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Comment by jrspruitt | Hacker News Reader

Since it is an act of political protest, I wonder how this plays out. Seems it is a lot like the cyber version of picketing/marching/protesting at a business, government building or any physical location like that. Where would you peaceably assemble online, in such a way it makes a statement? If everyone joins a chat room so what? Only they notice it, where if you protest in public, you get noticed, for disrupting the day to day flow of things. This seems like one of the few ways to accomplish that same effect online.

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You can't call this action picketing/marching/protesting.. This group has brought down multiple websites, with the malice as the intent. The next best real-world comparison would have been a riot. Attempting to shut down a business is in my eyes not something the police would let slide in real-world situations

Yeah they do give off more of a riot like atmosphere, with the breaking and entering tactics. For this to be more equivalent, they'd need a permit to take up so much traffic on public roadways, or in this case, internet connections. Plus there is no clear cut description of what is causing the disruption. If a building was surrounded by protesters, there would be plenty of signs, clearly stating what the group of people felt was so terrible that they needed to protest about. The way it is now, average person thinks the website is having technical difficulties, and knows no different, until the news informs them. Which gives the media all the power in framing what the protest was about. Still regardless of this particular incident, I wonder if it is a tactic that could be used to any sort of degree of effectiveness, as a means for people to express their displeasure in the virtual world of the internet. We the People are powerful only as a group. People doing evil things, might not always respond to a PR attack through Twitter or Facebook.

Maybe.

The people that are most likely to 'suffer' now are the ones that downloaded a ~thing~ and said 'I want to protest against Paypal'. Okay, maybe they know that this is a grey area or technically nor legal, but.. Still. They are not 'bringing down' anything on their own.

I hope you don't compare it to a mob either - it seems far too 'peaceful' for that.

Regarding 'shut down a business': What do you call it if all employees go on a strike? What if activists block a train route to stop nuclear wastage: Are they not harming the business (both by blocking the rails for other trains and by causing immense costs for everyone involved)?

While I'm not even sure I agree with the way this group tries to make a point, I DO think you should grab some colors that are not black or white..

The thing about political protest is that you actually have to show up to show that you care. If your protest march has blocked the street you might be inconveniencing others, but at least you're inconveniencing yourself more. You think it's legit to have a form of protest which inconveniences others without inconveniencing yourself? If this was legal, then wouldn't it be done by everyone, all the time against everyone by whom they felt aggreived?

Remember, the world is full of folks who hate other folks. Sometimes for legit reasons, sometimes for stupid reasons.

I agree with there being a huge problem of it becoming vastly too easy to do. And there does seem to be a huge discrepancy on the internet, between what people feel is important enough to cause such a ruckus and what's not worthy. Ranging from real human rights issues to he said she said pointless crap. Perhaps it would mean more if you had to sit there hitting the refresh button in unison with a group, instead of just running a script to do it for you. You no longer need to be a charismatic leader to rally the troops, just infect computers with a botnet. Such singular power executed through such forceful means does seem more like tyranny than justice. I wonder what a better equivalent to such traditional means of the public showing disapproval would be online?

I wonder what a better equivalent to such traditional means of the public showing disapproval would be online?

Easy. Write something. Put forward a rational, logical and coherent argument about why you disapprove of X, and publish it somewhere. Instead of just inconveniencing others with your temper tantrum, you might convince them to come around to your point of view.

One person with a sensible argument is far more powerful than a hundred thousand people with a poorly thought out chant.

I've tried this many times in my life, and all I have found, is that there are people out there, who absolutely refuse to do anything about the problem. No matter how well the argument is laid out, how evil they have been acting, the only thing they will respond to, is force, because at that point, it is not up to them to change.

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