Hacktivism

As you can see in this video, "hacktivism" is supposed to be a useful act of civil desobidience. But a lot of people - mostly the ones who were hacked I'm guessing - think that the original goals of these "cyber crimes" were not to promote a good cause. They actually say that those so-called "hacktivists"are in fact bored young computer geniuses who claim they are trying to help companies by showing them the weaknesses of their online security system.

One of the most recent example of hacktivism in France took place during the debate about the "Hadopi" law project, which created a strict sanction system against illegal downloaders. Probably for the first time, a law was about to threaten the "geek" community. In other words, the government wanted to fight with a technology it barely understands. And on the other side of the battlefield, an army of hackers was prepared to do everything they could (which is a lot !) to keep the internet the way it was, with a total freedom to download. The hackers disturbed as much as they could the online debate around this law and their activism paid off, since the first version of the law was rejected by the Parliament.

I think in any future "online battle", some people will say that the hackers are just stupid "web rioters" and others will say that they are the new age activists who deserve to be heard and that they are right to use their most efficient weapon.