Concerning Anon's new "Operation Orlando"
I’m going to start with a warning; this is about to be really roundabout and somewhat nerdy.
So I was reading BBC online just now and I noticed a strange headline. “Anonymous Declares War on Orlando” This in turn answers a question I asked myself earlier today. Namely: what happened to all the people on 4chan?
I went on the /b/ today for the first time in a long time. It was almost sad. /b/ has always held the distinction of being the most horrible place on the internet. I breeding grounds for the worst kind of shit, as well as most good memes of the 21st century. Now it’s just another image board with some old recycled trash. Where did all the real trolls and hardcore haters get off to? ED is some respectable-type site, and /b/ is no longer the unwashed taint of the internet. Did the world just turn nice or something?
I think they all just grew up. All the users on 4chan that made it interesting looked around one day and realized they could do better. Raiding Habbo Hotel and trolling YouTube comments can only be so fun for long. So they went to this new “hacktivism” thing. They didn’t even come up with a new name or a new slogan. They even kept the “we are Anonymous. Expect us.” thing. The same ending line used against the whole anti-Scientology attack. The 4chan hackers have simply moved on to the global stage. It explains why 4chan is now boring, and why Anon seems like it’s trying to troll the whole planet. That would also explain why someplace as random as Orlando is getting attacked.
I’m pretty familiar with the root of this dispute. This group wants to give out food to the homeless at Lake Eola park. The city wants them to stop. Now as I see it, both sides are being d-bags. Orlando doesn’t want these unsightly vagrants ruining the persona of being most magical city on earth. It’s hard to maintain when one of your nicest city venues is full homeless people. But the Food not Bombs folks are kind of being bastards too. Of they really cared about feeding the homeless, they could get a permit or give out the food somewhere that doesn’t cause a huge public disturbance. They’re leveraging their position to get political attention. I mean who is going to say “I am against feeding homeless people.” While they are doing something good, they’re also using people as a tool to get media attention. Both sides are sorta right, both sides are kinda wrong. This fight has been going on for awhile. It’s just now that people have been arrested, which brought in the media attention. Which is where Anon steps in.
My bet is someone saw a news headline that said “Several People Arrested for Feeding Homeless.” Then some member of Anonymous got all white knight and decided that this injustice had to be stopped. He/she probably told other members “Look at this bullshit!!1!” or something to that effect. The word got out. It looked like an easy choice of who had the moral high ground. So these ex-4channers stepped in to help the little guy. A simple DDoS attack on a private website and now I see it on my BBC feed. All because people in newsmedia are old, and don’t really get internet groups. “Hactivism” is some half-baked phrase that allows them to put Lulzsrc and Anonymous into a nice little category. The only question now is where we all go from here.
The first salvo was a DDoS attack on some Orlando tourism site. Not an actual city owned site, but a site that was simply about Orlando destinations. So what? Well now apparently they’ll keep shutting down sites until…until they get bored? I mean what’s the endgame here? Until the ordinance requiring permits for large gatherings gets repealed? Until the situation gets sufficient media exposure? I just don’t see it. The city won’t back down, because this essentially cyberterrorism. If you change laws because someone is shutting down your websites, is that any different than changing laws because people someone is blowing up buildings? This isn’t easy-to-hate terrorism either. It’s more IRA than Al-Quaeda. More of a “well I sorta see where they’re coming from plus my grandparents are Irish deal.” I like the internet, and I like the idea that it can be used to fight injustice. However trying to systematically attack a city government seems a little iffy. I doubt they’ll win, but what if they did? If legislation can be forced through coercion, what’s to say it’ll stop at insignificant things like this. I mean, do you really want people from 4chan telling you what’s right and what’s wrong? I know I sure as hell don’t
4chan has evolved into Anonymous!
