WEBVTT - Anonymous and the SovereignDAO 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:12.239 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. He there, 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:15.640 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:18.520 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio. And how the tech? 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:20.320 Are you all right? This is going to be an 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.040 epic episode. I'm calling it now. And I got an 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:25.759 email from a listener named Nathan who was hoping I 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:29.080 could shed some light on something that he encountered online. 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:32.360 He was watching a video that was published by the 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:39.000 activist group Anonymous that directed viewers to something called Sovereign Doo. 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:43.120 That's DAO, and he said this felt a little out 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:47.080 of step with the group's philosophy. It felt like he 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:52.800 was being channeled toward some kind of multi level marketing 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:56.520 scheme or Ponzi scheme or something, and he wanted to 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:59.400 know more about it. And there's only so much I 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:02.720 can say about Sovereign now because I haven't joined it. 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:07.400 But Anonymous is or has put out a video. At 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:10.559 least someone in Anonymous has published a video that has 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:16.120 publicized a dow called Sovereign Dow. So this whole question 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:20.200 that Nathan has asked opens up multiple cans of worms. 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:22.640 So in this episode, we're going to cover a ton 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:26.560 of ground in order to get a full understanding of 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:29.880 what this all means. That's going to include a quick 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:32.280 review of what are not so quick review of what 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:36.040 Anonymous is and what they're all about. We'll also refresh 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:40.160 our minds on what a decentralized autonomous organization that is 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:43.480 a dow a d ao, what it is and what 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:48.520 they can do, which gets pretty broad. Will also quickly 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:51.000 explore the word sovereign to kind of get a grip 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:55.639 on why Anonymous would want to promote something called sovereign dow. 0:01:56.200 --> 0:02:00.360 And I think this will start to peel way the 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:04.080 layers and let us get an understanding as to what's 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:07.160 actually going on here, how the concept of the tao 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:09.720 in general or not the doo. I should just say 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:12.680 doo because there was once upon a time a doo 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:17.440 called v doo. And also what sovereignty is and why 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:21.200 this all actually does align with at least the perceived 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:27.280 motivations behind Anonymous. You can't ever say super firm, definitive 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:33.519 things about Anonymous because the organization itself defies that is, 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:40.400 it is too amorphous to ascribe specific descriptors and say 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:46.079 this universally applies. So let's tackle the hackers who are 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:51.279 known for wearing Guy Fox masks both online and occasionally 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:56.320 in public, being called Anonymous. Now, before we get to that, 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:59.560 I'm going to explain who Guy Fox was first, because 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:05.679 if Anonymous has adopted this image, this mask, why did 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:08.600 they do that, Who was Guy Fox, what did Guy 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:14.000 Fox do? And moreover, what other element in pop culture 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:18.359 adopted the guys of Guy Fox? Because that's really what's important. 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:22.120 But we need to understand the whole picture. Context is 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:26.400 always critical, I say so, we have to actually look 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:31.359 at the early seventeenth century, the early sixteen hundreds in England. 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:35.880 Guy Fox was a Catholic living in England under the 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:41.880 reign of King James, who was Protestant. Now James's predecessor, 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:46.160 Elizabeth the First She was also a Protestant Church of England, 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:49.640 which her father established in England in order to be 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:52.000 able to divorce a woman to marry somebody else. That's 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:55.360 a whole story we won't go into. But Elizabeth kind 0:03:55.440 --> 0:04:00.480 of walked a middle line between Protestants and catholic She 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:08.720 did not firmly proclaim Protestantism and oppress the Catholics, at 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:12.800 least not to huge extent, especially not considering some of 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:17.479 her predecessors, and she wanted to avoid the chaos and 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:20.880 violence that would break out when one side would end 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:24.159 up persecuting the other. Her sister Mary did a really 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:28.240 great job of illustrating what happens if a hardline Catholic 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:33.200 decides to persecute the Protestants. Elizabeth wanted to avoid that 