Chains of Trust : Networks of Persistent Resistance in Digital Activism

Abstract: Digital manifestations and their networks are seen as agile, but fragile, with the Internet facilitating fast, low-cost activism by bridging actors, distributing information, and circumventing gatekeepers. From this perspective, mediated collective action and digital activism are theorized through the understanding of the Internet as a medium which affords lowered costs and risks for activists. Such theories, however, side-step the phenomenon of hacktivism, where the costs and risks of participation may be higher. Moreover, while issues of legality and risk play an integral part in understanding the phenomenon of hacktivism, they have rarely been studied directly. As such, little evidence exists regarding the effects of increased costs and risks on participation in digital activism. Nonetheless, the research record from non-mediated collective action and activism shows that higher-risk or higher-cost activism is most often supported by tight organizational or interpersonal networks. Such ties, strong or otherwise, frequently go uninterrogated in research on digital activism. To investigate these issues, I performed a three-year ethnography in the digital (social movement) scene called Anonymous. Anonymous has been associated with, among other things, digital protest, and hacktivist actions. These protests and hacking actions have resulted in legal consequences for hundreds of participants throughout the world, some of whom are still awaiting trial or serving prison sentences. Using risks and costs as a lens to explore Anonymous’ digital activism, I aim to interrogate scholars’ understandings and conceptualizations of mediated collective action, as well as the nature of interpersonal ties and trust in uncertain, high-cost, or high-risk, mediated activism. I ask how participants characterized the costs and risks of their participation, as well as how they navigated collaborative relationships and assessed the trustworthiness of peers. My analysis shows that participants in Anonymous viewed their participation as risky and narratively tied increased risks to a series of arrests which took place in 2011 and 2012. Consequently, participants attempted to mitigate the risks of their participation through individual and collective strategies that encouraged the development of clusters of activists who participated in increasingly tight-knit, closed groups. Network closure, in turn, encouraged the formation of bonding ties and affective loyalty. While openly acknowledging the risks of such bonds, participants relied upon them and even justified continued participation through a social lens. These findings exemplify conditions—those characterized by network closure and groups where members are enmeshed in clusters of strong ties—which can be understood as strong, mediated ties. This study offers, therefore, not only a novel understanding of Anonymous, but also evidence that suggests that models of mediated collective action should account for risks and costs even in digital milieus. Furthermore, these findings suggest circumstances under which re-searchers may expect to find persistent resistance in an (almost entirely) digital milieu.