Project Chanology
Encyclopedia
Project Chanology is a protest
movement against the practices of the Church of Scientology
by members of Anonymous
, a leaderless Internet
-based group that defines itself as ubiquitous. The project was started in response to the Church of Scientology's attempts to remove material from a highly publicized interview with Scientologist Tom Cruise
from the Internet in January 2008.
The project was publicly launched in the form of a video posted to YouTube
, "Message to Scientology", on January 21, 2008. The video states that Anonymous views Scientology's actions
as Internet censorship
, and asserts the group's intent to "expel the church from the Internet". This was followed by distributed denial-of-service attack
s (DDoS), and soon after, black fax
es, prank call
s, and other measures intended to disrupt the Church of Scientology's operations. In February 2008, the focus of the protest shifted to legal methods, including nonviolent
protests and an attempt to get the Internal Revenue Service
to investigate the Church of Scientology's tax exempt status
in the United States.
Reactions from the Church of Scientology regarding the protesters' actions have varied. Initially, one spokesperson stated that members of the group "have got some wrong information" about Scientology. Another referred to the group as a group of "computer geeks". Later, the Church of Scientology started referring to Anonymous as "cyberterrorists" perpetrating "religious hate crimes" against the church.
Detractors of Scientology have also criticized the actions of Project Chanology, asserting that they merely provide the Church of Scientology with the opportunity to "play the religious persecution card". Other critics such as Mark Bunker
and Tory Christman
initially questioned the legality
of Project Chanology's methods, but have since spoken out in support of the project as it shifted towards nonviolent protests and other legal methods.
alt.religion.scientology
(a.r.s.) removed from Usenet
. This attempt backfired and generated a significant amount of press for a.r.s. The conflict with a.r.s led the hacker
group Cult of the Dead Cow
to declare war on the Church of Scientology. The Church of Scientology mounted a 10-year legal campaign against Dutch writer Karin Spaink
and several Internet service providers after Spaink and others posted documents alleged to be secret teachings of the organization. The Church of Scientology's efforts ended in a legal defeat in a Dutch court in 2005. This series of events is often referred to as "Scientology versus the Internet
".
was posted on YouTube. In the video, music from Cruise's Mission: Impossible
films plays in the background, and Cruise makes various statements, including saying that Scientologists are the only people who can help after a car accident, and that Scientologists are the authority on getting addicts off drugs. According to The Times
, Cruise can be seen in the video "extolling the virtues of Scientology". The Daily Telegraph
characterized Cruise as "manic-looking" during the interview, "gush[ing] about his love for Scientology".
The Church of Scientology asserted that the video material that had been leaked to YouTube and other websites was "pirated and edited" and taken from a three-hour video produced for members of Scientology. YouTube removed the Cruise video from their site under threat of litigation. The web site Gawker.com
did not take down their copy of the Tom Cruise video, and other sites have posted the entire video. Lawyers for the Church of Scientology sent a letter to Gawker.com requesting the removal of the video, but Nick Denton of Gawker.com stated: "It's newsworthy, and we will not be removing it."
s 711chan.org and 4chan
, the associated partyvan.info wiki
, and several Internet Relay Chat
channels, all part of a group collectively known as Anonymous, on January 16, 2008 after the Church of Scientology issued a copyright violation claim against YouTube for hosting material from the Cruise video. The effort against Scientology has also been referred to by group members as "Operation Chanology". A webpage called "Project Chanology", part of a larger wiki, is maintained by Anonymous and chronicles planned, ongoing and completed actions by project participants. The website includes a list of suggested guerrilla tactics
to use against the Church of Scientology. Members use other websites as well to coordinate action, including Encyclopedia Dramatica
and the social networking
site Facebook
, where two groups associated with the movement had 3,500 members as of February 4, 2008. A member of Anonymous told the Los Angeles Times
that, as of February 4, 2008, the group consisted of "a loose confederation of about 9,000 people" who post anonymously on the Internet. A security analyst told The Age
that the number of people participating anonymously in Project Chanology could number in the thousands: "You can't pin it on a person or a group of people. You've thousands of people engaged to do anything they can against Scientology."
