| Abstract |
In January 2008, 'the headless entity of the internets' was awakened when a video was repeatedly removed from websites and blogs under threats of lawsuits by the Church of Scientology. In response, the video was spread even further and many bloggers and sites showed the video in which Tom Cruise was making a fool of himself and his view on the world. But it didn't end there: a post on an imageboardrequested to 'raid' Scientology. Frequent visitors knew what this meant: numerous funny pranks, and attacking websites in one way or the other. 'For our own enjoyment.' So, within 2 days, thousands were informed about project 'Chanology' through blogs, social networks,forums, imageboards, and sites like digg, technorati, etc. The plans went viral on the net with the help of a now famous video that promised the 'destruction of the cult in its present form'. What followed was a few days of ddos-ing websites, pranks, sending pizzasand faxes to their Orgs and google-bombing 'dangerous cult'. The media took advantage of the situation and enjoyed writing about this 'phenomenon' , interestingly this time they didn't seem to worry about the intimidation against journalists that they usually feared. This media-coverage started a new wave of enthusiasm and attracted even more people. Perhaps most amazingly: this internet 'group' had no idea about who theywere working with: everyone posted 'anonymous', which creates a special dynamic in itself. The interconnectedness of the web enabled ways of communication that didn't have boundaries of location, hierarchy and even identity, and enjoyed a free flow of information. Good ol' 'hacker ethics' seemed to be restored in a new way. The chaotic, decentralized ways of working and communication yielded more results than anyone expected at first. Within days, websites were put up (and occasionally destroyed), software was created, tools were shared, press releases were written, (online) tv and radio-shows were created, and all this while learning, laughing and making fun of ourselves, CoS and others. 'Anonymous' became more and more aware of CoS's fraud and abuse and gathered all the information that was available since the '90's and added interesting new stuff to it. 'Anonymous' started thinking about future plans, real life protests, getting even more attention and finding new ways of 'abusing' the net. This resulted in the first worldwide protest (in 130 cities at same time), organized within just a few weeks. CoS's response was hilarious; lulz were had, whichmotivated everyone to continue and even return on a regular basis. In 2009, the same ideas were applied when 'anonymous' responded to the conviction of ThePirateBay and ISP's in Germany.
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