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:37.880 kind of strife within her kingdom. James, he was leaning 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.640 much harder into Protestantism than Elizabeth did, And for the 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:44.440 Catholics who were living in England, who were really hoping 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:46.760 to get another Catholic monarch, or at least someone who 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:51.000 had Catholic sympathies, this did not sit well, particularly among 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:53.960 the nobility who had seen some of their a lot 0:04:54.000 --> 0:05:00.440 of their wealth stripped away in the guise of religious strife, which, honestly, 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:02.640 when you look at the history of England, really comes 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.320 down to who thinks they can steal more of the 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:08.640 other person's stuff and get away with it than anything else. 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:12.839 That's not Maybe that's considered a controversial view, but honestly 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:15.960 it's the truth. Likes it largely comes down to I 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:20.200 want what that guy has. They happen to identify as Catholic. 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:23.039 I'm a Protestant. I'll use that as the excuse to 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:27.120 take all their stuff. Anyway, Guy Fox is a Catholic. 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:31.680 He opposes James the Protestant, and so he joins a 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:36.400 band of conspirators who ultimately have the goal to assassinate 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:42.360 King James, to commit regicide and replace him as regent, 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.880 hopefully with his daughter, who they saw as being more 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:50.200 pliable and perhaps more sympathetic to Catholics. The popular, but 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:55.279 probably apocryphal version of this story had the conspirators planning 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:59.240 to tunnel under Parliament with the intent to stack a 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:02.560 whole bunch of barrel of gunpowder underneath the House of Lords, 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:05.120 and then they would light up the barrels and blow 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:08.480 the English government into the afterlife. Do not pass go, 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:14.120 do not persecute Catholics. Now, in truth, they actually found 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:17.960 access to a chamber that was underneath the House of Lords, 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:20.919 sort of like a seller, and so they didn't actually 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:23.200 have to tunnel anywhere. They just had to get access 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:26.360 to this chamber and then make sure that nobody else 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:29.039 found what they were doing before they were able to 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:33.560 execute their plan, and they secretly began loading in a 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:37.320 bunch of barrels of gunpowder into this chamber. They hid 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:42.200 them under piles of coal and wood, and you know, 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:45.159 because it wasn't winner yet in England, they were hoping 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:47.400 that no one would go poking around in there until 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:50.360 Parliament was in session. They were essentially saying, like, this 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:54.279 is a storage of fuel that will probably be untouched 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:58.000 until we can get parliament. The problem was there was 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:02.400 also plague in England at the time, and any large 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:05.360 gathering of people was seen as a potential way of 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:10.400 spreading plague, which was you know true, and as a result, 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:16.960 Parliament wasn't entering into session as part of cautionary measures. 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:21.160 So we get up to late October. Parliament is finally 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:24.679 gearing up to go into session, having delayed several times 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.720 due to plague outbreaks, and the conspirators had regularly been 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:30.480 checking on these barrels that they had been storing in 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:33.080 the cellar over time to make sure they were secure 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:35.440 and that no one had found them, and no one 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:39.520 had like the plan was on and they were getting 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:42.880 closer to the time of attack when Parliament would go 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:46.920 into session in early November of sixteen oh five, but 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:52.680 some of the conspirators were a little worried because not 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:57.760 everyone in Parliament was Protestant. There were some Catholics who 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:01.240 were also as members of the House of Lords, and 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:03.640 while it seemed like it was jolly good sport to 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:07.040 blow up Protestants, it was considered bad form to do 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:11.160 the same to their fellow Catholics. So someone among the 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:17.800 conspirators sent an anonymous letter to Lord Monteagal that essentially said, hey, 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.680 call out sick when Parliament opens up, because things are 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:25.360 gonna get spicy. I am paraphrasing here. So then Lord 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:29.400 Monteagle goes over to King Jimmy and he says, hey, 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:33.960 I got some potentially really bad news, And King Jimmy 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.640 commands that a