Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Anonymous - #OpBlackout TwitterStorm
Greetings fellow citizens of the World.
We are Anonymous.
We are currently being censored by a powerful and oppressive government. While we protest against tyranny, they continue to censor and arrest us. Even in the United States, the land of the Free, we are now slaves to the 1%.
In November 2011, the United States Government forced Twitter to reveal personal information without court order. Also, the United States government is secretly tracking individuals with GPS devices. By far, the worst offences of 2011 to the American people are The Protect IP Act and SOPA bills. They alone will enable the 1% to censor the Internet and silence our Right To Free Speech.
Operation Blackout humbly ask you to protest against these social injustices! Support your Occupy movements! Martin Luther King said, "Our lives begin to end, the day we become silent about things that matter." We Anonymous do not choose to become the way we are. As Nelson Mandela said, "When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw."
November 30th is your day to act. Your help to the movement will be decisive. Your mission is to help us spread the word on Operation Blackout. Make as many twitter accounts as you can and spread the message, which will be available in the description. With that message, and a trending hashtag with it, we can spread the word. Operation Blackout will prevail despite the government's disapproval. Operation Blackout, engaged.
We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
To the United States government, you should've expected us.
Bloggers may not be as anonymous as they think
Bloggers and online activists who shroud their digital identities may not be as anonymous, or safe, as they believe.
In a proof-of-concept hack called a "Reverse Lookup," security researcher Andy Baio took a random sample of 50 anonymous blogs, and, in less than 30 minutes, revealed the identities — names, addresses, employers and photos — of seven blog authors.
On his website, Waxy.org, Baio explained that lifting the bloggers' veil of anonymity was not a highly technical exploit; all he needed to expose them was Google's simple, free and ubiquitous search engine optimization tool, Google Analytics.
The case for an Italian rebellion. Why it doesn’t happen. And what could happen, by Luca De Biase
The case for an Italian rebellion is not insane. I had the chance to speak with many foreign observers, recently, and I found that an Italian rebellion is considered a real option. (I will not quote their names, but if they want they can comment here).
An Italian rebellion? Other Mediterranean countries have done just so, lately. Tunisia and Egypt, for example, have chosen to rebel against their dictators and the world has appreciated. Considering the Italian political situation as a sort of authoritarian regime and thinking that it is not reformable through the normal democratic process, one is lead to think that the rebellion is the only possible solution.
In that mindset, if Italians rebel, they demonstrate their democratic will and maturity. If they don’t rebel, they show they are anything between accomplices and weak victims of the head of their government and his power system. If Italians will rebel, they will free themselves from the shame of accepting a very doubtful sort of democratic government, the consequences of which are dangerous for themselves and the world. That’s the option. But it is not happening.
Why?
Of course, assuming that Italy is not a real democracy and that it is not going to be reformed through a democratic process is a quite extreme vision of the Italian situation. Many Italians still think they are in a democracy and that next electoral opportunities will bring a new government to them. But many others think that they live in a regime, based on a non-democratic control over the media (i.e. television) by the head of the government.
The incredible series of scandals that involved the head of the government are linked to his political incapacity to manage the financial crisis, which makes Italy dangerous for the world’s financial stability. There is a general understanding about the fact that a change in government should be needed to solve some real Italian problems. The government has resisted all scandals by denying any problems and by acting as if all criticism was the enemy’s obscure maneuver. The majority in Parliament has been reinforced by an alliance with a dozen or more politicians that had been elected in one of the opposition’s parties and that have been convinced to change side using very controversial means. Many see the Italian political stall as a consequence of a lack of democracy in Italy. If nothing is done, Italy will lose its place in the euro system, causing tragic consequences to the world’s financial stability. Poverty will grow, desperation will rise, violence will diffuse.
Thus, as it has been said, a rebellion should be an option. Or isn’t it?
As seen from abroad if Italians don’t rebel, it may be that Italians are accepting the way their politicians work. If it was true, the international shame should be on them, too, and not only on their politicians. But listening to what Italians are thinking and doing is a bit more complicated. And maybe a learning experience.
image from http://www.spitting-image.net
