Though Anonymous prides itself on its level of secrecy and lack of organization, that does not mean the members condone all actions in the name of the group. Anonymous does not have a publicity team and does not have a group of people identified as directors or heads of operations. The point of the group is that everyone who wishes to fight for justice is a member of Anonymous. This, however, does not mean that all members condone the activity of others.
In the last 24 hours, Anonymous has taken to its Twitter account "YourAnonNews" to chastise the recent activity of some of its members. These actions include a "swatting" prank directed at Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI). A swatting prank is when a phone call is made to police, reporting a harmful incident at a private citizen's home. A team of police ultimately responds to the report, duping both the police and the victim.
On its Twitter page Monday, Anonymous lambasted those responsible, noting that actions like these can and will be used by Congress to justify the implementation of the CISPA bill. President Obama has indicated that he may veto the bill when it crosses his desk; however, new incidents could prolong the discussion. In language that is unacceptable for print, Anonymous chastised the unnamed assailant. The group noted that they "do not like Rep. Mike Rogers, that's not a reason to SWAT him or anyone for that matter." Anonymous further told the unnamed assailant that this sort of action will undermine the hard work the group has done to prevent passing CISPA into law.
Following the swatting of Rep. Rogers, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer was also the victim of a similar prank; this prank has yet to be attributed to someone involved with Anonymous. Authorities were skeptical of the Blitzer incident, although following protocol, they did set up a perimeter around the journalist's Bethesda, Md. home.
Though it is nice to see Anonymous begin to attempt to police the actions of its members, actions such as swatting pranks may come with the territory of such a loose affiliation. If Anonymous were to become more actively organized, it would defeat the purpose of its message. All the group can do going forward is try to promote awareness of what are right and wrong forms of Internet protest. Any deviation from that notion could undermine the allegiance of users and brand them as hypocrites.