security force sweeps the sellers beneath Parliament 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:40.800 to find out what the heck is going on. And 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:45.400 a security detail happened to come across the path of 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:48.920 one guy Fawks, who had been sent to check in 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:51.240 on the barrels in the cellar to make sure that 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:54.800 everything was fine, and he was caught in the middle 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:58.240 of the night on November fifth, sixteen oh five, and 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:01.560 he was put to the question that's a very polite 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:05.600 way of saying that the King's forces tortured the ever 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:11.760 loven pants off of him, probably literally, and over the 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:17.080 course of repeated torture sessions that got increasingly brutal, Fox 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:22.319 gave up his co conspirators and continued to endure really 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:29.960 brutal torture over the course of his confinement. In late 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:33.120 January sixteen oh six, so like a couple of months 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:37.160 after the planned attack, Fox and several of his co 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:43.000 conspirators were transported to Westminster Hall, forced to mount a scaffold, 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:48.040 pronounced guilty of high treason, and they were executed. That 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.760 is the polite way to describe what happened to them. 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:55.079 I will say that if you get into the details, 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:59.280 it goes beyond the level of cruelty. Then they were 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:01.880 also chop dup so that their body parts could be 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:05.280 sent around England to warn other would be traders about 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:08.520 what could happen if you plot against the crown. To 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:13.760 this day, November fifth is Guy Fox Day, and tradition 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:18.880 has people in England lighting bonfires to celebrate not the 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:22.800 plan to assassinate the king, which is often how it 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:29.439 gets portrayed, but rather to celebrate how the king escaped assassination. 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:32.520 And there's a little poem that goes with it. Remember 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:36.400 remember the fifth of November, Gunpowder, treason and plot, for 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.440 there is a reason why gunpowder and treason should never 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:44.960 be forgot. It changes a bit depending upon the interpretation. 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:48.160 You have to keep in mind that the language of 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:55.680 sixteen o six England was modern English but antiquated, so 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:57.960 slightly different from the way we would say it today. 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:00.520 But anyway, that was the whole point of Guy Fox 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:06.920 Day was to remind yourself, hey, we almost had regicide 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:10.400 in the Kingdom. It was stopped, and we also need 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:12.680 to remember what happens if you go against the king. 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:15.280 That's kind of the purpose of Guy Fox Day. Now 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:17.720 skip ahead a couple of centuries and get up to 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:21.920 nineteen eighty two. You had writer Alan Moore and artists 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:26.880 David Lloyd and Tony Weir who create a comic strip 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:30.640 titled V for Vendetta, and the comic strips were later 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:35.000 collected into a graphic novel. Now, in this story, there's 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:39.120 an anarchist who simply goes by V and he commits 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:42.280 acts of violence in an attempt to bring down a 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:46.640 fascist government in England, and he does it while wearing 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:52.280 a Guy Fox mask. So it's really more this version 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:56.880 of Guy Fox that Anonymous would draw their iconic look from, 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:00.920 as opposed to the actual historic figure they were taking 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.520 it from, this pop culture comic book version. And again 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:07.719 v is not Guy Fox. He's adopted that because he 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:12.440 is an anarchist. He opposes not just fascism, he's really 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.680 not in favor of any kind of organized government at all. 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:22.640 He sees government as ultimately an institution that is bound 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:25.320 for corruption, like there's just no way to avoid it, 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:31.359 and so he prefers anarchy to any kind of organized government. Moreover, 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:33.960 V for Vendetta is the story of someone who is 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:37.360 special in that he is willing to go to whatever 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:42.719 extreme is necessary to defeat an overreaching, unjust, unfair, corrupt 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.959 status quo. So he's not a superhero, right, He doesn't 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:50.280 have superpowers. He does display some pretty unbelievable skills and 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:52.920 physical abilities through the course of v FA Vendetta, but 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:58.480 he's ostensibly a regular old human being, and the message 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:01.160 seems to be anyone