Members of Project Chanology say their main goal is "to enlighten the Church of Scientology (CoS) by any means necessary." Their website states: "This will be a game of mental warfare. It will require our talkers, not our hackers. It will require our dedicated Anon across the world to do their part." Project Chanology's stated goals include the complete removal of the Church of Scientology's presence from the Internet and to "save people from Scientology by reversing the brainwashing". Project Chanology participants plan to join the Church of Scientology posing as interested members in order to infiltrate the organization.
Andrea Seabrook
of National Public Radio's All Things Considered
reported Anonymous was previously known for "technologically sophisticated pranks" such as spamming chat rooms online and "ordering dozens of pizzas for people they don't like". Ryan Singel
of Wired
appeared on the program on January 27, 2008, and told Seabrook that members of Anonymous were motivated by "the tactics the Church of Scientology uses to control information about itself" rather than the "controversial nature of Scientology itself".
s against Scientology websites and flooding Scientology centers with prank calls and black fax
es. The group was successful in taking down local and global Scientology websites intermittently from January 18, 2008 until at least January 25, 2008. Anonymous had early success rendering major Scientology websites inaccessible and leaking documents allegedly stolen from Scientology computers. This resulted in a large amount of coverage on social bookmarking
websites.
The denial-of-service attacks on Scientology.org flooded the site with 220 megabit
s of traffic, a mid-range attack. Speaking with SCMagazineUS.com, a security strategist for Top Layer Networks, Ken Pappas said that he thought that botnet
s were involved in the Anonymous operation: "There are circles out there where you could take ownership of the bot machines that are already owned and launch a simultaneous attack against [something] like the church from 50,000 PCs, all at the same time".
In response to the attacks, on January 21, 2008 the Scientology.org site was moved to Prolexic Technologies
, a company specializing in safeguarding web sites from denial-of-service attacks. Attacks against the site increased, and CNET News reported that "a major assault" took place at 6 p.m. EST on January 24, 2008. Anonymous escalated the attack on Scientology on January 25, 2008 and on January 25, 2008, the Church of Scientology's official website remained inaccessible.
On January 21, 2008, Anonymous announced its goals and intentions via a video posted to YouTube entitled "Message to Scientology", and a press release declaring "War on Scientology", against both the Church of Scientology and the Religious Technology Center
. In the press release, the group stated that the attacks against the Church of Scientology would continue in order to protect freedom of speech
and to end what they characterized as the financial exploitation of church members.
The Tom Cruise video is referred to specifically at the start of the Anonymous YouTube video posting, and is characterized as "propaganda video". The video utilizes a synthesized voice and shows floating cloud images using a time lapse method as the speaker addresses the leaders of Scientology directly: "We acknowledge you as a serious opponent, and we are prepared for a long, long campaign. You will not prevail forever against the angry masses of the body politic. Your methods, hypocrisy, and the artlessness of your organization have sounded its death knell. You cannot hide; we are everywhere." The video goes on to state: "We shall proceed to expel you from the Internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form ... We are anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us." By January 25, 2008, only four days after its release, the video had been viewed 800,000 times, and by February 8, 2008 had been viewed over 2 million times. Author Warren Ellis
called the video "creepy in and of itself" and a "manifesto, declaration of war, sharp political film".
In a different video posted to YouTube, Anonymous addresses news organizations covering the conflict and criticizes media reporting of the incident. In the video, Anonymous criticizes the media specifically for not mentioning objections by the group to certain controversial aspects of the history of the Church of Scientology, and cited past incidents including the death of Lisa McPherson
: "We find it interesting that you did not mention the other objections in your news reporting. The stifling and punishment of dissent within the totalitarian organization of Scientology. The numerous, alleged human rights violations. Such as the treatment and events that led to the deaths of victims of the cult such as Lisa McPherson." Lisa McPherson was a Scientologist who died in 1995 under controversial circumstances. Initially, The Church of Scientology was held responsible and faced felony charges in her death. The charges were later dropped and a civil suit brought by McPherson's family was settled in 2004. This second video was removed on January 25, 2008, YouTube citing a "terms of use violation". Organizers of the February 10, 2008, Project Chanology protests against the Church of Scientology told the St. Petersburg Times the event was timed to coincide with the birthday of Lisa McPherson.
