Crime and Punishment: The Criminalization of Online Protests

Nikki Williams

September 10, 2015

https://www.digitalethics.org/essays/crime-and-punishment-criminalization-online-protests

"The Art of Hacktivism"

First Impression:

Protests and speaking out a particular issue is one thing, but one should know when one is taking things too far --- online protests, for instance, as far as I know, is getting way too out of hand, as it sometimes involves breaking into a computer system just "for the greater good", but honestly, this is just plain insane.

Quote: 

"The generation that grew up with the Internet seems to think it’s as natural to show their opinion by launching online attacks as for us it would have been to go out on the streets and do a demonstration. The difference is, online attacks are illegal while public demonstrations are not. But these kids don’t seem to care." 

Reflection Proper:

Speaking one's voice out whether online or not, doing protests, or something similar to that is one thing, but some methods related to that are proven to be controversial. Hacker activism, or hacktivism, for one, as I found out via the essay I am reading, is a method involving breaking into a computer system for political or social ends, and by the looks of it, you could tell instantly it's illegal. Hacking may be around for decades, but the way I see it is that thanks to modern society, there is the ethical hacking which is used by certain securities like the CSI Cybercrimes Division and there's the unethical hacking which is mostly associated with criminal tendencies or online protests so to speak. Personally though, here's what I have to say about this whole thing: first of all, there are many ways to speak out your mind and promote your agenda online, and there are ones that are completely ethical and not criminal. Also, you should keep in mind that you are knowing the consequences of your action; I mean, think about it in this manner: hacktivism has a lot of consequences that reaches deeper than you think, like for one, if hackers shut down online banking just for the sake of payback or sending a message to banks and credit card companies about the way they mistreated the public, they would gloss over the thought that their actions might affect thousands of lives as well in the worst possible manner one could think of, like preventing many people and companies or businesses from conducting work and payments and thus impacting many lives in a negative way; or getting personal data from millions of customers or subscribers just to harm a government or company doesn't just hurt the acclaimed target, no, it also hurts millions, or possibly more than millions, of lives on the edge. Let's face the simple fact: every action, regardless of what it is or what type of it is, has consequences, and frankly, when it comes to online activists, they should instead create a more civilized, peaceful, and legal way of settling things with their targets in order to not just only pursue a certain goal in mind that is directed "for the greater good of the masses", but to minimize damages and not resort to extreme measures such as "unauthorized data breaching" that can lead to unintended harmful consequences.

5 Things Learned From Article: 

1. I learned that online protests have controversial methods like hacktivism.

2. I learned the definition of hacktivism, or hacker activism.

3. I learned that hacktivism has far-reaching consequences, and not just including hurting their intended targets.

4. I learned that there are better and more peaceful ways to speaking one's mind online and promoting one's protest agenda online .

5. I learned that it's best that online activists should follow a more civilized and up-front way of confronting their opponents instead of resorting to criminal activities.

5 Integrative Questions:

1. Do you voice out your mind from time to time or join online protests?

2. What's your reaction on the existence of hacktivists?

3. How do you feel about online protests having controversial methods?

4. How do you tend to solve the issue involving online protesting and hacktivism?

5. What's your suggestion to online protesters out there when it comes to "peaceful solutions"?