Anonymous and LulzSec

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Y'know it's one thing fighting an underground war for net freedom and poking the machine for lulz and satisfaction, but apparently now they've sent emails to a politician threatening her children.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14618400

I'm no fan of Louise Mensch, her politics are way to the right of my comfort zone, but she has a right and a responsibility to engage fully with policy debate. How the fuck does bullying serving members of Parliament into shying from their stated positions a defence of 'free speech'?

My latent anti-establishment attitudes, and past love of cyber-punk fiction, means i usually have a sneaking admiration and liking for the kids (and older kids :P) who play with the machine in interesting ways. But I just lost all sympathy, admiration or liking for this lot.

Hypothetically speaking, let's say you had a troublesome group of folks and you needed to take the wind out of their sails and turn public opinion against them, why not do something reprehensible in their name? This works especially well if the group is anonymous.

If the group isn't anonymous you just do what they did to Scott Ritter, plant a bunch of kiddy porn on his computer and tell him to STFU or else.