CAN HACKTIVISM IS AN INSTRUMENT OF SOCIAL CHANGE?
Now that we know what Hacktivism is and we have seen an example of it, I wonder if hacktivist artists’ intention is to form a new social and political Utopia? And, is their symbolic fight an effective activist action? In other words, Can Hacktivism art be an instrument of social change?Maybe, the main problem in Hacktivism is the possibility of effectiveness, whether this movement really makes any social impact.
In relation to this, Stefan Wray, one of the creators of the EDT, thinks that it depends on what we mean by effectiveness.
If the objective of Hacktivism is to attract the attention of the media, then we can say that it is very effective.
However, if the measure of effectiveness is considered to be the ability to catalyse and foment the mobilisation of people, then perhaps Hacktivism is unlikely to be effective.
This distinction is really important. That seams the hacktivism cannot change the society by themselves, they only can attract the attention of the media[1]
How can Hacktivism attract the attention of the Media?
Basically they realize that politics is a theatre and they learned to play the same game;
Stefan Wray says:
“We are manipulating the media sphere, we are creating hype, we are cultural jamming, we are simulating threats and action […] we are actors! This is political theatre! A glorification and transformation of the fake into the real, at least in people’s mind” [2]
If we see the Electronic Disturbance Theathre ‘s simulacrum, this is very simple: it presents itself as a real protest against institutions, media or corporations, but it is just a virtual sphere. They create a “symbolic Hero” that can attack to the State.
These symbolic powers are similar between Electronic Disturbance Theatre and the State. The state looks like and is powerful and the Hacktivism just looks like powerful. Because of this, The Hacktivist, as the state, can attract the attention of the media to the symbolic world.
Then, how can be Hacktivism art be a real instrument of the social change?
Maybe the solution is what Luther Blisset called “THE REVOLUTION OF ‘99” in his article titled XYZ of Net Activism in 2001.
In this article, he declares that the net-media-art activism scene is fragmented in a lot of groups, close sub- networks, alternative culture ghettos, avant-garden loners and hyper-egos.
This scene can go overground only through interconnection of each group of artists, activists, writers, theorists, designers, journalists, moderators, organizers, etc. and when they speak the language of the masses. Then this network could become a media icon!,[3]
In the diagram below we can see how Luther Blisset draw this interconnection between the wide area network, pop interface and activism
On it, we can see that:
WIDE AREA NETWORKS (WAN) is a network that uses routers and public communications links
POP INTERFACE is the way to speak the language of the masses (mast) with the aim to be less boring and be close to the people.
ACTIVISM is the intentional action to bring about social or political change as can be the zapatistas’ movement and the Oaxaca Activists. We can say that the aim is realized when we can read in newspapers in different countries news dealing with Hacktivist artists and their projects. [5]
And also through the web, as for example, the New York Times website, they on the Electronic Disturbance Theatre on May of 1998. In this article they argue what is a Virtual Sit-In, the origin of the organization. And what is their future.
Dominguez and Wray, who have known each other for several years, are both active in Internet-based organizations that support the Zapatista rebels in Mexico. Since the uprising of the mainly Indian guerrillas of the Zapatista National Liberation Army in 1994, Web-based human rights and progressive organizations around the world have networked with each other and the rebels to trade information on the tense situation in the Mexican state of Chiapas. The groups have also sent e-mails and faxes to Mexican officials to protest Mexican government policy.
After this article at the news paper their objectives and intention start to be part of the instrument of the social change. And start to draw the attention in their projects[6]
[1] To see more Wray, Stefan. Electronic Civil Disobedience and the World Wide Web of Hacktivism:
A Mapping of Extraparliamentarian Direct Action Net Politics, Switch, http://switch.sjsu.edu/web/v4n2/stefan/ ; What is Electronic Civil Disobedience, the hacktivist.net. http://www.thehacktivist.com/?pagename=ecd
[2] Blisset, Luther. The XYZ of Net Activism, 2001 http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/contributors/blissetttext.html
[3] Ibidem.
[4] http://sami.is.free.fr/Oeuvres/blisset_xyz_net_activism.html
[5] Example of these are McSmith, Andy. The Big Question: Does the internet liberate or undermine democracy? The Independent, 3 October 2007; Luscombe, Richard. Pranksters hijack ‘banal’ TV news, The Observer, 3 July 2005; HARMON, AMY. ‘Hacktivists ‘of All Persuasions Take Their Struggle to the Web, the New York Times, 31 October 1998; DE VICENTE, JOSÉ LUIS CIBER, Hackers en el museo. 13 feb 2004, num 256;
[6] To see more, Kaplan, Carl. For their civil disobedience, the “Sit-In” is virtual, The New York Time on the web, 1 May 1998. www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/05/cyberlaw/01law.html
