Is Operation Avenge Assange Digital Non Violent Direct Action?

[Sepp Hasslberger]

Here is a discussion of the campaign by Anonymous to shut down payment servers of companies that have suspended payments to WikiLeaks...

 

Operation Avenge Assange as Digital Direct Action

 

Nonviolent direct action is a staple in the American diet. Our everyday freedoms depend on the work of activists who have put their bodies on the line to fight for the rights we enjoy. Despite that, many forms of protest are reviled in the present, as people are often more willing to condemn the actions of a few committed individuals as violent or unnecessary, than to judge the system, be it violent or unjust. But history reveals much that is hidden, and we will see how history will judge...

 

Mainstream media, meanwhile, stress the illegality of participating in a DDoS attack. Here an example from Fox News:

 

We Want YOU, Say Hacktivists … but Is It Legal?

 

"The most obvious question is what laws are these hackers violating? In America, there are probably several but the one that stands out from a civil perspective is the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This Act provides both criminal and civil penalties for accessing a computer network without authorization."

But as Cluley pointed out, what's legal in cyberspace depends on your location in, well, meatspace, or the physical world. 

"To the extent these hackers reside outside the United States, the enforcement of the act, and ones like it, becomes very difficult. International cooperation would be necessary to ensure the hackers are appropriately reprimanded."