A Social Psychological Analysis of the First Internet War - Essay Example

With the current economic scenario all around the world, the internet is one of the major reasons for coordinating group attacks, movements and protests. In this age of democracy, the people’s opinion can be made to reach its destination via the help of the internet and it has been greatly helped by the parallel creation of anonymous profiles on the Internet. Back in 2000, when the Zapatista Air force bombed the Mexican barracks with paper planes with messages on them, the people found a common method of attacking and making their voice felt.

It was soon realized that consistent and continuous jamming of sites can draw the attention of the concerned authorities. In the Zapatista online Tribal Port Scan people could mount their attack on any site. The common people had found a way to express their concerns now. This form of attack is particularly effective, as, if it is launched on a government website, it can practically stall it and also forcefully attract the attention of the authorities and register the protest. It can also be interpreted as a sign of warning.

The Electronic Digital Theater, an attack portal and organization, developed tools for ‘International Hacktivism’ by which any protest against globalization and its problems can be dealt with. In Estonia, this form of cyber protest was promoted to full-scale war. In this case, the Russians in Estonia jammed official websites by repeatedly transmitting data to a website, disabling vital services and incurring costs for the country. This was a protest for a decision that the government took to move a bronze statue of a Russian soldier, and this has been termed the First Web War.

Such attacks on sites have been made possible for many reasons. Firstly, the people participating remain anonymous and can enable users to be far aggressive without the fear of being caught. Secondly, group norms were set in. As the protests became popular, friends joined in, and others who read the blogs and saw others doing it got involved as well. Thirdly, easy methods of communicating to everyone the process of attack and, contagion, reflective behaviour, helps in increasing such things. Current communicating methods include Internet Relay Channels.

These have helped increase the connectivity between people with no identification as such. Thus over the world more and more people can join hands for a cause. There are many benefits from these, ranging from the possible unification of the world for a cause and easier methods to spread them. Also, the people’s voices can actually be relayed through this without actual physical violence and damage to life and property. Recent protests of Occupy Wall Street and the recent London Riots had also used such methods to relay messages and protest.

However good it may seem, the flip side of the coin shows huge economic losses to countries, problems of online protests going onto the streets and the possibility of pleasure hacking by irresponsible individuals, who cannot be traced by the security agencies.