My Speech

For Homework I did a speech about the group of online activists/hacktivists known as Anonymous

Anonymous. Defined by the dictionary as not identified by name or of unknown name. Also a righteous group of hacktivists that aren’t afraid to attack even the most powerful of foes for the sake of morality.

First things first! What exactly does this group do? Well let me explain it! Anonymous is an open group with strictly no secrets. Some watch over our cat videos and make sure they stay there. Most make sure all unjust actions do not go unpunished. Watch out John Key because that spying move you made was not unheard of.You can think of Anon, as many like to call them, as the protectors of the internet, especially the internet jokes, memes and the like. They’ll make stands for citizens who’s rights are being played with by the government as long as the problem is tech related.

For example Anon waged a small attack on a man named Hal Turner who had his own radio station. Right now there seems to be no reason to attack such a man, am I right? Yes, yes I am. Until you realise that this guy was a supremacist, racist…jerk. Anonymous noticed this man when he started picking on of their own and decided to do something about it. Many within the group came up with ideas such as spamming his radio calls, sending him countless pizzas, random blocks of materials and even going to sign him up for Craigslist. These little stunts managed to take Hal off the radio by destroying his ability to pay for it.

These internet guardians, as I have called them, started out as people just like you and me. People just sitting at home on their computers on a website called 4chan. 4chan was the birthplace of Anon where anyone could upload photos as an anonymous user or if they wanted, a named one. Anon came to be on the part of the site known as /b/. This was where all the completely random and mind scarring things were uploaded. Somehow these individuals got together to defend the internet! 

I believe that there were two major events that Anon was involved with. Let’s start with the Indian governmental struggle. Imagine a world with no internet…horrifying I know…this is practically what happened to India as they took away the internet from the entire country. Can you guess what Anon did? Amazingly enough they showed them how to turn it back on. Everyone put together a bunch of files with instructions and things to defend them from pepper-spray and other weapons that may be used against them in a care package. Awesome, right? Indian citizens got their leader to back out of government and there were parties in the streets. Aw yeah, go India!

“And now…In the left corner we have the Anons and in the right we have Scientology! That’s right everybody it’s time for Anon vs Scientology!” Yes there was an epic smack down between the two. It started out with an innocent video with Tom Cruise talking about some things on Scientology that became widely mocked across the internet. Scientology’s response was to go around legally threatening people to take it down so before you knew it half of these vids were taken down. Anon did not respond kindly to having their little joke taken away I can tell you that but the thing was, that just as fast as these videos were being uploaded they were being smacked straight back down. That was when Anon went into battle mode against an enemy that was almost perfect for them with a whole lot of DDossing, trolling and finally a confrontation.

I really should tell you about DDossing. DDossing is also known as denial of service where you basically flood a site until nobody else can enter. Like hiring tons of people to stand in line for the hotdog stand and in the end no real customers can enter.

The confrontation thing was HUGE. This was a widely participated project in which many Anon members stood outside Scientology buildings with masks to conceal their identities in protest. It was a mark in Anonymous history.

Oh yeah, these are some things that I can NOT leave out. The main symbol for Anonymous is the Guy Fawkes mask from the movie, V for Vendetta. It was decided because it was an inside joke that these 4chan using anons all 

knew about. Their saying is “We never forgive. We never forget. We are Anonymous. Expect us.” Epic, right? But I’m not trying to over glorify it. 

This organisation gives not only our rights but also an example. No matter how high up you are wrong actions will be punished.The government needs to fear the citizens not vice versa because one slip up from them and ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US.