In May last year, a small town called Steubenville, Ohio was the scene of a horrific crime. A drunk, underage girl passed out at a party and the members of town’s much loved football team dragged her from party to party, penetrating her, raping her and urinating on her. It was tweeted about, “I have no sympathy for whores” and “Song of the night is definitely ‘Rape Me’ by Nirvana” and a shocking video was made where witnesses joked about it, “She’s deader than OJ’s wife.” When a voice of reason burst through and asked what they’d do if she was their daughter, the reply was “if that was my daughter I wouldn’t care, I’d just let her be dead.”
The girl woke up the next day with no memory of what happened, but the evidence was there for all to see on social media websites. Her parents gathered it and took it to the police station. Two of the boys were arrested and charged but no-one else has been brought to justice. A coach of the football team has been quoted as saying, “The rape was just an excuse, I think… what else are you going to tell your parents when you come home drunk like that and after a night like that?” and the prosecution for the lawyers have said that social media might be the boys’ salvation because the girl had posted showing that she was “clearly engaged in at-risk behavior.” The whole town had rallied behind the football team; a local crime blogger was being sued for defamation for bringing it to light and people began to whisper about a conspiracy to prevent justice being meted out.
Then Anonymous stepped in. In case you’ve been blithely unaware of the news for the past couple of years, Anonymous are a widespread, leaderless “hacktivist” collective. Closely affiliated with image board 4chan, they began as a loosely organized group of hackers but developed into a body with self-agreed goals and political aims. Their targets have included child pornographers, internet censorship, Uganda’s homophobic governments and the Westboro Baptist Church. They hacked the perpetrator’s accounts online and disseminated the damning video alongside the (once deleted) tweets from the night. Protests had occurred before, but after Anonymous got involved, 3000 people turned up to protest against the judiciary system’s response and the town’s behavior after the rape. That number is a sixth of the size of the town. They raised the profile of the case internationally, prompting the Ohio Police Department to create a website to make the case transparent so no charges of corruption could stick.
Now, I think Anonymous are a good thing. I wholly support most of their actions and I think their rise to prominence is possibly the most interesting thing to happen to the internet since YouTube happened and cat videos suddenly became enthralling. What is upsetting, however, is the environment that we currently live in that has made such a body of people necessary. Corruption will always exist, unfortunately, and where the state threatens to become too intrusive (as with SOPA in America) or when people in public office are blinded by their prejudices (as with Steubenville) it is an inspiring example when people step forward and do something for the good of general humanity. The Independent has quoted a member of Anonymous who said that: “We stand for freedom of access in matter of media and information. We believe in civil rights for all, and our goal is to promote the understanding of your human rights, pushing people to think for themselves and to take action against disinformation through peaceful means.”
While it is almost impossible to disagree with their manifesto, I have to say now that I am against vigilante justice in principle, and it’s only because their causes are broadly aligned with my beliefs that I support them. They wield extraordinary power in this digital age, and that their power lies in their anonymity and their deliberate outsider status could have threatening implications if, one day, they decide to align with (what I shall simplistically call) Evil instead of Good. Unregulated, unaccountable and unknown, they are Anonymous. Until we have more transparent political systems that truly serve the peoples’ interests, they are the best we’ve got. They are not the heroes we deserve, but they are the heroes we need right now.