Re: Constrictive Hacking!
Perhaps you've missed this event back in 2011?
'Anonymous' Busts Child Porn Ring | News & Opinion | PCMag.com Of course, if what you say is true, then perhaps they were only eliminating their competition, eh?
Not quite, but close.
Ok, since you are confused, a little history for you. Anon is the product of a number of trolling groups and people who like to do things some might consider wrong. The name anonymous was chosen because that is something that protects it's members. Anonymous does not have any real group identity aside from the desire to remain anonymous. Anon does not have any true leadership, or actual group dynamics. This means that anon has a almost perfect excuse for the public full of idiots. When someone who was anonymous does something they like they take credit for it. When someone does something they do not like they say that those people were not actually part of the group.
Take for example the war on scientology. Anon had been doing a number of things and having some moderate success with trolling and DDOS attacks. Scienos had been a target of internet trolls for almost as long as the internet has been around. Anon thought that they could destroy them because they had done some damage to some smaller entities. This was huge disaster for anon. Despite some protests with some guy fawkes cosplaying they really did not do much to scientology. The people who believed in them turned on them so anon created something called a newfag. these were people who supposedly had taken over the anon title and decided to act on their own in some dumb attempt to make the world a better place. Unless you were to know the workings of anon you might actually buy that excuse.
Now let us take a look at your point. Anon came from the people who were doing anonymous file sharing. They were well versed in how not to be traced. because of that skill they also attracted people who were doing more serious criminal things who wanted to remain anonymous while continuing to do their criminal activity. A big group of these people were those distributing porn, and those who distribute illegal porn. things like snuff and child porn flow anonymously through anon's hangouts. Free speech on the internet, isn't it great? There are a whole bunch of other things involved in all of this, but anon attracted criminals because criminals needed anonymity.
Why would that supposed group bust child pornography? That comes into play with things like Law enforcement stings, deterrents, and even people like perverted justice. You also had the entrance of a bunch of idealists into the anon crowd who came along during the scieno wars, the battles against internet censorship and monitoring, and even OWS and wiki lovers. These people are the newfags. They are not out for an anything goes internet. Since anon had no power structure, and membership is pretty much based on knowing where to go and how to be anonymous you mixed a bunch of do gooders with a bunch of do badders. Either some newfag busts the porn rings, or it is law enforcement or perverted justice acting as anon because they are anonymous, and that sort of story keeps the small fries out of their hair by scaring them away from anon.
yes, i know it is confusing as hell, and what do you expect from a group who's only condition for membership is acting anonymously. Yes, i agree it is completely hypocritical to have a group identity when the whole thing should be anonymous. That doesn't change the fact that people like kiddie porn fans and child molesters are going to use anonymous to do their deeds because the one thing the elite in anon know is how to remain anonymous. In anonymous's original philosophy they adopted the dark side of things because they accepted that anonymous activity would promote criminal activity despitye their belief it also allowed true free speech and protected their lulz.
how do I know all of this? I have had some history deep in the trolling community. You probably would not call it history as much as a huge obsessive desire to play with people over the internet. People like me were the ones who made the so called rules anon trolls use. I am not the hugest troll in the world, and i am not even close to what i used to be in the old days. Still, i did do some huge damage in my old days, and there are a couple of sites out there who still feel the effect of my words. i could wriote books on trolling and the history of trolling activities. Anon is just a johnny come lately on the scene who has actually gotten media attention and because of that has gotten more membership from complete idiots. Much like any organization of elite it suffers from it's own success. In the beginning the group had skill, but it's skill attracted people who wanted skill and had none, which eventually causes the group to be destroyed by it's own fame.
of course since no one with a life actually cares about any of this it is worthless info. the /b/tards on 4chan were never much more than persistent in their attacks on people. Today the old school anon have gone away to other places and fear the newfags who destroyed their lovely organization, and that is why they poke the idealists into doing these things which will inevitably lead to their arrest because no one shared true skill at remaining anonymous with them.
In any case, I find it rather amusing, my dear, that even when you are trying to be nice you just can't drop the snarkyness. You must be a real hoot at the parties.
You have no idea. I am a performance artist after all.