Hacktivist group Anonymous announced today the start of an attack on Westboro Baptist Church with the release of e-mail addresses, phone numbers, home addresses, and more for over fifty of the church's members. The announcement is in response to Westboro's announced plans to picket funerals in the wake of Friday's school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
In a video released along with the contact information, the group announced:
Since your one-dimensional thought protocol will conform not to any modern logic, we will not debate, argue, or attempt to reason with you. Instead, we have unanimously deemed your organization to be harmful to the population of The United States of America and have therefore decided to execute an agenda of action which will progressively dismantle your institution of deceitful pretext and extreme bias and cease when your zealotry runs dry. We recognize you as serious opponents and do not expect our campaign to terminate in a short period of time. Attrition is our weapon, and we will waste no time, money, effort, and enjoyment in tearing your resolve into pieces as with exposing the incongruity of your distorted faith.
What are your thoughts? Is Anonymous's release of personal contact information justified? Or should Westboro's free speech rights protect them from such privacy violations?
Anonymous isn't a government agent and as long as they don't lie, where's the 1A protection?
ReplyDeleteI think many would argue that free speech is something that should be honored throughout society rather than just by the government. The prevalence of statements such as "This is a free country. I can say what I want." certainly make it seem as such.
DeleteThe issue I was raising is that it might be questionable to some as to whether or not one should hack accounts and release private data in order to protest another's exercise of free speech. One is protected. The other might be illegal depending on how the data was gathered.
-Jeffrey