Digital Contention: Anonymous and the Freedom of Information Movement

The main task of this paper is to analyze the online collective known as "Anonymous" as a case study using the theoretical framework of traditional social movement studies. I outline this framework in the literature review section of this paper as nine distinct characteristics, each pertaining to a different aspect of social movement research. My purpose in doing so is to argue that Anonymous is part of a larger, loosely-connected new social movement, which I call the Freedom of Information Movement, as well as to show how its unique characteristics which have developed out of new digital technologies are making it necessary for sociologists to update and expand upon our existing theories and concepts of social movements. Some of this work has already begun. There have been several, though not many, studies of cyber-activism, hacktivism, digital repertoires of contention, cyber diffusion, online activist networks, and decentralized organizational forms of online movements. Through a combination of historical and qualitative content analyses of news articles, websites, operational fliers, and other written materials associated with Anonymous, I am attempting to build upon and expand this new and growing paradigm concerning online social movements and digital forms of contention.