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Anonymous
"Anonymous" is a loose-knit
organization of readers and posters on image message boards, such as
4chan.org and
711chan.org. They
claim that the total openness and anonymity of these channels "has
nurtured the appearance of a unique and
persistent culture". While "Anonymous" was initially a
joke directed at certain news organizations
(though sometimes with devastating results for innocent victims who got
their life seriously messed up), the group began to come
together as a response to the Church of Scientology's (CoS) January 16 request for Youtube to
remove a Scientology video
involving Tom Cruise and which was leaked out from the CoS.
On January 21, Anonymous posted a video on Youtube
declaring war against Scientology
(Yes, folks - on YouTube you can even declare war!). The video has been
watched over 2 million times in the subsequent three weeks (though it is
only 2 millions+ after two months). On this
video, Anonymous states that they decided that the Scientology organization
"should be destroyed", for the good of Scientology followers and
mankind, but also "for the laughs". They boast about them being
untraceable and about "the force of our ideas, malicious and hostile as
they often are". They then justify themselves by demonizing Scientology
before claiming that "our methods are a parallel to your own" and "the
sum of suppression we could ever muster is eclipsed by that of the RTC".
 Anonymous later
claimed responsibility for a series of DDOS and cyber-attacks that
slowed access to church Web sites. It wasn't long, however, before this
war turned sour. Within a week they accidentally
targeted a school in the Netherlands rather than a Scientology site, taking
the school computer network and website down.
When Anonymous themselves became
victim of a counter-hacking group calling itself the Regime, they posted the
home address, phone number and cell numbers of a Stockton 59-years-old man
who barely knew anything about computers, claiming he was a member of that
group. This poor man then started to receive daily obscene and threatening
phone calls. After receiving a death treat, he and his wife got really
scared because their address was posted as well. Not knowing how to stop the
unrelenting phone calls, they called three news places in Stockton "just to
get something out there to let them know they have the wrong guy,".
Wired.com picked the story and as soon as they published their article,
Anonymous removed the information from the net. Wired.com did not take the
incident lightly and called Anonymous "online vigilantes who think their
righteous ends justify illegal means".
As a consequence of these
incidents but also after the intervention of some of the "Old Guard" in
Scientology criticism, such as
Mark Bunker,
Anonymous started to back down from its hacking tactics and turned its focus
on street protest instead.
The first protest, held on February
10, were a clear success, involving
7,000 to
8,000 people in 18 countries (according to Anonymous), and was largely
reported in the press who had previously been accustomed with Anonymous
through its hacking episode.
The second protest took place on
March 15. All the statistics are not in yet but a first comparison between the wikinews page for the protest of
Feb 10 and the one of
March 15 provides the following table, for the figures available,
and from this first sampling there seems to be an increase of 24%.
March 15 alternative protest links:
Indy Media:
Anti
Scientology Protest. London
TMZ:
Crazies Come Out to Boycott Other Crazies
Battle Creek Enquirer:
Group protests local Scientology; one arrested
Unfortunately, this new generation of
critics spout forth the same tired old criticism against Scientology found
on critical websites and proved of little use to stop Scientology. Nothing new. Most of it is outdated, much
of it are just myths that have been debunked already and about which better
informed people hardly pay attention anymore. But I guess nothing beats the
thrill of friends gathering in front of people's churches, wearing funny
comic book masks, and feeling like "doing something" in favor of Free
speech. To gather
in front of mosques waving sign mocking the prophet and engaging in other
offensive accusations towards Islam is just a little bit more risky for
one's bodily integrity. At least with Scientology everybody can have fun
while feeling like heroes.
Aggressive-looking protestors wearing
masks freaks the hell out of scientologists inside the building. Even an
ex-member who departed Scientology long ago found it a
bad idea:
"A short time
ago there were hundreds of people in white masks protesting outside the
building where I did every school play since Kindergarten, where my
sister works, and nobody bats an eye. They say they want to destroy the
leadership of this church, and no one questions their intent. If this
sight is inspiring to some, then I’ll say those people are on the wrong
side of history".
