"We got to talking about National Security law, hacktivism, and terrorism. I had been Wired's correspondent on Anonymous, and probably understood The hacktivist collective better than anyone. They had recently tore through the net, hacking companies and governments like they were wet paper towels. I was explaining to my fellow nerds that Anonymous was very similar to Al-Qaeda. Though in form only, not in content."
"There was no crossover between the shit-talking data "liberators" I had embedded with in 2011/12 and the religious extremist terrorist group founded by Osama bin Laden. They had no members in common, (that I ever knew of) and the ethos of the two groups were so far apart as to not just be in opposition, but to be mutually unintelligible."
Leaderless collectives such as Anonymous and Al-Qaeda resemble decentralized media brands rather than traditional hierarchical organizations. These groups can self-organize locally without formal appointment, making US law struggle to categorize and prosecute them under conventional frameworks. Legislators devised catch-all legal approaches that struggle to fit the fluid structures, likened to legally nailing jello to a wall. Anonymous operations typically target perceived bad actors online by bringing down servers, stealing and dumping data, and jamming websites. Al-Qaeda cells form through local recruitment and can instigate lethal violence, highlighting differing harms despite similar organizational form.
Read at emptywheel
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