can change the world. And in 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:06.400 this graphic novel, the rhyme of remember remember the fifth 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:12.760 of November is not about remember how this traitor nearly 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:18.800 committed regiside. It's about remember how the normal person can 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:24.439 upend an entire government. So the message gets flipped with 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:28.240 V for vendetta than it did in actual history. Now, 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:35.000 the decentralized, loose confederation of activists, activists, anarchists, trolls and 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:41.040 others that would form Anonymous did not immediately adopt the 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:45.800 guy Fox mass that would come later in their history. Initially, 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:49.560 if you look at the very earliest kind of emergence 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:53.040 of anonymous, you have to look at the image based 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:57.360 message forum for Chan, and this used to be looked 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:01.920 at as one of the wilders on the wild West. 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:05.240 That was the web, right, Like the web was this 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:09.280 place where you had established brands, but you also had 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:13.400 these kind of pools of anarchy where all sorts of 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:16.880 shenanigans could happen. And four Chan at the time was 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:20.240 looked at as like kind of like Moss Eisley, the 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:24.960 hive of scum and villainy. These days, other forums like 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:28.080 eight chan and Kiwi Farms have said hold my beer 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:30.680 and really taken the mantle of home to the worst 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:33.040 of the worst on the web. But four chan used 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:36.440 to be the place. Now when we come back, I'll 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:40.640 talk about how anonymous first began to take shape on 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:54.080 four Chan. But first these messages okay, we're back. So 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:57.680 if you were to join four Chan, you could do 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:01.080 so without creating a handle, right, You didn't have to 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:05.160 create a handle that would identify you as someone who 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:08.240 is a participant. You could just join and you would 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:13.240 get the default user name anonymous. And so you had 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:18.040 these groups of like minded people trolls on four Chan 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:21.560 who began to coordinate their efforts to essentially cause grief 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:26.880 and frustration to other online communities, often to online communities 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.120 that were catering to younger users, because it just seemed 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:36.040 really funny to them to upset and upend these communities. 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:38.880 They say, Hey, look at these little kids who are 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:43.520 trying to have fun online. How about we mess with 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:50.000 them very much? Not a noble cause, right, is undeniable 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.080 that they were just out to cause trouble and to 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:56.360 make people upset for their own amusement. So they got 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:59.800 joy out of making life miserable for other people. A 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:03.760 quick note just in my own experience, I have found 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:07.280 that you actually can get way more joy out of 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:11.920 doing nice things for people than you get from causing 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:14.200 grief to folks. Although I get it, like there's some 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:18.680 people out there that just seem like they really need 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:21.480 to have some misery visited upon them because they are 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:24.480 causing misery to other people. Right, you might see someone 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:29.280 and say, this person is disproportionately making life terrible for 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:32.000 lots of people. I want to see some come upance. 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:35.680 I get that, but I also think that you know, 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:40.080 just anonymously trying to cause strife to people who you 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:43.680 don't know and have no connection to. I think that's 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:46.320 just lame. I would much prefer to see people do 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:49.280 nice things. It takes a little more effort, but I 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:53.280 think it has way more payoff. Anyway, that's getting sidetracked. Okay. 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:55.800 From two thousand and three to around two thousand and 0:16:55.840 --> 0:17:00.120 six or so, these trolls, which began to collectively identify 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:05.080 themselves as anonymous because again that's the default anonymous user 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:09.320 name on four Chan, they started to harass various online 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:14.520 communities just for fun. Some of these communities were also trollish, 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:18.560 so in some cases you had trolls attacking other trolls. 