In addition to DDoS attacks against Church of Scientology websites, Anonymous also organized a campaign on one of their websites to "begin bumping Digg," referring to an attempt to drive up Scientology-related links on the website Digg.com. On January 25, 2008, eight of the top ten stories on Digg.com were about either Scientology-related controversies or Anonymous and attempts to expose Scientology. Digg CEO Jay Adelson told PC World
that Anonymous had not manipulated the site's algorithm system to prevent artificial poll results, stating: "They must have done a very good job of bringing in a diverse set of interests ... It just happened to hit a nerve that the Digg community was interested in." Adelson said two other instances which similarly have dominated the Digg main page in the past were the Virginia Tech Massacre
in the aftermath of the incident and the "7/7" London bombings in 2005
. Adelson commented on the popularity of Scientology theme within the Digg community: "In the history of Digg, there's no question that the topic of Scientology has been of great interest to the community ... I can't explain why."
On January 29, 2008, Jason Lee Miller of WebProNews reported that a Google bomb
technique had been used to make the Scientology.org main website the first result in a Google search for "dangerous cult". Miller wrote that Anonymous was behind the Google bomb, and that they had also tried to bump Scientology up as the first result in Google searches for "brainwashing cult," and to make the Xenu.net
website first result in searches for "scientology". Rob Garner of MediaPost Publications wrote: "The Church of Scientology continues to be the target of a group called Anonymous, which is using Google bombs and YouTube as its tools of choice."
In a February 4, 2008, article, Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw
told the Los Angeles Times that Church of Scientology's websites "have been and are online." Danny McPherson, chief research officer at Arbor Networks, claimed 500 denial-of-service attacks had been observed on the Scientology site in the week prior to February 4, some of which were strong enough to bring the website down. Calling Anonymous a "motley crew of internet troublemakers," Wired
blogger Ryan Singel
said that, while attempting to bypass the Prolexic servers protecting the Church of Scientology website, users of a misconfigured DDoS tool inadvertently and briefly had targeted the Etty Hillesum Lyceum, a Dutch
secondary school
in Deventer
. Another hacking group associated with the project, calling themselves the "g00ns," mistakenly targeted a 59-year-old man from Stockton, California
. They posted his home telephone number, address and his wife's Social Security number
online for other people to target. They believed that he was behind counter-attacks against Project Chanology-related websites by the Regime, a counter-hack group who crashed one of the Project Chanology planning websites. The group allegedly attempted to gain personal information on people involved in Project Chanology to turn that information over to the Church of Scientology. After discovering they had wrongly targeted the couple, one of the members of the g00ns group called and apologized.
spelling. The video denied that the group was composed of "super hackers," stating: "Contrary to the assumptions of the media, Anonymous is not 'a group of super hackers.' ... Anonymous is everyone and everywhere. We have no leaders, no single entity directing us." The video said that Project Chanology participants include "individuals from all walks of life ... united by an awareness that someone must do the right thing." Specific controversies involving the CoS were cited in the video as the explanation for actions by Anonymous.
In an email to CNET News, Anonymous stated that coordinated activities were planned for February 10, 2008, in many major cities around the world. Anonymous hoped to use "real world" protests to rally public opinion to their cause. According to the Associated Press
, the protests were meant to draw attention to what the group refers to as a "vast money-making scheme under the guise of 'religion'". By January 30, 2008, 170 protests had been planned outside Church of Scientology centers worldwide. A video posted to YouTube called "Code of Conduct" outlined twenty-two rules to follow when protesting, and urged protestors to remain peaceful.
On February 2, 2008, one hundred and fifty people gathered outside of a Church of Scientology center in Orlando, Florida
to protest the organization's practices. Small protests were also held in Santa Barbara, California
(during the Santa Barbara International Film Festival
), and Manchester
, England. Protesters in Orlando carried signs with messages "Knowledge is Free" and "Honk if you hate Scientology". According to WKMG-TV
, the protesters called the Church of Scientology a "dangerous cult" and said the organization is responsible for crimes and deaths. The Orlando Sentinel
reported that the protest was "part of a worldwide campaign by a group that calls itself Anonymous," and an unnamed organizer who spoke to the paper stated that the group was protesting "a gross violation of the right to see free church material," referring to the Tom Cruise video that was pulled from YouTube.