Combined with the wave of telephone
threats and hate mails they received during Anonymous hacking episode,
groups of transformer-like protestors waving signs calling their religion
evil may look threatening to members of the group. During the March 15
protests, the Battle Creek police received a call from Scientologists
because they were worried about their safety. Protestors were forced to
put their mask down and those who resisted were arrested (they
subsequently were
released without charge because the mask was not being worn "for the
purpose of facilitating the commission of a crime"). In fact,
masked protest has already been the subject of
legal debate in the US when the KKK held its sinister rallies and
various States have different laws in this respect. For example, there is a
no-mask law in New-York City which is why you will often see people there
wearing their Vendetta masks turned around on the backs of their heads or
swathing their lower faces in scarves and dust masks.
There are also some concerns as to who
are these Anonymous as they have been accused of having been involved in
scare tactics such as bomb threats, anthrax scares, and other
abusive behavior. On March 11, the CoS made its
own video in which
it claims it was victim of hundreds of such threats. I am not sure where the
CoS took its statistics but, the incident reported by wired.com does show
the potential danger of the combined effect of an anonymous Internet mob and
mass hysteria against unpopular minorities, and I have no doubts that what
wired.com reported is only the tip of the iceberg.
On March 12, the CoS issued a
legal injunction against Anonymous seeking to keep protester at a safe
distance from the CoS buildings. It bases its arguments on the "cyber
terrorism" Anonymous has been guilty of according to the CoS. This does not
seem justified. While Anonymous did engage in illegal and questionable
activities on the Internet, its street protests were
overall peaceful, with the crowd making its own ethical enforcement, as in
Toronto, where one protester was in possession of a cap gun and where other
protesters quickly pointed him out to the police who confiscated it.
Anonymous also goes to great length on its web site to insist that the
protests should be peaceful. The injunction was subsequently
rejected by two different courts.
But then what about hacking web
sites? Preventing people from expressing their opinion and preventing others
to read what they have to say? Is this how you demonstrate your love of Free
Speech? I don't think so...
I have read a few contradictory justification
regarding this, from "we did this to get the world's attention" to "we
realized it was wrong". Never mind the fact that "getting the world's
attention" is exactly what terrorists are aiming too. As for "realized we
were wrong", I have seen too many instances of critics trying to silence
dissenters among their own ranks to believe they can live up to their own
ideal. I have myself been
banned from their IRC
channel and have seen them trying to remove information that may damage their righteous cause, a
recent example of this dates from last January, as reported at
the bottom of Keith Henson'
daughter web page.
Will this new generation turn sour as
the old generation of critics did? It may be an inevitable outcome and there are already
signs this is happening, as illustrated by a post on Anonymous own forum on Enturbulation.org:
I've joined anon in January, I
was at the February protest, and I've already noticed changes in
anonymous since then. At the start, there were posts calling to action,
including the now famous youtube video, and topics on many *chans and
forums. This made many people look into what scientology did, and many
people joined Chanology, for they agreed that the church of scientology
can not be allowed to continue. However, there's slowly been a bad thing
creeping into our subconscience; a closed mind. People get declared OSA,
scifag, or infiltrant rather easily, and many anon's are very quick to
declare that xenu.net holds the absolute truth, and any countervoice by
the scientologists are answered by cries of "Lies! you're brainwashed!
Open your mind! Free yourself!" This is something we should avoid at all
costs, do we want to be objective? Do we want to be believed?
Dissenting
views
As usual, the number of people with
insight in this mass hysteria are not legion (sic). Here are a couple of
insightful comments from people who obviously are not newbies and know what they
are talking about:
The problem with all the
anti-Scientology conspiracy theory sites is that they start with the basic
assumption that Scientology is inherently evil, and then they set about
searching high and low for every nugget of negative spin they can find to
support their agenda. In their desperation, they usually reach for very old
news ("Fair Game" from the 1960s, "Snow White" from the 1970s) or they try
to present any wrongs committed by any individual Scientologist as
reflecting directly on the religion as a whole (like the death of Lisa
McPherson). Anti-Catholic propagandists do the exact same thing in their
sick attempts to blame the Vatican for the acts of any individual priest on
the planet.
