Insurgency on the Internet: Organizing the Anonymous Online Community Author: Felipe Gorenstein-Massa Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104073 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2013 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. BOSTON COLLEGE Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts INSURGENCY ON THE INTERNET: ORGANIZING THE ANONYMOUS ONLINE COMMUNITY A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the Doctorate of Philosophy in Organization Studies By: Felipe G. Massa [email protected] Committee in charge: Candace Jones (chair) Michael G. Pratt Siobhán O'Mahony June 2013 Copyright © 2013 Felipe Gorenstein Massa All rights reserved 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................................................... 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................... 5 ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................... 7 KEY WORDS: ................................................................................................................................... 7 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 8 2 THEORY: RE-CASTING COMMUNITY IN A CONNECTED WORLD ............................... 14 Transcending Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft: From Early Theories to Recent Developments ...... 14 Online Community: Fundamental Dimensions and Distinctions ..................................................... 20 Locations ...................................................................................................................................... 22 Boundaries .................................................................................................................................... 24 Interactions ................................................................................................................................... 26 Identities ....................................................................................................................................... 30 Community Purpose and Organization in Transition ....................................................................... 35 Coordinating Purposeful Community Action in Online Environments ........................................... 41 3 INTERNET-BASED ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODS .............................................................. 47 Conducting Internet-based Ethnography: From Groundwork to Interpretation ............................... 50 Preliminary Groundwork, Site Selection and Sampling ............................................................... 50 Data Collection ............................................................................................................................. 53 Data Analysis and Interpretation .................................................................................................. 56 Cyber-ethics .................................................................................................................................. 61 4 SHIFTING PURPOSE: ANONYMOUS’ ENGAGEMENT IN ACTIVISM ............................ 62 Period 1 (Oct. 2003 – Dec. 2007): Forming an oppositional community focused on recreational pranksterism ............................................................................................................................................ 64 Period 2 (Jan. 2008): Mobilizing for externally-focused hacktivism .............................................. 69 Period 3 (Feb. 2008 – May 2009): De-radicalizing and de-mobilizing with the adoption of audience-engendered traditional activism ............................................................................................... 74 Period 4 (Jun. 2009 – Feb. 2011): Reconstituting community through a pluralistic relational platform ................................................................................................................................................... 80 Discussion ........................................................................................................................................ 84 Online Community Transition into Activism ............................................................................... 85 The Influence of the Online Environment .................................................................................... 88 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 95 5 TAMING TROLLS: COORDINATING COLLECTIVE ACTION IN THE ANONYMOUS ONLINE COMMUNITY ............................................................................................................................ 97 3 The Evolution of Coordinating Practices in the Anonymous Online Community ........................... 97 Period 1 (Oct. 2003 – Dec. 2007) - Ad hoc coordination of small-scale raids ............................. 98 Period 2 (Jan. 2008) – Coordinating Large-scale Hacktivism .................................................... 102 Period 3 (Feb. 2008 – May 2009) – Repertoire expansion for traditional protest ...................... 105 Period 4 (Jun. 2009 – Feb. 2011) – Tandem Coordination of Activism and Recreation via IRC Gateway ............................................................................................................................................ 108 Discussion ...................................................................................................................................... 112 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 121 6 INSURGENCY ON THE INTERNET: CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH ......... 122 Contributions to Theory ................................................................................................................. 123 New Forms: Community in an Online Environment .................................................................. 123 Understanding Purposeful Community Action in Online Environments ................................... 127 Coordination: Organizing the Anti-Bureaucracy ....................................................................... 133 Limitations and Future Research .................................................................................................... 135 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 138 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................... 139 TABLES AND FIGURES .................................................................................................................. 155 Table 2.1 ......................................................................................................................................... 155 Table 2.2 ......................................................................................................................................... 156 Table 3.1 ......................................................................................................................................... 157 Table 3.2 ......................................................................................................................................... 158 Table 4.1 ......................................................................................................................................... 159 Table 5.1 ......................................................................................................................................... 160 Table 5.2 ......................................................................................................................................... 161 Figure 2.1........................................................................................................................................ 162 Figure 3.1........................................................................................................................................ 163 Figure 3.2........................................................................................................................................ 164 Figure 4.1........................................................................................................................................ 165 Figure 4.2........................................................................................................................................ 166 Figure 4.3........................................................................................................................................ 167 Figure 5.1........................................................................................................................................ 168 Figure 5.2........................................................................................................................................ 169 Appendix A: Abridged List of Anonymous Argot ........................................................................