“With specific reference to China, former United States President Bill Clinton once compared controlling the internet with ‘trying to nail Jell-O to the wall.’”
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Why would an international group of unrelated individuals come together for the purpose of opening up the internet for a country, namely China, where they’ve likely never been, nor will they ever visit, and for citizens that they have never met and may never meet? Why would they devote countless hours of time, gallons of sweat and willingly break the law for what amounts to a greater good, almost an act of charity?
Human rights: Basic inalienable human rights for those in the United States and for many of the other countries with individuals who might seek to free up the internet. Not basic to the Chinese. China’s intolerance to human rights has become something of a legend. Any vague semblance of democracy is a show. These restrictions go directly against the ideals of Hacktivismo, which “takes its inspiration from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - both of which declare freedom of opinion and freedom to seek, receive and impart information through media to be basic human rights.”
The struggle of the Chinese has become the struggle of the hacktivist. Bearing many different names, for essentially the same actor, the hacktivist/ cracktivist/ cyberterrorist/ cyberguerilla is more than merely a grassroots proponent of freedom. The hacktivist is more than just an outspoken seeker of justice, however they conceive of it. What the hacktivist is is intimately tied to what the hacktivist does.
The hacktivist can take part in any number of things: spam (flood with unwanted mail), what they consider, deceitful and corrupt government e-mail addresses in order to disrupt information flow; post graffiti messages on government websites denouncing their activities; use steganographic techniques, like hiding .gif images of papers on human rights within other pages. This may be combined with cryptographic methods so that even if the message was discovered it might not be readable without the necessary software The hacktivist must constantly reinvent his mission in order to always be to one step ahead of the government. New methods not even documented online or elsewhere, are certainly being created.
To the Chinese government, the hacktivist is a cyberterrorist. These cyberterrorists disrupt the government’s mission. Their government celebrates its open internet, but also sees it as a double-edged sword. 79 million Chinese have access to the internet, and this openness promotes economic growth, which is a very good thing. Yet this modernizing tool can “pose a threat to their monopoly on political power.” (Newsweek International) The Chinese have been known to block websites, on the order of 20, 000 but these websites are only blocked because their values directly oppose the governments. The cyberterrorists have no business spreading lies and misinforming their populace. They should be tracked down and jailed indefinitely. The government allows access to the internet; the internet is a privilege, not an inalienable right. It is wrong for these cyberterrorists to evade China’s meticulously created firewalls. Firewalls allow China to block websites that are offensive and go against the spirit of the Chinese. It’s fine for everyone to access the internet, it’s not fine for them to see pages that China deems offensive.
In 2003, Ben Edelman of Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society published a report documenting internet censorship. It credited China, with 18, 931 sites censored, as the most aggressive censor. Most popular Western sites like BBC, Time and the Washington Post weren’t accessible. As were various sites on politics, human rights and religion. (The Edge Singapore)
The hacktivists, the people who have joined the cyber-war against China, are well-educated collectives of unrelated people. If not well-educated in the traditional sense of degrees – though many are likely college-educated – they are well-versed in computer technology. They are cyber-patriots. They are patriots when who do not hail from a singular homeland, nor do they belong to one nation-state. They come from the United States, Europe, Australia and elsewhere. A limited number may reside in China, but, as far as their activities are concerned, they needn’t reside in any more physical space than the collection of pixels and bytes that make up their work. They don’t need to be able to recognize each other on the street; their code names are the only insight into the lives of these interesting, if idiosyncratic hacktivists.
Hacktivists have a united mission, and, have seen fit to bind together in their struggle. There are organizations like Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc), Legions of the Underground, Hacktivismo, to name a few, that dedicate their lives to foiling governments like China, Afghanistan and Iraq. It may have something to do with the power of numbers. They have listservs, newsgroups and blogs (web logs). Other organizations, like thehacktivist.com, ifex.org and citizenlab.org, are resources for anyone who has interest in joining the struggle. They provide news on what hacktivists are doing, about journalists who have been imprisoned or killed for their outspokenness – against the Chinese government – and links to software, disseminated by groups like cDc, that can bypass China’s constant searches.
More than any other search tool, the internet has become a bastion of knowledge for misspent youth. Web-addled teens and young adults instantly gain access to everything from news to trivia to pornography. The web is a dangerous place to the Chinese government because it unleashes knowledge that they would rather not unveil. Their government has restricted internet café access and even jailed a youngster who spent three days mindlessly trapped in one such café. Many US websites are run by individuals who, while not favoring such addiction, would like to give the Chinese citizens the chance to decide for themselves whether the internet is helpful or deleterious.