Should Christians support the vigilante hacking group Anonymous, in their upcoming attack on Facebook?
I must confess that I was one of the folk cheering from the sidelines when the hacktivist group Anonymous attacked, took down, and defaced the website of the hate group: The Westboro Baptist Church – The nasty “God hates fags” folk who like to picket funerals for some unknown reason.
I was amused when a poll conducted on a hacking forum revealed Christianity to be the religion of choice for their members.
I was disturbed when the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) requested unfettered website censorship powers from Nominet.
I was even more disturbed to learn that two US bills – “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) in the House of Representatives, and the “Protect IP Act” (PIPA) in the Senate – might actually inhibit sound doctrine online and impede the Internet fight against “False Teachers”!
In order to to make it clear to the US government just how strong the opponents of Internet laws such as SOPA and PIPA are, Anonymous are proposing an attack against Facebook.
Now, it’s interesting to note at this point, that an extensive study conducted by National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) and the American Center for Law and Justice entitled: An Examination of the Threat of Anti-Christian Censorship and Other Viewpoint Discrimination on New Media Platforms, found the following relating to Facebook in their key findings:
Facebook has partnered with gay rights advocates to halt content on its social networking site deemed to be “anti-homosexual,” and it is participating in gay-awareness programs, all of which suggest that Christian content critical of homosexuality, same-sex marriage, or similar practices will be at risk of censorship.
And it was earlier this month that Facebook apologised for deleting DIY abortion posts.
Given all of this, should Christians support the activites of Anonymous; or if not fully support, to perhaps feel some sympathy with their cause? Or are their activities just simply immoral and unethical from a Christian vantage.
Tags: Christianity, Internet & Technology, Law Moral Ethical
January 26th, 2012 at 5:40 pm
No. No they shouldn’t.
Direct action is for the young and rash and they generally haven’t thought things through properly. Should they be able to affect Facebook and thus their earnings, then in a way it is theft.
Also, attacking Facebook to make a statement about SOPA and PIPA is illogical. Facebook themselves are against SOPA! This is just small-minded (although very talented) individuals with too much power and not enough sense or morals.
All protest groups seem to succumb to some sort of power-complex. I don’t know why.
January 26th, 2012 at 8:14 pm
For whatever reason once governments under the pretext of law enforcement give special interest groups the power to censor and close internet sites then the internet is finished.
Now why would they want you again pacifily watching TV and reading their carefully crafted words?
Technically when you whistle copyrighted music in public you are in breach of copyright, are YOU a crimminal?
January 27th, 2012 at 9:47 am
Hear, hear! I agree wholeheartedly with Nicolas Dove. I think the action is illogical and does not even hit those at which it is aimed. There are plenty of totalitarian states that would rejoice at taking down Facebook!
I find the video itself rather sinister. On one level it might be viewed as a ‘victimless’ and effective stunt. But I think it’s more about attention seeking and inappropriately exercising power; and it lacks a moral imperative in its own right.
January 27th, 2012 at 1:58 pm
@Simian,
Did you write that all by yourself or was it the alter ego (black box) policeman sitting next to you?
Totalitarian state UK – you are now probably in one of the most heavely policed states outside NK, with real time communications monitoring and personal data archiving.
Annyonmous in someways operate at a low level, when or if their big brothers (the libertarian code writers of the very software and hardware you are using) of the cyber world engage in this cyberwar over cencorship and control they will open the backdoors and more or less render your PC junk.
Some people really should not be invited to the party!
January 27th, 2012 at 2:31 pm
Goy
UK does not even begin to qualify as a totalitarian state. Watch the alarming BBC2 “Putin, Russia and the West” series currently on TV to see what modern totalitarian states really look like. Putin and his supporters have been trying desperately hard to stop Russia becoming more democratic, and to stop liberalisation in neighbouring states – using extreme unlawful measures on numerous occasions… A previous job gave me actual 1st hand experience of this, and I can vouchpersonally for a number of the claims made by the programme.
Regarding your paragraph on what Anonymous can and may do, it makes me even less willing to support their actions. They are an unelected, self chosen, narrowly focussed group, and I wonder if they have truly grasped the fact that with power comes responsibility? The video would appear to indicate not.
January 27th, 2012 at 8:24 pm
… with power comes responsibility?
Like Spiderman whom gave the Hollywood internet vigilantes of the film and music industries the authority to interfere in the world affairs of others.
Power has no responsibility for if it is fettered to responsibility it is a slave to accountability thus it is not true power, the only association if any that responsibility has with power is the assumed responsibility of the powerless to fetter the powerful.
Rupert Murdoch (hacking- pot calling the kettle black) is a strong advocate of PIPA and SOPA, unelected, self chosen, and a narrowly focussed group is a charge that belongs to the peddlers of these internet destruction laws.
Covert and overt totalitarian states are difficult to measure and compare, is a press riddled by the corruption of politicians, police and journalists a free press?
Be weary of Cameron’s Tournament of Shadows.