Rebels of the Week: Anonymous
June 29th, 2011
We have no idea who they are, but we're still writing about them
Earlier this month, we at Silver Underground reported the story of the Orlando based organization Food Not Bombs being forced to cease feeding homeless people on city land after some of its members were arrested for violating a city ordinance regarding large gatherings in public parks. As that case makes its way through the court system, the renegade samaritans are now receiving help from an unlikely source: computer hackers who made Orlando their next target.
This week, it has been reported that the mysterious computer hacking troop Anonymous is coming to the aid of the beleaguered group through a web campaign called “Operation Orlando”. The purpose of this mission is to attack “city web assets” as well as Orlando tourism sites on the internet in revenge for the arrests. Also, the group is promoting a boycott of the city of Orlando until the city repents on its treatment of the organization. Calling Orlando city officials “human rights abusers”, as well as deeming the arrest for Food Not Bombs president Keith McHenry a “declaration of war”, the attacks will be aimed at disrupting city communications and Internet accounts in an effort to get the men released and let them go on serving free lunches to needy residents. Yesterday they launched their first attack of their “war” by disabling the website orlandofloridaguide.com for much of the day, and will be continuing their hack attacks until the men are released.
While many people may not be aware of the harsh nature of the Orlando city legislature, and their treating of charitable workers like common rabble-rousers, Anonymous has stepped in to help them out through a peaceful yet powerful method of protest, and will hopefully result in the decriminalization of good deed doers in Orlando and elsewhere. This hacker group may be controversial, but they’re combination of civil disobedience and web technology could set the new standard in citizen activism, and can be used in numerous other cases where civil liberties are violated (and believe us, there are a lot of instances), making them our Rebels of the Week.
Now if only we knew who they were.
