Whatever Happened To Anonymous?

<p>At its height, the hacktivist collective known as Anonymous was the bane of Scientologists, <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nz7w9b/hacker-outs-himself-as-fbi-snitch-and-claims-he-helped-track-down-isis" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the FBI</a>, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2012/02/10/anonymous-shuts-down-cia-site" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CIA</a>, <a href="https://www.wired.com/2011/07/paypal-hack-arrests/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mastercard, Paypal</a>,<a href="https://www.vice.com/sv/article/gqn4w9/the-syrian-electronic-army-hacked-the-bbc" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Middle Eastern dictatorships,</a> and in its latest effective iterations, <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8q8e5b/how-anonymous-and-other-hacktivists-fight-isis-online-5886b7589848b145c38b4589" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">even ISIS</a>.</p><p><br></p><p>But in recent years, Anonymous has all but disappeared. It leaves a legacy: It single-handedly brought back the Guy Fawkes mask as a true symbol of civil disobedience, was the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRCAR6qxvF4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">obvious inspiration</a> for the hit TV show Mr. Robot, and is also associated with all sorts of more nefarious and negative aspects of trolling culture. In its wake, hacktivism hasn’t dried up altogether, either, with entities like Phineas Fisher <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vb5agy/phineas-fisher-offers-dollar100000-bounty-for-hacks-against-banks-and-oil-companies" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">still making headlines </a>and taking up its mantle as an online vigilante force challenging the powerful.</p><p><br></p><p>This week on CYBER we have <a href="https://twitter.com/BiellaColeman?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Biella Coleman</a>, a professor of anthropology at McGill University in Montreal who wrote the comprehensive