| richardhutnik said: What makes you think Anonymous isn't merely a label people wear and do things behind in order to accomplish their own person ends, and sometimes find others joining in. As a label, no one is sure who is using it or not. My understanding is this is as close of a description to what Anonymous is than anything else. And it is tough to then say there is an organization that exists. Conversely though, there are things done under the label, so someone out there is wearing it so you can't fully say it doesn't exist either. Usually organizations have identified members, and organization structure, and leadership used to maintain its identity and purpose. Where is any of this in Anonymous? What do you make of this? |
Alright let me make a comparison I wanted to avoid. Anonymous, as an entity, is most similar to terrorist organizations such as Al-qaeda both in goals and (in a very loose way) tactics*. As far as I can tell, and what would make the most sense is to have the structure is to have all the cells independant and ignorant of each other. The name works between them, and there are some key members that over-see it all. You can say there is no co-operation or collaboration between the cells, and thats fine. No one is saying otherwise. However you cannot say there is no connection as the name is kept for a reason. Most importantly the whole concept was started by a collection of individuals most likely involved in many, if not all of their activities. There is also a lot of planning, strategizing, and general organizing that goes on behind the scenes. I will guarantee a lot of over lap between the top tier of people who are pulling this off given the similarity in targets, execution, and ability to get off scott free,
I want to stress that the above comparison is notexactly an equivalence I want to make. Mostly because of the difference between real and cyber terrorism, but there are minor other points to. Please no one take this as a means of equating a server going down, and the loss of even a single human life. There is a huge difference that I am not trying to ignore.
*When I say they are similar in terms of goals and tactics I mean this in a very loose sense. Both intend to right grevious wrongs to better the world around them. Both do this by attacking the "source" of what is wrong in their world. There is an intent into scaring and bullying a company into behaving how the attackers want through brute force and other illegal means.
Any over-lap between the goals of Al-qaeda and Anonymous are likely entirely coincidental and I am quite certain there is no more overlap in membership than would be found just by chance.