The people who have turned hating Scientology into their own little cottage
industry have hoodwinked a lot of well-meaning youths into committing
illegal acts (harassing phone calls, hate speech, slander, hacking) and even
terrorism (mailing white powder to churches). They lack even the basic clue
to understand that prank-calling orders for pizzas and taxis to Scientology
churches don't really harass the church as much as it harasses the innocent
pizza company and taxi company. Proof positive that they couldn't care less
about wronging innocent parties in their zeal for "lulz".
Anyone who posts any opposition to the anti-Scientology freaks or doesn't
take a hard enough line against the cult immediately gets insulted,
slandered, and accused of being a Scientologist themselves. The
Anti-Scientology people have become a dangerous and harmful fringe group
that put its own mission above all else and ruins innocent lives - in short,
everything they ever accused the CoS of.
Yes it is all over the internet, what
church does not exert its belief or try to in governmental affairs or have
secretive efforts to gain influence ? Do not Christians, Muslims, Hindus
etc. have influence in Government policy? What church does not expect Tithe
of some sort? What Church does not have members lobbying or in Government
positions that affect all of us? Where were all the Anon's last year? Did
not Muslims riot over free speech in Newspaper Cartoon Editorials? People
Died, if thats not stifling free speech not sure what is. Do Christians not
try to outlaw abortion, birth control, the list is far to long to put here.
Who Ran Europe until maybe 100 years ago? Who runs most Muslim Nations? Have
you looked South of the Border Lately, who is trying to run that Government
and have made significant inroads? Would it not be the Fundamentalist
Religious Right?
If all of you still have this intense
interest in a few years I will be surprised, most will get bored and move
onto the next trendy thing. I am sure some will keep up the effort but most
interest will wane over time. You think this will defeat them, that is
funny. They have a better tax exemption in the US than all other religions.
When you have an army of people willing to stand in front of their buildings
daily, year after year with pamphlets that show why it is wrong you may have
a chance to stop them from growing as much at best. This is a useless and
inept attempt at best. If you think this will stop them you really have no
idea on who you are dealing with.
you have no idea who you are dealing
with?
you sound like a scientologist
I most certainly do, if you cannot
differentiate between a hardcore Atheist and a Scientologist this is a lost
cause from the get go. Do you really think Scientology is worried about all
this? They had the American Feds go after them for 25 years and they walked
away with a better tax deal then all the other religions, and they are
worried about the likes of those protesting? I am still laughing at the
thinly veiled threat, you think far to highly of yourself. I will allow all
you protesters the illusion of grandeur and leave it at that.
[The above opinion is echoed in a
February 27 editorial of
the Recorder stating that Anonymous does not really bring new
arguments to the debate nor anything dramatically different about
Scientology than what other religions do already and which would be
worth fighting for.]
Links
Anti-Scientology
-
Enturbulation.org
- The main web site organizing Anonymous protests. It also contains
Anonymous fundaments for opposing Scientology. I made an
analysis of these fundaments
that you may want to read.
-
Project Chanology - The channel created to organize Anon work
after his announcement. Their statement that the list of dead
Scientologists is a sign of "the insane murders and such that they
executed" shows how misguided they are. Ironically, they also claim
that his is "a sign of them taking the world as too much serious
fucking business".
-
Anonymous on
Encyclopedia Dramatica - The best description of Anonymous so far.
-
Nerds To Protest Outside London's Scientology Centres - Informative
and funny pre-Feb 10 article.
-
Wikinews - Full and detailed report of the Feb 10 protests. A
better overview is to be found on the
enturbulation.org page.
-
Why We Protest -
with the headless logo of Anonymous and available in several languages.
Boring
recitation of their motives, including of course the myth "Scientology
has also been implicated in numerous fatalities among its members".
-
http://www.youfoundthecard.com/
- apparently the web site of one of the Anonymous. Very nicely made from
a technical point of view, but boring content as it mostly rehashes old
news
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Pro-Scientology
-
Jonathon Barbera - the Youtube page of an Independent Scientologist
and writer opposing Anonymous. As is typical for hypo-critics, he was
harassed for expressing his view, with critics advising him to commit
suicide, trying to post information and photos of his house, and giving
his books bad rating without having read them.
-
Church of Scientology responds to protest plans - Published in
the St. Petersbourg time
-
Scientology Myths 2.0 : comment on Anonymous by a Scientologist.
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