Here are some other examples of famous hacks, including the RIAA and MIT. Note that in both cases humor is strongly used. In the case of the RIAA, a message reads “piracy can be beneficial to the music industry.” The MIT site was hacked by someone interested in insulting a major university by comparing their business side with that of Disney.
These hacks are politically motivated, in the same way that the China Human Rights site hack was. The messages and images posted on these websites reveal as much about the hacktivists as they do about the corporations or groups that they are non-violently protesting. For the China site, the hackers are insulting what they believe to be a mockery of human rights. They believe China violates human rights and therefore they protest by posting about China’s abuses. The hacktivists win if even one person clicks on that site and sees the message “boycott China.” For the RIAA and MIT, the hackers are associating the owner of the website with something they ostensibly do not stand for. Maybe the hacker is calling MIT a Mickey Mouse institution or posting statements that the RIAA would not ever support, but that some of their visitors may internalize.