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:22.480 This escalated by two thousand and six to targeting specific 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:26.800 people rather than an online community. So in other words, 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:32.320 you might target an actual individual who you think deserves 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:35.520 to be taken down a peg for whatever reason. So 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:39.040 typically these people were fairly high profile, They had some 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:43.080 sort of platform from which they espoused their views, and 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:47.400 they had come to offend this group of trolls on 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:51.040 four Chan through saying those views. In some cases, these 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:56.159 were like far right commentators and media, and they became 0:17:56.359 --> 0:18:00.200 prime targets. But it wasn't just them really, anyone one 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:05.200 who was seen as being you know, hypocritical or insincere, 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:09.720 anything like that. If they seem like they were putting 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:13.320 up a front that hidden motives, they can become a 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:16.439 target too. Now Anonymous went after them in an effort 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:19.760 to really humble these folks, but it was mostly again 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:24.080 for the lulls. It wasn't like a crusade to right wrongs. 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:29.040 It was more about this person deserves some frustration in 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:31.600 their life or worse, so we're gonna do it and 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:35.200 we're gonna laugh about it. Now, you might wonder how 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:40.600 did this group transition from being this loose collective of 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:47.000 trolls to turn into a decentralized activist group. A big 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:51.440 part of that transition actually came from outside the group itself. 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:55.439 It came due to mainstream media, which kind of just 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:59.879 got the whole thing wrong. Mainstream media ended up having 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:03.560 the wrong interpretation of what Anonymous was, and that in 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:07.159 turn kind of shaped Anonymous. So there was like a 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:10.639 broadcast in Los Angeles that was on Fox Television. They 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:15.359 reported about Anonymous and suggested that Anonymous was in fact 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:21.479 a domestic terrorist group. Now keep in mind, Anonymous had 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:26.320 been targeting some far right media personalities at this point, 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:29.840 so perhaps that was part of it. Because Fox often 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:33.400 kind of, you know, at least leans to that side. 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:38.359 In some markets, it doesn't lean, it absolutely lays down 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:42.240 on the far right side. So they were saying that 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:45.520 Anonymous were domestic terrorists capable of great acts of violence. 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:50.480 They even included in their broadcast video footage of a 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:56.159 van exploding. Never Mind, this had no connection to Anonymous, Like, 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:59.120 Anonymous had not done any kind of acts of violence. 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:04.400 They were rassing people, but they didn't bomb cars or anything. 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:09.439 So this was like just it was so absurd. It 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:12.480 had no connection to the actual group, but the group 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:16.000 was being portrayed as if they were this incredibly sinister, 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:20.760 dangerous group of individuals, which, honestly, if you are not 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:25.640 identified as being part of that group. But you get 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:29.000 the benefit of feeling like people are looking at you 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:31.840 and thinking you're important and dangerous. That can really boost 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:34.880 your ego quite a bit, right, Like it feels good 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:36.920 to be looked at and thought of as a badass. 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:40.320 That just it's like an ego boost to that the 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:44.280 world thought that Anonymous was dangerous, at least the Fox 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:48.879 broadcast station in Los Angeles did, anyway, and that kind 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:52.600 of made them feel like they were important. There was 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:55.840 also the case of a Canadian Security Intelligence Service agent 0:20:55.920 --> 0:21:00.840 who went to a guy named Aubrey call who was 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:05.600 involved in Anonymous and tapped him as joining a task 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:09.359 force designed to infiltrate and disrupt online terrorist groups. But 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:15.040 Caddle was like, I just mess with people to make 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:19.679 them angry. I don't like this is like James Bond 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:23.320 level stuff, and I am not James Bond. But again, 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:27.720 it showed that the outside world was looking at Anonymous 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:35.200 as being way more powerful and capable than they actually were, 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:38.120 and it made people who were part of Anonymous feel 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:40.600 important and more people wanted to join because they wanted 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:43.639 to feel like they were part of this power group. 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:48.679 And then we get to Tom Cruise. And you know, 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:53.000 I think without Tom Cruise, we wouldn't have the Anonymous 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:55.840 that we have today. In fact, the group Anonymous might 0:21:55.880 --> 0:22:00.679 not even exist without Tom Cruise. This is not hyperbole. 