By Kelly Faircloth 1/09 1:15pm

Hack Hack Hack Hack It Apart

Once more into the breach, eh?

Anonymous Wants DDoS Considered Free Speech, Hops on the White House Petition Bandwagon

The loosely organized Internet philosophizers of Anonymous have decided to take a brief break from hassling Steubenville, the Westboro Baptist Church and Hunter Moore for a bit of good, old-fashioned soapboxery. The Daily Dot reports that the group has just launched a petition on WhiteHouse.gov titled “Make, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), a legal form of protesting.”

In short, they want DDoS attacks considered free speech, and they want anyone arrested for DDoS attacks released immediately. A provocative idea! Read More

By Jessica Roy 6/28/12 11:43am

Twitter Trouble

Mr. Costolo (Photo: About.me)

Twitter Attempts to Protect Free Speech While Eradicating Hate Speech

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo revealed to the Financial Times yesterday that the company is preparing to roll out new efforts to curtail the proliferation of “hate speech” on the microblogging service. “How do you make sure you are both emboldening people to speak politically but making it OK to be on the platform and not endure all this hate speech?” he pondered to the FT.

Twitter’s primary conundrum lies in the fact that the service has been used as a tool of political expression in countries with strict speech and cyber laws. But, like most corners of the Internet that allow for anonymity, it’s also been an impressively vitriolic vehicle for hate speech. Have you ever read Julia “I want to roll around in Silicon Valley” Allison’s @ replies? Not pretty. Read More

By Jessica Roy 5/22/12 4:44pm

Internet Wants to Be Free

Senator O'Mara (nysenate.gov)

New York Politicians Move to Ban Anonymous Commenting

This should go over well with our tech-obsessed mayor. A piece of legislation proposed in both New York state houses seeks to ban anonymous commenting from New York-based websites.

As a person who writes on the Internet, this sounds amazing! How about a name to go with that thoughtless feedback, Mr. Not So Nice Guy? Of course, as a proponent of the First Amendment, we would like to tell Senator Thomas O’Mara where he can put this bill. Anonymously, of course. Read More