Hacktivism

Hacktivism (a portmanteau of hack and activism) is the use of computers and computer networks as a means of protest to promote political ends. The term was first used by designer/author Jason Sack in a 1995 InfoNation article about the media artist Shu Lea Cheang. Much as hacking can mean both constructive and destructive activitites, activism similarly includes both explicitly non-violent action (from the models of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi) and violent revolutionary activities (Che Guevara). If hacking as "illegally breaking into computers" is assumed, then hacktivism could be defined as "the nonviolent use of illegal or legally ambiguous digital tools in pursuit of political ends". These tools include web site defacements, redirects, denial-of-service attacks, information theft, web site parodies, virtual sit-ins, and virtual sabotage.