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:04.919 So by early two thousand and eight, Anonymous was still 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:08.320 mostly a group of folks who like to harass people, 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:13.200 and again, mostly they were doing this online, and mostly 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:16.560 the people they were harassing were people they felt deserved 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:20.080 to be harassed, although the criteria for what made someone 0:22:20.760 --> 0:22:24.480 deserving varied depending upon who in the group was doing it. 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:30.440 And Tom Cruise would change things. So on January fourteenth, 0:22:30.480 --> 0:22:34.560 two thousand and eight, someone published a video of Tom 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:38.400 Cruise talking about Scientology and his participation in the Church 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:42.640 of Scientology. Now, this episode's already going to be a 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:46.120 long one, which means I am not going to dive 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:50.399 into the rat's nest that is Scientology. I will say 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:55.480 it is an organization that's registered to be a religious organization, 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:58.639 which means that they enjoy tax exempt status in the 0:22:58.720 --> 0:23:01.960 United States. It's an organization that has a very long 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:07.399 history of allegations made against it and its leadership that 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:12.000 range from stuff like the organization encouraging members to surrender 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:15.320 more and more of their own personal wealth to the church, 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:19.560 essentially saying that the church siphons money out of its 0:23:19.600 --> 0:23:26.119 members to super scary allegations like the church using the 0:23:26.240 --> 0:23:31.040 US legal system to intimidate or even bankrupt people who 0:23:31.040 --> 0:23:34.600 were identified as threats to the church itself, including people 0:23:34.600 --> 0:23:37.520 who were just trying to leave the organization. It's got 0:23:37.560 --> 0:23:41.920 a really bad reputation, which is putting it lightly. Anyway, 0:23:42.200 --> 0:23:45.959 Tom Cruz's interview did not make him look very good, 0:23:46.240 --> 0:23:49.359 and it made the church look even worse. Cruz was 0:23:49.400 --> 0:23:53.160 not trying to bring down the Church of Scientology, far 0:23:53.280 --> 0:23:58.520 from it. He was an eager participant. However, his descriptions 0:23:58.560 --> 0:24:01.800 and demeanor in this video we're seen as harmful to 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:05.160 the image of the Church of Scientology, and so the 0:24:05.240 --> 0:24:09.960 church sent YouTube a copyright violation claim that prompted YouTube 0:24:10.000 --> 0:24:14.880 to remove the video, and that is where anonymous would 0:24:14.960 --> 0:24:19.800 jump in. So people with an anonymous saw Scientology's actions 0:24:20.359 --> 0:24:25.840 as leveraging a company's policies, in this case YouTube, in 0:24:25.960 --> 0:24:30.640 order to commit censorship to remove information from the Internet, 0:24:30.640 --> 0:24:35.640 which just kind of goes against the whole ethos of 0:24:35.720 --> 0:24:38.120 the Internet and the Web in general. Like you've probably 0:24:38.160 --> 0:24:40.919 heard like once it goes up on the Internet, that's it. 0:24:40.920 --> 0:24:43.240 It's there, Like whether you try and take down the 0:24:43.240 --> 0:24:46.320 original one or not, it's up there. People have shared it, 0:24:46.400 --> 0:24:51.120 people have cloned it. Whatever. Now they were thinking that 0:24:51.640 --> 0:24:55.440 the Church of Scientology was abusing YouTube's policies in an 0:24:55.440 --> 0:25:01.399 attempt to hide information that was not very flattering to 0:25:01.480 --> 0:25:04.920 the church from the general public. Then there were all 0:25:04.920 --> 0:25:07.800 the other alleged misdeeds that the church was said to 0:25:07.840 --> 0:25:11.320 have committed. So on top of that, there's everything else. 0:25:11.359 --> 0:25:13.359 If you really want to go down a rabbit hole, 0:25:13.640 --> 0:25:17.840 search the term fair Game and Scientology and you'll see 0:25:17.840 --> 0:25:21.399 what I'm talking about, a tip of the iceberg really 0:25:21.440 --> 0:25:26.080 of what I'm talking about. So Anonymous thought of Scientology 0:25:26.080 --> 0:25:30.800 as being an organization that was perfect to take down 0:25:30.840 --> 0:25:33.560 a few pegs, like this was an organization that clearly 0:25:33.960 --> 0:25:38.040 had a lot of power and influence, and in the 0:25:38.119 --> 0:25:41.439 opinion of those an Anonymous should not have those things. 0:25:41.920 --> 0:25:45.800 So they wanted to hold an operation. That's what a 0:25:45.800 --> 0:25:49.000 lot of projects within Anonymous end up being called an operation. 0:25:49.119 --> 0:25:53.639 This one was actually called Project Channology, in which Anonymous 0:25:53.800 --> 0:25:57.760 organized protests against the church in the real world. People 0:25:57.800 --> 0:26:02.200 showed up at locations connected to the Church of Scientology, 0:26:02.680 --> 0:26:07.280 many of them wearing guy Fox masks. And meanwhile, the 0:26:07.720 --> 0:26:13.000 online part of Anonymous was using all sorts of tactics 0:26:13.000 --> 0:26:18.760 to disrupt Scientology's Internet based operations. So they were doing 0:26:18.800 --> 0:26:21.760 things they were actually pretty simple in the grand scheme 0:26:21.800 --> 0:26:24.800 of things like denial of service attacks. These are not 0:26:24.920 --> 0:26:29.280 sophisticated online attacks, but they can be effective. Essentially, what 0:26:29.320 --> 0:26:33.040 you're doing is you're targeting a web server and you 0:26:33.119 --> 0:26:36.240 are sending an enormous amount of traffic to that web 0:26:36.280 --> 0:26:39.440 server in order to overwhelm it so that it cannot 0:26:39.440 --> 0:26:42.600 respond to legitimate messages. So like you could target the 0:26:42.600 --> 0:26:45.840 web server that hosts the Church of Scientology's web page, 0:26:46.320 --> 0:26:50.720 and because you have overwhelmed that server, anyone trying to 0:26:50.760 --> 0:26:53.159 go to the Church of Scientology's webpage is going to 0:26:53.240 --> 0:26:55.639 get an error message. Again, this is not a very 0:26:55.680 --> 0:26:58.880 sophisticated attack. There are actually a lot of companies out 0:26:58.880 --> 0:27:02.200 there that you can and work with that specifically look 0:27:02.320 --> 0:27:05.560 for that kind of attack so that they can prevent 0:27:05.600 --> 0:27:09.800 it from affecting your web servers. So it's not something 0:27:09.840 --> 0:27:14.479 that typically gets used a ton against high profile targets. 0:27:14.480 --> 0:27:17.159 Because a lot of high profile targets have moved to 0:27:17.320 --> 0:27:21.560