Every so often, there’s an online plot that lurches into the mainstream. Usually, these are simple pranks (via vote manipulation, for example) on online contests. Sites like 4chan occasionally have posts directing others to go to a site and vote on x  (usually on some obscene or otherwise wildly offensive submission). Other times, however, more serious operations, campaigns, whatever you want to call them pop up. Large scale hacks like with cheating site Ashley Madison, or the “doxxing” (collecting and spreading of personal information) about someone who wanted to remain anonymous. These events usually have a lot of planning behind them, and oftentimes only the end result gets reported on in the inevitable public blowback. There are the few cases, however, where these plans are widely praised. Anonymous, the amorphous “hacktivist” group made up of individuals from different hacking “teams”, became widely popular with “Operation Chanology”, where the group declared war on the Church of Scientology.

Some plans, however, never see the light of day. Political operations are the most interesting to me; campaigns of subversion by infiltrating online tags, doxxing outspoken political opponents, sending pizzas to people’s houses etc. represent the darker side of politics. Sources of income also represent a target; advertisers are oftentimes emailed en masse in attempts to get them to pull money from whoever runs their ads. Even Pizzagate, as absurd as it was (and continues to be, in certain places) had groups of users collaborating, finding municipal plans, Google Earth satellite images of “suspicious locations,” widespread infographics, and social media archives. And all this is what happens in public. Entire networks for hacking, harassment, scamming and cyber-crime exist on the infamous “Deep Web” (a collection of unindexed web pages) oftentimes reinforced by encryption. Every so often, these group efforts, either public or private come to the public’s attention, and continue to amaze with their collaboration, democratic process, and occasional ingenuity.