Anonymous Attacks Child Porn Ring, But Where is the Media?
The hacking group Anonymous recently shifted its sites from large e commerce websites to the web hosting company of a supposed online child pornography ring. According to a darknet "press release", the mysterious group of hackers targeted Freedom Hosting, which they claimed was providing links to child porn material.
Authorities aren't thrilled with this brand of digital vigilante justice. Equally unfazed seem to be the mainstream media, who haven't touched the story. A search of CNN, Fox, and the other major news networks fails to turn up even a mention of this event in the last 2 weeks. The story has been widely covered on the internet, and in many newspapers and magazines such as Forbes.
It begs the question: why the blackout? After all, the 24 hour news cycle is a hungry beast. Fox frequently airs stories about animals escaping from zoos and vehicles catching fire all over the country. Wouldn't the actions of a hacker group, widely known as the most formidable digital force in the world, be worthy of at least a sound byte?
Is it possible that that mainstream media, owned by so many large and wealthy corporations, has absolutely no interest in any news story about Anonymous that portrays them in any kind of a positive light? Certainly, the hacking group isn't going to win any civic medals for their actions. And it looks like the web hosting company was able to quickly recover its servers (though not before Anonymous leaked the names of users). But it is a gesture that most people would probably sympathize with. Whereas the takedown of Amazon could be easily portrayed as an attack on the free market, you can't really be too harsh on a group of cyber nerds who try to nail some child porn pervs.
The issue is definitely news worthy, and raises all sorts of cyber law questions. If a person was caught in possession of child pornography they would be arrested. But what about a web hosting company that allows people to in effect "rent out" their digital space. Disclaimers aside, are they responsible for the content contained therein? And if the authorities aren't able to effectively monitor these activities, who is to say it is wrong for a group of knowledgeable programmers to take care if it on their own?
Either way, it is worth raising in the court of public opinion.
It makes you wonder who the real criminals are: the hackers, or the ones who moderate the information fed to the general public?
Follow Technorati