Greenpeace was first the name of a fishing boat. Eventually it became a movement. It has been reflected in green politics and thinking and acting of the people changed.
A similar trend can be observed once again. In this case the fishing boat crosses through the Internet. The new movement also began in this case with some rude actions: the mass ordering pizza to the address of unpleasant characters, name-calling on the phone, blocking attacks on Web sites. Ends, it may order that a new network of political consciousness developed.
I came for the lulz but I stayed for the outrage “, quoted the American anthropologist Gabriella Coleman, an unnamed author of a message board of the group Anonymous. Coleman spoke at the network meetings. Re: publication a paper on this movement, whose followers, and goals are so difficult to grasp
The quoted phrase means about as much as. I came for the fun, but I was the outrage stems from the absurdity of a political movement, is Coleman’s thesis.There is some evidence. Those who under the name Anonymous originally ordered pizza have long been policy concerns. You do not only paralyze nerves and opponents, but also help target such as the demonstrators in northern Africa.
Demonstrations, which were arranged on the Internet and the Internet made public, there were few. The demonstration in Egypt was particularly impressive. But this is only the beginning of digital activism. Anonymous are the next step: Groups with no obvious structure, without leadership, without their own agenda. There are platforms that are open to everyone. They get together to address a specific problem to attack a target. And do one thing: generate attention and point out problems. Whether it’s censorship, monitoring or ill-treatment.
Their attacks may seem strange to outsiders to brutal. But that was at the blockade experiments with fishing boats indeed the case. The idea behind the network attacks via the so-called Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is ultimately the same: There are already so serious debate about whether this illegal form of protest may be justified if it serves a meaningful cause. And whether DDoS therefore can be regarded as civil disobedience.
Others want to channel these protests and divert into classical political work. The Digital Society is one such attempt. Co-founder Mark Beckedahl placed it on the Re: publica as a new campaign platform in front of net activism. He clearly was referring to the history of Greenpeace. Beckedahl and about twenty other founding members wanted to create a professional structure for organizing protests and lobbying for net-policy issues.
This concerns primarily the collection of money-paying jobs and building a solid organizational structure. The exact opposite of so Anonymous. But the goal is the same: with the efforts to generate awareness of certain issues. Sun also once started Greenpeace.