Actively Hack...Hactively Act

The kitten stomping story is too much for me too talk about because it really truly bothers me. So I will try to refer more to the cat in the bin lady. Even though I found that to be pretty damn messed up also, it sort of made me giggle. No offense to anyone else that might have taken great offense. Understandable.

^^That’s funny. Don’t deny it. =p (well you would’ve had to watch the actual crime video first though. (here))

After reading all these articles, I think hactivism is a very cool concept. But I also believe that there are pros and cons. It’s definitely not an all WINNING (Sheen -- ha!) concept.

It is great that “human-flesh search engines” can find insane people, but things can get out of hand with stalking issues and vandalism and all sorts of other privacy issues. The pro is that they can find that terrible person but the con is that it DOES violate civil or human rights to some extent.

Yes, hacktivism is/can be effective, obviously from simply reading the examples in our articles. Things can go viral within minutes of a posting online on a popular forum, especially in tech savvy countries like China. Not only that, but most countries (minus USA) have common morals and beliefs and cultures, therefore it is less likely to have multiple debating parties. For example, if I’m I go on a Middle Eastern Muslim online forum and post that I know someone that burned a Quran in the locality, than there would be outrage, whereas if I posted that in an American online forum somewhere, it would be debated and tossed around, perhaps even ignored because of all the mixed cultures and beliefs. And this is also why I don’t believe more international regulation is possible, too many people think alike in these designated foreign countries, they are much more united where they can overthrow something and not be insanely affected.

In our world with the major influx of information readily available, sometimes we are bombarded so much that we often don’t know what to think about what we see. For example, the cat in the bin thing and sad to say even the stomping thing, it is clearly animal cruelty but it can be comical to a lot of us. Mixed messages are spread around the U.S.

Point is, it is/can be effective depending on where exactly it is taking place, which country, what website, and what audience.

As far as political protest online, I feel it would definitely allow for more open discussion, easier approach to invite and gather large groups of people (Egypt protests), and immediate feedback. However, it would also allow idiots to be able to express their opinions easier, spam to spread, and unauthorized pages and profiles.

I’m not against hactivism although it can get out of hand, I believe it allows transparency and openness of discussion and opinions (even where it is not allowed). As we come of age, develop new technologies and generations grow, we communicate more through cyberspace, so it is inevitable that hacktivism isn’t going to keep growing. It would just be smart to learn about it before diving in, so it can be done more effectively.