Is Hacktivism the New Civil Disobedience?

When doctors start civil disobedience it's time to take notice.

Paediatricians at the Lady Cilento Hospital in Brisbane are now entering the sixth day of their protest against the Australian government’s intention to send the young baby of asylum seeker parents back to a refugee detention centre on the Pacific island of Nauru. They believe that the centre cannot provide a safe environment for her, an assertion that is backed by ample evidence. 3 These docto...

1 Introduction : Why a Debate on Civil Disobedience ?

A Theory of Civil Disobedience Faculty Research Working Paper Series

From the streets of Hong Kong to Ferguson, Missouri, civil disobedience has again become newsworthy. What explains the prevalence and extremity of acts of civil disobedience? This paper presents a model in which protest planners choose the nature of the disturbance hoping to influence voters (or other decision-makers in less democratic regimes) both through the size of the unrest and by generat...

Nber Working Paper Series a Theory of Civil Disobedience

From the streets of Hong Kong to Ferguson, Missouri, civil disobedience has again become newsworthy. What explains the prevalence and extremity of acts of civil disobedience?This paper presents a model in which protest planners choose the nature of the disturbance hoping to influence voters (or other decision-makers in less democratic regimes) both through the size of the unrest and by generati...

Hacktivism: assessing the damage

First, we have to ask, who are these people? And there’s no easy answer. These are not well-defined groups with membership lists. And their activities have spawned many imitators and fellowtravellers. There are also some distinctions between the groups defined by the ‘members’ themselves. This makes labels difficult: ‘hacktivists’, ‘activists’, ‘hackers’, ‘members’ – even the word ‘group’ itsel...