism. Anonymous claimed that Sony, and BART did not offer board, MUDs, MOOs or chat room sites of the mid-nineties. Grey Room, 18 (2004): 26-51, where she argues that soft- 7. For a history of the various practices and uses of the enough security to its clients. For an in-depth of Anony- Christopher Poole, “The Case for Anonymity Online,” TED ware functions like ideology. Taking up Chun’s proposal moniker anonymous see Robert J. Griffin, ed., The Faces mous operations see Gabriella Coleman’s “Anonymous: 2010, http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_m00t_poole_ Alexander Galloway argues that “software is not merely a of Anonymity: Anonymous and Pseudonymous Publication From the Lutz to Collective Action,” The New Media the_case_for_anonymity_online.html (accessed October 11, vehicle for ideology; instead, the ideological contradictions form the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century (London: Commons Project, http://mediacommons.futureofthe- 2013). of technical transcoding and fetishistic abstraction are Palgrave, 2003). book.org/tne/pieces/anonymous-lulz-collective-action 16. Julian Dibbell, “Radical Opacity,” MIT Technology Review, enacted and ‘resolved’ within the very form of software 8. Jacques Rancière, Dissensus: On Politics and Aesthetics, (accessed March 15, 2013). September/October 2010, http://www.juliandibbell.com/ itself” Alexander Galloway, “Language Wants to be trans. Steven Corcoran (London: Continuum, 2010). Ran- . See also Julian Dibbell’s “The Assclown Offensive: How to articles/radical-opacity/ (accessed March 16, 2013). Overlooked: On Software and Ideology,” in The Journal of cière states that politics is itself dissensus. It is an operation Enrage the ,” Wired 17:10, Septem- 17. Michael S. Bernstein, Andrés Monroy-Hernández, Drew Harry, Visual Culture 5 (2006): 319. that makes visible its own configurations and the subject ber 21, 2009, http://www.wired.com/culture/culturere- Paul André, Katrina Panovich and Greg Vargas “4chan and 6. Stuxnet is malware computer virus (a worm) that was that it creates at the same time. See also: Lee Knuttila’s views/magazine/17-10/mf_chanology?currentPage=all /b/: An Analysis of Anonymity and Ephemerality in a Large developed and deployed by the US and Israeli govern- “User Unknown: 4chan, Anonymity and Contingency” in (accessed March 16, 2013). Online Community,” in The Proceedings of the Fifth Interna- ments to break into the Iranian nuclear centrifuge First Monday 16, no. 10 (October 3, 2011), http://firstmon- 12. The PATRIOT Act can be found online at: http://www. tional AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, (2011), equipment by directing specific commands to control day.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view- fincen.gov/statutes_regs/patriot/ and the Civil Contingen- http://www.aaai.org (accessed March 16, 2013). Their study the spin rate. See: Nate Anderson’s “Confirmed: US and Article/3665/3055 (accessed March 15 2012). He argues cies Act can be found at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ uses a large dataset of more than five million posts to quan- Israeli Stuxnet, lost control of it,” in Ars Technica, June that the anonymity provided by 4Chan lies “at the meeting ukpga/2004/36/contents (accessed March 16, 2013). tify ephemerality in /b/. “We find that most threads spend 1, 2012, http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/07/ point between instability, contingency, change and alterity.” 13. For a history of government secrecy in the US see Peter just five seconds on the first page and less than five minutes how-digital-detectives-deciphered-stuxnet-the-most- 9. “Peeking behind the curtain at Anonymous: Gabriella Cole- Galison, “Secrecy in Three Acts,” Social Research 77, no. 3 on the site before expiring.” Their study also provides “an menacing-malware-in-history/2/ (accessed March 11, man at TEDGlobal 2012,” TED , 2012, http://blog.ted. (2010): 941-974. analysis of identity signals on 4chan, finding that over 90% of 2013) and David E. Sanger’s “Obama Orders Sped Up com/2012/06/27/peeking-behind-the-curtain-at-anon- 14. They have garnered public attention starting with the posts are made by fully anonymous users, with other identity Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran,” New York Times, June ymous-gabriella-coleman-at-tedglobal-2012/ (accessed worldwide protest of Scientology (Project Chanology) in signals adopted and discarded at will.” 1, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/world/mid- March 15, 2013). 2008, but became a media phenomena with Operations 18. The assumption is that 4chan is actually anonymous and dleeast/obama-ordered-wave-of-cyberattacks-against- . For more information on Operation Darknet see Sean Gal- Payback, Avenge Assange, and Operation Bradical (DDoS Poole (AKA “M00t”) does not share IP addresses with the iran.