Protesters at the demonstration wore masks, and said they were attempting to inform the public about what they believed to be "restrictions of free speech and profiteering through pyramid schemes" by the Church of Scientology. They asserted they were not protesting the doctrine of Scientology, but rather alleged actions of individual Scientologists. One protester stated that he had created a Facebook group to organize the protest, explaining "It started online with a group called Anonymous ... They got upset with Scientology because the church hides important documents that are supposed to be released to the public."
February 10
On February 10, 2008, about 7,000 people protested in at least 100 cities worldwide.
Within 24 hours of the first protest, a search for "Scientology" and "protest" on Google Blog Search returned more than 4,000 results and more than 2,000 pictures on the image-sharing site Flickr
. Cities with turnouts of one hundred or more protesters included Adelaide
, Melbourne
, and Sydney, Australia; Toronto, Canada; London,; Dublin; Austin, Texas
, Dallas, Texas
, Boston, Massachusetts, Clearwater, Florida
, and New York City, New York
, United States.
One hundred and fifty people protested at the Church of Scientology building in Sydney, Australia, carrying signs and wearing costumes. Participants were masked to maintain their anonymity and avoid possible retaliation from the Church of Scientology. Protesters chanted "Church on the left, cult on the right" (in reference to the Church that was beside the Church of Scientology building), "Religion is free" and "We want Xenu". Scientology staff locked down the building and set up a camera to record the event. After the protest in Sydney, a surge in online Internet traffic due to individuals attempting to view pictures from the protest crashed hundreds of websites when a server was overloaded. The Sydney protest was one of the first worldwide, and after the first images of the protest went online a surge in traffic drove the hosting company's bandwidth usage up by 900 per cent. The hosting company Digitalis temporarily prevented access to hundreds of its clients' sites, and customer support representative Denis Kukic said the surge was unexpected: "We had no advance notice that there was going to be a sudden surge of traffic or that there would be more than 100 times the average traffic that this customer's website normally consumes."
Masked protesters in Seattle, United States congregated in front of the Church of Scientology of Washington State. Protesters were quoted as saying, "We believe in total freedom of belief. We have nothing against the people of Scientology, however the Church of Scientology has committed crimes. They're vehemently anti-opposition. Anyone who opposes them, must go down." A Santa Barbara
protester emphasized that their opposition was against the organization, not the belief system, and that they supported the Scientology split-off group known as the Free Zone
. Protesters turned out in Pittsburgh
, Pennsylvania
despite unusually cold weather. The masked crowd consisted mainly of college students, including some who had travelled from as far as Penn State University.
Protesters in Boston, Los Angeles
, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Edinburgh
, London, and other cities worldwide, wore Guy Fawkes
masks modeled after the 2005 film V for Vendetta
. Guy Fawkes was an English Catholic executed for a 1605 attempt to blow up the House of Lords
. In V for Vendetta
, a rebel against a near-future fascist regime uses the mask in his public appearances and distributes many of its copies to the population to enable mass protests. The Boston Globe
characterized usage of the Guy Fawkes masks as "an allusion to the British insurgent and a film depicting an antigovernment movement". Aaron Tavena of College Times wrote that the Guy Fawkes masks provided a "dramatic effect" to the protests, and Nick Jamison of The Retriever Weekly wrote: "During the February 10 protests, Anonymous was informative, Anonymous was peaceful, and Anonymous was effective. After seeing all of the pictures from the 10th with everyone in disguise, many sporting Guy Fawkes masks, I wanted to be a part of that." Scott Stewart of University of Nebraska at Omaha
's The Gateway wrote: "Many participants sported Guy Fawkes masks to draw attention both to their identity as Anonymous and the Church of Scientology's abuse of litigation and coercion to suppress anti-Scientology viewpoints."
The Internet meme
"Rickroll", where a link is given to a seemingly relevant website only to be directed to a music video of singer Rick Astley
's pop single "Never Gonna Give You Up
", has been used as a theme in the protests against Scientology. At February 10 protests in New York, Washington, D.C., London and Seattle, protesters played the song through boomboxes and shouted the phrase "Never gonna let you down!", in what The Guardian
called "a live rick-rolling of the Church of Scientology". In response to a website created by Scientologists showing an anti-Anonymous video, Project Chanology participants created a website with a similar domain name with a video displaying the music video to "Never Gonna Give You Up". In a March 2008 interview, Astley said that he found the rickrolling of Scientology to be "hilarious"; he also said that he will not try to capitalize on the rickroll phenomenon with a new recording or remix
of his own, but that he'd be happy to have other artists remix it.
