The Real Role Of Anonymous In Occupy Wall Street

http://www.fastcompany.com/1788397/the-real-role-of-anonymous-at-occupy-wall-street

by Sato • 15 years ago

28 15 15 years ago

jeffool• 15 years ago

In addition to the accounting if Anonymous' role in things, this dabbles in a good accounting of the movement that was bubbling from many different places. Good article.

nextparadigms• 15 years ago

They deserve credit for jumpstarting this. The first thing I remember about OWS is that Anonymous was promoting it on Twitter. So I don't know if they are the absolute initiators of this movement, but there might not be protests today or they might've lasted only a couple of days if it wasn't for Anonymous supporting and promoting it, and trying to get as many people there as possible every day.

hack_edu2• 15 years ago

And they deserve credit for building alliances with existing activist networks while they were organizing Operation BART protests. Without these, Anon's impact on OWS wouldn't have been much noticed. It's a wonder to watch a the movement suddenly manifest itself in real space, after half a decade of chaos and lulz.

Sato2• 15 years ago

"V for Vendetta" is becoming real!?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_(film)

tgraydar• 15 years ago

Think of them in terms of what they threaten, and they seem like a failure. But measure them in attention they've brought to this cause, and they're a pretty significant success. Planned or unintentional?

hugh3• 15 years ago

What evidence is there that "anonymous" is an actual group, rather than a label that a bunch of folks self-apply when they want to do things?

I'm annoyed at Anonymous because I strongly supported their first action (picketing the Church of Scientology) but every action since then has just been stupid and destructive.

jbooth3• 15 years ago

It seems to be both, it's intended to be the label that folks can self-apply, but in practice it seems there's a core group that are behind a lot of the activist stuff.

astine3• 15 years ago

Publishing the names of police officers and bankers seems to me to be a remarkably stupid idea. If people start getting beaten or attacked as a result of the events in NYC whatever support that protestors currently have will quickly dry up as the news changes from peaceful protest to violent riot.

jbooth3• 15 years ago

One police officer, who walked up and pepper sprayed the crap out of 2 20-yo girls who were just standing there, then walked away satisfied he'd done his job. Did you see the video? Real tough guy.

That's not to justify vigilante action against him (which hasn't happened), but I'm sure likeminded individuals are a little more aware of what could happen if you do something like that on camera in the 21st century.

I consider a chilling effect on "assaulting 20yo girls because they're hippies" to be a good thing.

astine3• 15 years ago

"but I'm sure likeminded individuals are a little more aware of what could happen if you do something like that on camera in the 21st century."

It doesn't have to happen on camera. All it takes is one person to take it on himself administer justice, which is kind of the MO of anonymous...

No1isAnonymous• 15 years ago

Identifying or targeting individual police officers or bankers or protesters, for that matter, misses the entire point of the OWS concept. The banking, investment, "I got mine" culture is the common target of those occupying Wall St

The Real Role Of Anonymous In Occupy Wall Street

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