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&seid=auto&smid=tw- lagher’s “Anonymous Takes Down Darknet Child Porn Site attacks against Amazon, PayPal, MasterCard, Visa and the FBI. nytimespolitics&pagewanted=all& (accessed March 11, on Tor Network,” Ars Technica, October 23, 2011, http://ar- Swiss bank Post Finance, and NPR in support of Wikileaks 19. I am quoting Gabriella Coleman from the documentary film 2013). See also: “US Terrorism Agency to Tap a Vast stechnica.com/business/2011/10/anonymous-takes-down- and Bradley Manning) in 2010. Their Operation Tunisia, We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists, directed by Database of Citizens,” The Wall Street Journal, December darknet-child-porn-site-on-tor-network/ (accessed March Iran, and Egypt, Operation Sony, Operation Bart, Operation Brian Knappenberger (2012: Ro*Co Films International). 12, 2012, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788 15, 2013). For more information on Anonymous hacking HB Darknet, and support for Occupy movements throughout 20. Take for example rules 27-31 in /b/’s Rules of the Internet: 7324478304578171623040640006.html#project%3DNC Gary, see Kim Zeller’s, “Anonymous Hacks Security Firm the world, put them in a political advocacy role, while the . 27. Always question a person’s sexual preferences without TCguideemail%26articleTabs%3Darticle (accessed March Investigating It: Releases E-mail,” Wired, February 7, 2011, attacks against the Justice Department, the FBI, RIAA and any real reason. 11, 2013). http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/02/anonymous- the MPAA for their support of SOPA in 2011 aligned them . 28. Always question a person’s gender – just in case it is . For articles on Prism see Glen Greenwald’s series in hacks-hbgary/(accessed March 16, 2013). within the open source and anti-censorship movements. In really a man.

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. 29. In the internet all girls are men and all kids are under- 28. Anupam Chander, “Jasmine Revolutions,” Cornell Law Hobbes, he points that by entering into a social contract 37. Marylin Strathern, “The Concept of Society is Theoretically cover FBI agents. Review 97 (2012): 21. human’s give up some of their private interests in favor of Obsolete,” in Key Debates in Anthropology, ed. Tim Ingold . 30. There are no girls on the internet. 29. See: John S. J. Gerard, What was the Gunpowder Plot? “just and impartial protection of property.” For Locke the (London: Routledge, 1996), 65. . 31. TITS or GTFO – the choice is yours. (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1897); Mark Nicholls, In- state can be overthrown if it does not insure individual 38. Monica R. Shah, “The Case For a Statutory Suppression 21. Yokai Benkler “Hacks of Valor: Why Anonymous is Not a vestigating Gunpowder Plot (Manchester: Manchester UP, property rights. Ironically, Locke argues that humans Remedy to Regulate Illegal Private Party Searches in Threat to National Security,” Foreign Affairs, April 23, 2012, 1991); Alice Hogge, God’s Secret Agents: Queen Elizabeth’s are naturally social, but natural law protects individual Cyberspace,” Columbia Law Review 105, no. 250 (2005): http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137382/yochai- Forbidden Priests and the Hatching of the Gunpowder property. The contract symbolizes less a legal contract 277-278. benkler/hacks-of-valor (accessed March 16, 2013). See Plot (New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2005); James Sharpe than social mores and consensus. Jean-Jacque Rousseau 39. See the FBI documents on: http://www.justiceonline.org/ also: Coleman, Gabriella, “Our Weirdness is Free,” Triple Remember, Remember: A Cultural History of Guy Fawkes presents the social contract as an articulation of the gen- commentary/fbi-files-ows.html (accessed March 17, 2013). Canopy 15, (2012), http://canopycanopycanopy.com/15/ Day (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2005). eral will (see The Social Contract, online at: http://www. 40. Doe v. Reed addressed whether signing a petition for our_weirdness_is_free (accessed March 16, 2013). 30. Emerging challenges to such information dependent constitution.org/jjr/socon.htm). Similarly Kant, begins his a ballot measure is a private, political act or whether 22. Barr, however, was not the only one to reveal himself by transactions and exchanges include leaks between gov- discussion of the doctrine of right by relating property to the names of those signers can be made public. See boasting or providing personal information: Commander X ernment agencies, financial institutions, companies and freedom. In each case the individual (desires or rights to the case brief at: http://www.supremecourt.gov/ (a hacker associated with AnonOps) revealed his identity credit unions; the ease at which digital information can property) are presented a priori, while the social is either opinions/09pdf/09-559.pdf. to Barr when he (X) acknowledged he was a member of be altered, erased, or copied without leaving a trace; and presented as a natural or artificial by-product of human 41. See Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis on “The right to the “People’s Liberation Front” – an organization of “inter- the blurring of the line between what is public and private relations. In each case the social and the individual are Privacy,” The Harvard Law Review IV, no. 5 (1890), http:// net freedom fighters.” Similarly, another hacker associated information. See Miriam Lipps, “Rethinking Citizen-govern- presented as metaphysical constructs that are often set in groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/privacy/ with AnonOps (CabinCr3w) exposed himself to the FBI ment Relationships in the Age of Digital Identity: Insights opposition to each other. Privacy_brand_warr2.html (accessed March 17, 2013). when he sent a photo (with GPS coordinates embedded from Research,”’ Information Policy 15 (2010): 273-289. . Immanuel Kant “Idea for a Universal History on a Cosmo- 42. See Paul De Hert, “The Case of Anonymity in Western in it) of his girlfriend’s breasts in his hack of various law 31. Antonio Negri and Micheal Hardt, Multitude: War and politan Plan” Political Philosophy: Benjamin Constant’s Refutation of enforcement agencies. Democracy in the Age of Empire (New YorK: Penguin . (1784), 4. See: http://philosophyproject.org/wp-content/ Republican and Utilitarian Arguments Against Anonymity,” 23. Ronald Deibert, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski and Jona- Books, 2005). uploads/2013/02/IDEA-OF-A-UNIVERSAL-HISTORY-ON- Digital Anonymity and the Law, eds. C. Nicoll, J. E. J. Prins, than Zittrain, Access Contested (Cambridge, MA: The MIT 32. Paolo Virno, E Così Via all’Infinito. Logica e Antropologia A-COSMPOLITAN-PLAN.pdf (accessed October 11, 2013) and M. Jm. van Dellen (The Hague: Asser Press, 2003). Press, 2012). (Milano: Bollati Boringhieri, 2010): 17-20. 35. Pekka Sulkunen, “Re-Inventing the Social Contract,” Acta 43. Strathern, “The Concept of Society is Theoretically Obso- 24. Evgeny Morozov, The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Inter- 33. Antonio Negri and Micheal Hardt, Commonwealth (Cam- Sociologica 50, no. 3 (2007): 325-333. lete,” 66. net Freedom (New York: Public Affairs, 2011). bridge, MA: Harvard UPress, 2009) 36. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, talking to Women’s 44. Wikileaks can be found at: http://wikileaks.org/ 25. Benkler “Hacks of Valor: Why Anonymous is Not a Threat 34. See chapter 13 of Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan (1642- Own Magazine, October 31, 1987. The full quote reads: to National Security,” Foreign Affairs, April 4, 2012, http:// 51, can be found at: http://www.gutenberg.org/ “I think we’ve been through a period where too many www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137382/yochai-benkler/ files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htm) where he argues that the people have been given to understand that if they have a hacks-of-valor (accessed March 16, 2013). human condition is a war of all against all. Hence the indi- problem, it’s the government’s job to cope with it. ‘I have 26. Evgeny Morozov, “Why Hillary Clinton Should Join vidual is positioned in opposition to the social. The social a problem, I’ll get a grant.’ ‘I’m homeless, the government Anonymous: The State Department and the Online Mob contract that insures the rule of the state is represented must house me.’ They’re casting their problem on society. Are Both Destroying Internet Freedom,” Slate, April 23, by a monarch who maintains order leaves little to no And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are 2012, http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_ recourse to the civilians in case of government overreach. individual men and women, and there are families. And no tense/2012/04/internet_freedom_threat_posed_by_hill- Hobbes (as Kant will do after him) argues man is naturally government can do anything except through people, and ary_clinton_s_state_department_and_anonymous_.2.html ‘anti-social,’ and therefore the social contract is a legal people must look to themselves first. It’s our duty to look (accessed March 16, 2013). document. While in The Two Treatises of Government after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. 27. Alexander Galloway and Eugene Thacker, The Exploit: (1689, online at: http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_ People have got the entitlements too much in mind, with- A Theory of Networks (Minneapolis, MN: Minnesota UP, staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=222). John Locke out the obligations. There’s no such thing as entitlement, 2007), 41. argues instead that humans are social by nature but, like unless someone has first met an obligation.”

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