Who Is Anonymous

?

Anonymous is an international network of activist and hacktivists that originated on the imageboard website 4chan in 2003. Since then, the group has gone on to become one of the most enduring and influential hacker collectives in history. Anonymous has been involved in a wide range of activities over the years, including protesting government corruption and corporate wrongdoing, defending free speech online, leaking classified documents, and taking on internet censorship.

The group’s famously faceless logo — a headless man wearing a suit and a Guy Fawkes mask — has become an instantly recognizable symbol of protesting and subverting authority. Despite its large and often decentralized nature, much of the group’s activities are organized and coordinated through the secretive and encrypted chatroom on the website IRC (Internet Relay Chat).

Anonymous’s operations feature largely undefined and variable goals, which makes them difficult to categorize. At times, it has been involved in highly publicized cyberattacks against governments and major corporations, such as Sony and PayPal. On other occasions, it has spread humorous and absurd messages across the internet as part of its "lulz" campaigns.

Despite its often ironic nature, Anonymous remains committed to its core message of defending ideas of freedom, justice and transparency. It has also demonstrated a willingness to work within the law wherever and whenever possible, such as when it organized to clean up oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

Though the individual members of Anonymous are largely unknown, their influence — both offline and online — cannot be denied. Anonymous remains a powerful force for good and bad in the digital era, and its members have earned respect and admiration for their goals, even if their tactics aren’t always approved of.