Monthly Archives: February 2014

Should DDoS Attacks Be Considered Free Speech?

After Wikileaks began releasing classified US State Department diplomatic cables, Paypal rescinded their account, claiming the organization had violated their terms-of-service.

14 members of Anonymous, a loosely defined group of hacktivists, protested PayPal’s actions by launching a distributed denial of service attack, temporarily shutting down Paypal’s site by sending an influx of traffic and overwhelming their servers. Paypal has estimated that the attack resulted in approximately $5.5 million in damages.

The event was discussed in the film “We are Legion: Story of the Activists,” a documentary I viewed in class that takes a look at the development and inside workings on Anonymous. I wanted to take a closer look at whether DDoS attacks should be considered free speech, and thus protected in the United States.

Eleven members of the “PayPal 14,” pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy and one misdemeanor count in December last year. According to the terms of the plea settlement, defense attorney Stanley Cohen says the felony will be dismissed and the defendants will be left with a misdemeanor.

In an op-ed published by Huffington Post, Pierre Omidyar, a Chairman of Paypal’s parent company, eBay Inc., raised the question over whether the members of Anonymous were simply exercising their freedom of expression.

Another commentary piece published in the Guardian argued this, saying that DDoS attacks are a form of protest, a useful tool for people to bring attention to their grievances and make a statement. The author points out that there have been no DDoS protests at the same scale as the PayPal attack since the defendants were charged.

I think that is a very good point. Not only does charging the “Paypal 14,” punish them for making a political statement, it has a chilling effect on future speech. The Internet is an important tool for people to use as a form of expression. Finding new methods of expression is an important aspect for us to grow as a nation, and the threat of criminal charges may discourage future innovations in protest.

But Omidyar points out that protests like the attack on Paypal result in much greater damages than traditional protests, and the attack impacted the users of Paypal much more than the company itself.

I think the question of how the government should treat DDoS attacks, as a legitimate form of protest or a criminal act, is a part of a larger dilemma the country is facing in the digital age, over how the First Amendment should be applied to the internet.

My Web Prescence

In the beginning of the eighth grade, I desperately wanted a Facebook account. Every one of my friends had one and were always discussing the latest gossip  appearing on their “news feed.” But my parents thought, as parents of many middle schoolers did, that if their child made a Facebook account it would open them up to online predators. After about a month of hassling, I gave up on the Facebook profile, despite my friends’ insistence it was essential I had one. By the spring, I really didn’t care anymore.

Once I stopped wanting a Facebook profile, of course, my mom decided I could make one. You see, my mom had made her own Facebook profile. She wanted me to make one so we could be Facebook “friends.” Eventually, she recruited my cousin Brooke who forced me in front of her computer and made my profile for me.

After about a year of initial excitement on Facebook, I was once again indifferent to it. To this day, I rarely post anything myself and only respond to posts that I am directly tagged in. I do use Facebook to keep in touch with friends that have begun to spread throughout the country. While this is a convenient way to stay in contact, I find a relationship that I maintain through the public forum of Facebook is much more superficial unless we also regularly communicate directly . If I see a picture or status update posted by a “friend” on Facebook, I feel the satisfaction of knowing what is going on in their life and may not feel the need to contact them personally. But “liking” a status on Facebook is much different than holding a private conversation. Paul Levinson says in New New Media that relationships between friends and family have begun to “migrate” to the digital world. While I do think that social media sites like Facebook are a useful tool in maintaining relationships, I think more effort is needed to build one, going beyond the basic acknowledgement of “liking” and occasionally commenting on someone’s posts. Interaction through Facebook can enhance a relationship, but I don’t think it can be used exclusively to maintain one.

While Levinson discusses how Facebook can be source of news and knowledge for people, I find that  Twitter serves me better in this capacity. Like Facebook, I rarely post anything myself on my Twitter account. I use it mostly to follow what is going on in the news and what a few of my favorite celebrities are up to.  A quick glance at my Twitter feed in morning lets me know what the major headlines for the day are. As Levinson discusses, links are almost always sent to Twitter when someone publishes an article or blog post. As I read through each tweet I can see what catches my interest and follow the link back to the original article. This allows me to keep track of everything published on the web by my favorite writers, bloggers and publications.

In one of the journalism classes I took in in the Fall 2013 semester we maintained a blog focused on news happening in the journalism industry. I was what Levinson calls a “citizen journalist,” able to publish my own thoughts and analyze the changes happening in an industry where I hope to build my future career. I found that blogging about important events in the journalism industry forced me to think critically about what I was reading and draw my own conclusions, rather than passively reading an article and never thinking about it again. As Levinson discusses, we tweeted a link to our blog posts as we published them.

This blog and Twitter account were the beginnings of my “professional” web presence. I haven’t done much to build it up since then, but a professional web presence as a student will be essential for me in building a career after school, whether in journalism or otherwise. Maintaining a blog allows me to publish my own writing and with Twitter, I can promote my own work and network with others in the business. Before this blog, I didn’t understand the importance of maintaining a professional online presence, or how social media could help me do so.

Levinson discusses how Twitter embodies the new media world. Using social media sites, people can build and maintain both friendships and networking contacts, promote their own  work and share their day-to-day lives with the world. Integrating their own Facebook profile, Twitter account and blog allows people to build an online persona which can enhance their lives both personally and professionally. After my own experience blogging about journalism and reading New New Media I appreciate how important this persona in the digital world of new media is in building my life in the real world.

New New Media on Twitter, Youtube and Blogging

Twitter

“Twitter is not only an engine of microblogging but also a microcosm of the new new media world, in which blogging, advertising, dissemation of photos and videos, campaigns for Diggs and seeking and maintenance of online “friendship” takes place on a moment-by-moment basis.”

I thought that this description of Twitter by Paul Levinson in New New Media captured what new media does to communication. Exemplified by Twitter, new media combines a variety of facets of communication which used to be separated by their appropriate mediums. On Twitter a person can, using this single medium, keep in touch with friends, promote their own professional work, document their day-to-day life and be paid to sponsor a product. Connections made on Twitter can be professional, personal or linger between the two.

Youtube

“Youtube provides audio-visual records of events on television that would otherwise be gone the instant they conclude- or in the case of John Kerry’s 2008 speech, incompletely broadcast or not at all.”

I find it interesting how the internet can act as an archive for events and publications easily accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Miss yesterday’s newspaper? No worries, every article printed, and more, can be found online. I found it interesting that Levinson points out that Youtube can do this for television. If you miss a speech or a sporting event you are almost guaranteed to be able to find it on Youtube to be viewed at your leisure. However, while this is far more convenient for those who have a multitude of obligations, this does take away from the sense of community that the entire nation coming together around their radio or television to watch the president deliver a speech.

Blogs

“Jarvis, then, sees money as putting literal words in bloggers’ mouths- or via their fingers in their blogs- while Sirota sees the desire to increase the number of readers, to increase advertising revenue, as leading to the writing of blogs of “outrageous lies.”

As a journalism student, I took a course last semester called the “Business of News” and we took a close look at blogs and the role they play in the future of journalism. We read Ryan Holiday’s book, Trust Me I’m Lying, in which he describes how he manipulates blogs and their deficiencies, to control the media. He seemingly does so very effectively, using anonymous tips to smaller, less-reputable blogs to drive the stories picked up by larger blogs and possibly well established news sources, all by feeding off a writers desire to increase the number of “hits” their blogs get. I feel that Levinson should have payed closer attention to this deficiency of blogs, and how new media can also be detrimental.