Living With Hacktivism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xx

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2. Introduction: The Birth of Cyberspace and the Development of Hacktivism

   • Vasileios Karagiannopoulos

   Pages 1-13

3. The Two Eras of Hacktivism

   • Vasileios Karagiannopoulos

   Pages 15-41

4. Looking into the Positive and Negative Aspects of Hacktivism

   • Vasileios Karagiannopoulos

   Pages 43-90

5. Contemporary Norms and Law and Hacktivism

   • Vasileios Karagiannopoulos

   Pages 91-142

6. Enforcing Crime Control and Hacktivism

   • Vasileios Karagiannopoulos

   Pages 143-174

7. Moving from Conflict to Symbiosis

   • Vasileios Karagiannopoulos

   Pages 175-221

8. Final Conclusions

   • Vasileios Karagiannopoulos

   Pages 223-226

9. Back Matter

   Pages 227-282

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This book focuses on the phenomenon of hacktivism and how it has been dealt with up to now in the United States and the United Kingdom. After discussing the birth of the phenomenon and the various relevant groups, from Electronic Disturbance Theater to Anonymous, their philosophies and tactics, this timely and original work attempts to identify the positive and negative aspects hacktivism through an analysis of free speech and civil disobedience theory. Engaging in this process clarifies the dual nature of hacktivism, highlighting its potential for positive contributions to contemporary politics, whilst also demonstrating the risks and harms flowing from its controversial and legally ambiguous nature. Based on this hybrid nature of hacktivism, Karagiannopoulos proceeds to offer a critique of the current responses towards such practices and their potential for preserving the positive elements, whilst mitigating the risks and harms involved in such political practices. Finally, thestudy focuses on identifying an alternative, symbiotic rationale for responding to hacktivism, based on a cluster of micro-interventions moving away from the conflict-based criminal justice model and the potentially unjust and inefficacious results it entails.  

• cyber
• computer
• internet
• criminology
• criminal justice
• socio-legal studies
• political activism
• law enforcement
• cybercrime
• UK
• US
• Western democracy
• social media
• European Court of Human Rights
• Germany
• policing

“The book points out fundamental weaknesses in the legislative process through which many hacktivists have been convicted in the US and UK. This can make Karagiannopoulos’s work a valuable resource for social movement and collective action modules, as much as for criminology or terrorism courses. The messages communicated throughout the book should help readers, and especially legislators, come to grips with the normative intricacies of contested online practice and may incentivise further research on best-practice examples … .” (Leonie Maria Tanczer, LSE Review of Books, blogs.lse.ac.uk, August 31, 2018)

• Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom

  Vasileios Karagiannopoulos

Vasileios Karagiannopoulos is Senior Lecturer in Law and Cybercrime at the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth, UK.

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