Project Chanology, also known as “Operation Chanology” was the protest movement by internet “hacktivist” group Anonymous against the Church of Scientology, which became prominent in 2008. Project Chanology was a combination of media protests, such as the January 2008 “Message to Scientology” YouTube video, cyber attacks to the Scientology servers, and eventually demonstrations in cities across the world.
A leaderless, ever-changing collective, the culture forming the hacker group Anonomous began in the dark-web chatrooms of 4Chan, where anonymous posts tended to focus on “trolling,” a humorous, though often vicious form of interaction. When a video of Tom Cruise speaking about Scientology circulated on 4Chan, the messageboard filled with indignant cries to “take out” the Church for the “lulz.” In the largest internet-organized protests that had taken place by that point in time, hackers around the world assembled in chatrooms and on the streets to take (legal and less than legal) actions against Scientology, including the now-infamous protests in Guy Fawkes masks.
“Hello, Scientology. We are Anonymous.
Over the years, we have been watching you. Your campaigns of misinformation; suppression of dissent; your litigious nature, all of these things have caught our eye. With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation, the extent of your malign influence over those who trust you, who call you leader, has been made clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that your organization should be destroyed. For the good of your followers, for the good of mankind–for the laughs–we shall expel you from the Internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form. “
As seen in the above text from the 2008 video, Anonymous manages to simultaneously be a single organization with a known culture, mission, and voice, and yet maintain the openness that allowed its transition from a group of trolls to a collective of activists in the early 2000’s. The group plays on the infrasctructure of the internet (and the way different groups interface with it) in order to strengthen their message, often harnessing the mainstream media’s fearmongering as their most effective tool and challenging our notions of public interactions with knowledge.
source:
“Message to Scientology.” Anonymous. YouTube. Web. 09 Feb. 2016.
Coleman, E. Gabriella. Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous. Print.