Team 11, Post 4, Hacktivism: Anonymous for Victims of Assault
and Bullying
Introduction
Recently there have been several
instances of the hacktivist group Anonymous focusing their attention
on cases involving victims of sexual assault and bullying. Two of the
three cases discussed in this post resulted in the victim committing
suicide. The first case involves a teenage girl named Amanda Todd,
who was victimized by a pedophile, resulting in incessant bullying by
classmates and lead to her suicide. The second case concerns Rehtaeh
Parsons, a teenage girl was allegedly gang-raped by four boys at a
party, also resulting in bullying from her classmates and ended in
her suicide. Finally, the third case is of a 16-year-old girl from
Ohio, who was drugged and raped by two boys, Trent Mays and Ma'Lik
Richmond, in public resulting in videotape and photographs of the
repeated assaults.
What does this have to do with
hacktivism? At first glance, not much; however, it turns out these
cases sparked the interest of Anonymous. The group took it upon
themselves to, in some cases, locate the parties responsible for the
events that took place and expose evidence to the authorities for
justice to be served.
Amanda Todd
Amanda's nightmare began when she was
12-years-old, vulnerable and naïve to an older man online. He
convinced her to flash him and then about a year later, tried to
blackmail her with the picture he took with his webcam. The man
threatened if she did not put on a show for him he would send the
picture he took of her to all her friends. She refused him and called
his bluff, but he was not bluffing. This led to many years of torment
from her classmates, who began calling her a porn star and voted her
homecoming queen as a joke. Amanda was the butt of every joke and to
this 15-year-old girl, it was the end of the world. Amanda posted a
video before she took her life, in an effort to tell her story.
(Szalavitz)
Anonymous posted a
video
in response to this tragic event, claiming they had identified
the man who was blackmailing Amanda Todd. Anonymous revealed the name
and address of the man on Pastebin.com (Sieczkowski). Apparently,
Anonymous did not choose to get involved until nude autopsy photos
were leaked online (Sieczkowski). The group sent and email to a
Canada's CTV News, stating, “We generally don’t like to deal
with police first hand but were compelled to put our skills to good
use protecting kids. (Sieczkowski)”
Rehtaeh Parsons a 17-year-old girl from
Nova Scotia committed suicide on April 7, 2013. Rehtaeh had been
mercilessly bullied by school mates following her allegedly being
raped by 4 boys at a party. One of the assailants took a picture
during the rape and passed it around their school. The photo went
viral on social media sites and resulted in her being harrassed,
receiving text messages from peers asking her to have sex with them
too and calling her names (Harkinson).
The assault transpired 2 years prior to
her suicide and resulted in her going from a straight A student to a
high school drop out, due to depression and anxiety (Harkinson).
Rehtaeh's case for the assault was dropped by authorities due to a
lack of evidence.
Following Rehtaeh's suicide, Anonymous
stepped in to do some digging of their own. They claimed to have
identified the rapists in 2 hours, using the photo that was taken
during the assault (Harkinson). Anonymous threatened to release the
names to the public if the police department did not reopen the case
and get Rehtaeh's family justice, claiming that if they could uncover
this much information in a couple of hours, surely they could find
more if they tried (Harkinson). However, Rehtaeh's family asked
Anonymous not to release their names, worrying for their safety,
stating their daughter would not want that (CBC). Anonymous agreed to
respect their wishes but warned that others were interested in
justice too, and may not keep the boys identities secret.
The Friday following her death and two
days after the
video
announcing their demands for the reopening of Rehtaeh's case, the
police department did just that. The PD claims that the reopening had
nothing to do with the information obtained from Anonymous (Bogart).
Maybe the evidence did not come from Anonymous that sparked the
investigation, but it is a fair assessment that their interest and
public outcry for justice got things moving again.
Two members of the Steubenville High
School football team, found a extremely intoxicated 15-year-old girl
at a party and decided to carry her around from party to party,
urinating on her and raping her repeatedly. Many people in the
community witnessed this happening to the incoherent girl and instead
of reporting it to authorities or stopping the guys, some joined in,
taking pictures and laughing and others just did not say anything at
all. The following day news spread throughout the small town of
Steubenville swiftly. The two main assailants involved were charged
with the rape, but Anonymous stepped in because they felt like the
town was not taking the crime seriously enough and the authorities
were corrupt (Marcotte).
Anonymous involving themselves in this
case resulted in national media attention. Everyone heard about the
rape of a girl by members of the football team in the sleepy town of
Ohio. Without Anonymous, would the case have received the same
attention? Probably not. Once Anonymous took this on as something
they wanted justice for, things moved pretty quickly. The group
hacked into the “rollredroll.com,” the high schools athletics
page, posting incriminating tweets and information regarding
individuals they believed were assisting in covering up details of
this crime. According to Amanda Marcotte's article in Slate Magazine,
“Anonymous has been vital in getting out at least some of the
evidence of the assault to the media.”
In March, the group posted a
video,
called ExpectPeace, commending the Sheriff of Steubenville. They
initially were not a fan of him, but said that he spoke with them
during the demonstrations and protests they conducted in the town and
offered them his full support in the cause.
Conclusion
These particular cases are not typical,
until recently, of Anonymous, but are definitely in the same realm of
their corporate hacktivism operations. The group proclaims they are
committed to justice being served and when corrupt agencies attempt
to cover up details or take advantage of the 99-percent, they will be
there, ready to expose the truth. Anonymous taking interest in this
type of crime against humanity, the issues of rape and cyberbullying,
has the potential to help stop these things from happening.
Unfortunately, the approach is not the best, and has skirted the
lines of a violation of privacy for some people that happen to fall
under the umbrella of direct or inadvertant involvement in these
crimes. Anonymous, also, falsely accused a man for cyber-stalking and
blackmailing Amanda Todd. The man was already detained at the time
for sexual assault of another minor, so they did not feel to bad
about that mistake.
Many call them vigilante's, they do not
agree with that label. A representative of the group said, “We do
not approve of vigilante justice as the media claims. That would mean
we approve of violent actions against these rapists at the hands of
an unruly mob. What we want is justice. And That's your job. So do
it." (Caufield)
Works Cited
Caulfield, Philip. "Group claiming
to be Anonymous threatens to unmask boys accused of raping Canadian
girl who died after suicide attempt - NY Daily News."
Daily News America - Breaking national news, video, and photos -
Homepage - NY Daily News. N.p., 11 Apr. 2013. Web. 5 June 2013.
<
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/anonymous-threatens-unmask- boys-accused-raping-canadian-girl-article-1.1313547#ixzz2VJnBrHcm>.
CBC News. "'Anonymous' won't
release names of Rehtaeh Parsons suspects - Nova Scotia - CBC News."
CBC.ca - Canadian News Sports Entertainment Kids Docs Radio TV.
N.p., 12 Apr. 2013. Web. 5 June 2013.
Harkinson, Josh. "Exclusive: Meet
the Woman Who Kicked Off Anonymous' Anti-Rape Operations | Mother
Jones." Mother Jones | Smart, Fearless Journalism. N.p.,
13 May 2013. Web. 4 June 2013.
Sieczkowski, Cavan. "Amanda Todd's
Alleged Bully Named By Anonymous After Teen's Tragic Suicide."
Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. N.p., 16
Oct. 2012. Web. 4 June 2013.
Szalavitz, Maia. "Amanda Todd's
Suicide: Internet and Psychological Toll of Bullying | TIME.com."
Health & Family | A healthy balance of the mind, body and
spirit | TIME.com. N.p., 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 4 June 2013.
