Since 2008, the Church of Scientology has been a source of inspiration (as well as mayhem) for Anonymous, whose actions against the Church peaked in 2008/9 with Project Chanology. Springing initially from 4chan and its anonymous users organizing themselves for mass online pranks designed to annoy others, the focus of the group sharpened when a video of Tom Cruise exposing secrets of the Church of Scientology was leaked online and quickly spread. Scientology fought back, claiming the video was stolen private property, the 4chan group called it censorship and retaliated with cyber war. It moved beyond 4chans borders and within days a massive group organized and began blitzing the Church with hundreds of thousands of website hits and phone calls, clogging up and crashing their systems. In less than 3 weeks, Anonymous provoked or committed over 8 thousand phone calls, sent over 3 million malicious emails, made 22 bomb threats, 8 death threats and organized a large worldwide protest against the Church. The group was able to shut down the churchs national Dianetics hotline with an overload of calls. The group soon released a video claiming a common ideological purpose, setting an agenda and listing a formalized code of conduct. The powerful combination of online and real world forces was too much to be ignored and both authorities and the movement itself recognized this. It was an epic wake-up call as to the shape modern social activism would be taking and the physical and cyber actions associated with it created the standard for contemporary activism. Anonymous was now a force to be reckoned with.
David Wagner is an author/musician who splits his time between Oakland, CA and Istanbul, Turkey.
David has published two novels, both available on his website, and as a fan of movies, comics, and genre television, he is happy to be working with WhatCulture as a regular contributor.
