Technology and Activism

More and more, technology plays a very large part in activism.  Many movements are integrally tied to technology such as the Free Software Movement.  Others are not quite so significantly tied to technology such as Anonymous.  However, the days when rallies and protests were organized with paper and face-to-face communication is largely drawing to an end.

Today, the Internet and cell phone networks are the way to organize.  Facebook, Twitter, texting, and the web in general are what brought protesters to Zuccotti Park in droves.  This trend can only continue to increase in frequency and intensity.  Perhaps technology and communication can bring about a positive and substantive change in the world.

Anonymous

Anonymous was born on the Internet in what is still considered a shady underworld without any rules or restrictions.  Perhaps such a force could not have come from a place where participants would feel less free to explore the possibilities.  Today, Anonymous is everywhere, supporting other movements such as the 2010 and 2011 revolutions in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and several other middle eastern countries and the Occupy movement in the U.S.

Anonymous has broken free of the Internet and now lives and thrives in the real world.  An early example of Anonymous' influence offline was "Operation Chanology," a campaign against the Church of Scientology.  In more recent times, Anonymous has gained a near synonymity with the Occupy movement which makes itself very visible in the real world.

Anonymous still does at least as much of its activism online as it does offline, however.  In support of the Syrian uprising still ongoing, Anonymous launched "Operation Syria", a campaign of online attacks aimed at the Syrian establishment which is responsible for the massacre of many innocent Syrian citizens.

The Occupy movement

The Occupy movement may now be the most visible and significant ongoing protests in the western world.  It began with Occupy Wall Street in September 2011 with the goal of curbing the corporate influence on government and the imbalance of wealth in the U.S.  The issues the movement started with had little to do with technology or the Internet.

Recently, the Occupy movement has turned to technical issues with the possibility of the imminent passage of the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives containing many draconian provisions such as allowing the U.S. Government to shut down large swaths of the Internet on mere suspicion of allowing for the infringement of copyrights.  This is strong evidence that technology is more important today to the real world than it has ever been in the past and that what goes on on the Internet is worth protecting with activism.

As I've mentioned, Anonymous and the Occupy movement are very much intertwined.  Anonymous symbols such as the Guy Fawkes Mask and the official unofficial Anonymous flag appear in virtually every Occupy-related venue.  The two support each other in numerous ways.  Anonymous takes direct action in support of the Occupy movement while the Occupy movement lends credibility to Anonymous which still struggles for legitimacy in the eyes of the populace.

Arab Spring

In December of 2010, protests began in Tunisia which eventually led to the fall of the oppressive Tunisian regime and the establishment of democratic elections.  The revolutions spread beyond the country's borders to Egypt, Libya, Syria, and many other Arab nations.

Throughout the uprisings, Facebook, Twitter, and other web services served to help the people organize, cell phone cameras recorded much of the events and retaliation from the dictators' regimes, and the Internet allowed the rest of the world to see on a much more grassroots level what exactly was happening.

So helpful was the Internet to the rebellions that some dictators such as Muammar Gaddafi of Lybia opted to cut off that resource to the countries entirely.  Anonymous, however, came to the rescue of some by subscribing in large numbers to cheap dial-up services and faxing the connection and authentication information to schools and other establishments in Libya, thus allowing them Internet access via the phone lines.

It's certain that technology will play a much larger role in every aspect of life including activism in the future.  There are dangers in technology, however.  In some cases, technology may be used against the masses almost as effectively as it may be used by the masses.  There are movements to reduce corporate, government, and other special interest influence on networks.  But, it still pays to be careful who you trust.

What's Wrong With Proprietary Software?

In the 1960's, Richard Stallman witnessed the rise of proprietary software when he was denied the source code for the firmware of a printer he was in charge of administrating.  Now, because of his work over the course of nearly 50 years, we have the option of running an entirely Free Software system without lacking the tools we need.

Why did he go to the trouble?

Proprietary software arose as a tool which large corporations could use to control and manipulate their users.  They used this control to obtain more money and in the process violated some of our basic rights as citizens of the digital age.

This post is about a few examples of how these violations affect users today.

How Does It Work?

Proprietary software, first and foremost, prevents users from knowing how it goes about accomplishing what it claims to accomplish.  Proprietary tax software cannot be examined to be certain it truly conforms to the tax laws it purports to help users with.  Proprietary antivirus software can't be examined for correctness.

For those users who are more concerned that their software works the way it advertises than they are about having someone to point the finger at when it breaks, not being able to look under the hood is not acceptable.  It should concern everybody that their electrical grids and cable signals may not be run by provably reliable software.

This opaqueness also prevents those wishing to learn about software from learning through example.  Children should have the benefit of knowing how their world works, including how their computer works.  Don't you think?

Can I Improve It?

Traditionally, when you purchase something, you obtain the right to do with it as you will.  This includes modifying it to function more effectively or more in line with the owners needs.  Car owners frequently modify their vehicles for appearance, gas mileage, horsepower, or any number of other purposes.  There are entire communities dedicated to modifying their game consoles.

However, proprietary software does not offer this basic right.  A user who wishes that the proprietary music player he uses included a "loop" feature cannot feasibly add such a feature.  A gamer who can't progress past a particular point in his favorite proprietary game cannot add new cheats to the game.

This places the users at the mercy of the software publishers and forces them to settle for software which doesn't fit their needs as well as it could.

How Do I Know it's Not Misbehaving?

Software which prevents users from scrutinizing it can get away with all kinds of dastardly behavior in secret.  One of the earlier examples was the sheer amount of identifying personal information the media player RealPlayer collected from the user's computer and sent back to the company which published RealPlayer.

Today, Google Chrome, one of the most popular web browsers, collects similar information from its users for advertising and tracking purposes.  Some software comes with advertising and spying software from third parties.

With the right tools, some of this misbehavior may be detected.  It's not easy unless you know where to look, however.  More alarming still is the fact that most users don't seem to so much as care what their programs are doing when they're not looking.

This is a small sample of the problems with proprietary software.  However, it's fairly easy to come up with numerous ways in which proprietary software violates a user's liberties.

More information on the topic of proprietary software and its negative effects on our liberties may be found at the website of the Free Software Foundation.