A hackers free-for-all exploded yesterday on the Web, and Facebook and Twitter are caught smack in the middle.
On Wednesday, anonymous hackers took aim at companies perceived to have 'harmed' WikiLeaks after its release of a flood of confidential diplomatic documents. MasterCard, Visa and PayPal, which had cut off people’s ability to donate money to WikiLeaks, were hit by attacks that tried to block access to the companies’ Web sites and services. Even Amazon.com, who provided free web hosting services to Wikileaks wasnt spared when they withdrew their free services from Wikileaks.Advocates of WikiLeaks complained that Amazon.com was bowing to political pressure to cut the organization from its Web services. An Amazon.com spokesman said the company was simply banning an organization that had violated its terms of service by trying to distribute documents it did not own.
To organize their efforts, the hackers have turned to sites like Facebook and Twitter. This, has drawn these Web giants into the fray and created a precarious situation for them.
Both Facebook and Twitter — but particularly Twitter — have received praise in recent years as outlets for free speech. Governments trying to control the flow of information have found it difficult to block people from voicing their concerns or setting up meetings through the sites.
Now the problem, both Facebook and Twitter have corporate aspirations that hinge on their ability to serve as ad platforms for other companies. This leaves them with tough PR and business decisions around how they should take care of situations as political as the WikiLeaks developments.
Any Internet user who cares about free speech or has a controversial or unpopular message should be concerned about the fact that intermediaries might not let them express it.
The problem came into relief on Wednesday, through an effort called Operation Payback, organized by a group calling itself Anonymous. The group spent much of the day posting notes on Facebook and Twitter that told followers which companies to single out and that documented hacking successes.
But Facebook banned one of the group’s pages, saying that using the site to organize hacking attacks like that violated its terms of use. The group went on Twitter to complain.
A Facebook spokesman issued a statement saying that the company was “sensitive to content that includes pornography, bullying, hate speech, and threats of violence” and would “take action on content that we find or that’s reported to us that promotes unlawful activity.”
In an interview Wednesday morning, Joe Sullivan, Facebook’s chief security officer, addressed WikiLeaks’s own presence on the site. He said the company had not received any official requests to disable pages or accounts associated with the WikiLeaks organization.
Facebook generally resists requests by governments or advocacy groups to take down material if that content is not illegal or does not violate Facebook’s terms of service, which prohibit attacks on individuals or incitements to violence.
Twitter allowed the Operation Payback account to stay active most of Wednesday. But the group’s account was disabled late in the day, after it posted a link to a file that provided thousands of consumer credit card numbers, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation.
The company is not overly concerned about hackers’ attacking Twitter’s site, he said, explaining that it faces security issues all the time and has technology to deal with the situation.
Twitter is in a particularly delicate situation because its founders have celebrated their service’s role in political protest and free speech. They have not been shy about trying to capitalize on the good will engendered by playing that role.
WikiLeaks’s own Twitter account remains active, and it is the group’s main channel for reaching supporters and the media.
The last week has given rise to a hacking war in which counter-groups have blocked access to WikiLeaks’s Web sites by bombarding them with requests. Similar to the DDOS attacks launched on Mastercard, Visa, PayPal & Amazon.com
And now the WikiLeaks supporters have responded in kind, flying the freedom of speech banner as the motivation for their actions.
Protests have finally taken to the digital streets of revolution & freedom. Corporates really dont seem to get away with anything nowadays.
(with a little help from NYTimes)
No comments:
Post a Comment