Following the protests, there were reports that YouTube
was freezing the view counts on videos criticizing Scientology, including clips from the protests themselves, potentially preventing them from being displayed on YouTube's front page. Similarly, the original "Message to Scientology" video had received nearly 2.5 million views and yet failed to be featured as a "most-watched".
The net neutrality activist group movieLOL
strongly criticized YouTube for a "display of the decay of internet freedom". YouTube's official response stated: "There was an issue with video view counts not increasing that has now been resolved. The correct number of views should be displayed in the next 24 hours. Thanks for your patience."
Jonathan Holmes
, the presenter of the Australian Media Watch watchdog
program, reported on two cases of media censorship
of the protests. News.com.au pixelated a poster carried by a protester which was revealed, through a Today Tonight
segment, to have displayed the word "CULT". The Advertiser erased Tom Cruise's name from a protest placard, rendering the placard's message meaningless, without informing its readers. The Advertisers editor, Melvin Mansell, stated that the alteration had "slipped by" and that he was opposed to the publication of doctored photographs.
According to NBC11
, a woman from Anonymous contacted them and stated that protests were planned against Scientology each month through May 2008; and that a large protest was planned for two days after Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard
's birthday, on March 15, 2008. Carlos Moncada of The Tampa Tribune
reported that an "open letter to the press from Anonymous" was sent out via e-mail, and states that a protest is planned for March 15, 2008. The e-mail refers to the Ides of March
: "We, too, wish to celebrate this event, albeit in our own special way ... Beware the Ides of March, Church of Scientology!" The March protests were titled "Operation Party Hard".
Protests began in Australia on March 15, 2008, and were followed by protests in major cities worldwide including Brussels
, London, Seattle, Phoenix
, Manchester
, and Los Angeles. Approximately 7,000 to 8,000 people protested in about 100 cities worldwide. The protests took place in locations in Australia, Europe, Canada, and the United States.
Approximately 200 masked protesters gathered outside of the Church of Scientology's headquarters in Adelaide, Australia, and an anonymous spokesman told News.com.au that Scientology should lose its tax-exempt status. About 150 protesters came to the Yonge Street
headquarters of Scientology in Toronto, Canada; sang "Happy Birthday
" and chanted "we want cake". During the Los Angeles protests, a plane flew overhead trailing a large sign that read "Honk if you think Scientology is a cult." 150 protesters demonstrated in Clearwater, Florida, and a local organizer for Anonymous told The Tampa Tribune: "We feel that we have an obligation to educate the public about the things that have gone on and hopefully make the Church of Scientology understand that they have to change."
Two people were arrested by DeKalb County
, Georgia
police for using megaphone
s while stepping onto the surrounding street opposite of the church during a protest. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that a total of five protesters were cited for "causing 'hazardous' or 'offensive' conditions", and that eight motorists were pulled over by police and ticketed for excessive use of horns, after they honked while driving past the protest. The American Civil Liberties Union
and Amnesty International
are investigating the reaction of the police at the Atlanta protest.
In contrast, an LAPD
officer at the Los Angeles protest was widely praised after a video was uploaded to YouTube showing him acknowledging the demonstrators' right to protest and encouraging them to stay on the sidewalk for their own safety.
April 2008
Anonymous held its third international protest against Scientology on April 12, 2008. Named "Operation Reconnect", the protest focused on increasing awareness of the Church of Scientology's disconnection
policy. Protesters around the world gathered in over 50 cities, including Toronto, London, Sydney, and Berlin. A subsequent international protest was planned for May 10, 2008, according to The University Register it was titled "Operation Battletoad Earth", and an additional protest was planned for June 2008. According to John DeSio of The Village Voice
, the May 10, 2008 protests were referred to as "Operation : Fair Game : Stop", and National Nine News
has reported that the full title of the May 10 protests is "Battletoad Earth: Operation Fairgame Stop". The May 10 date was chosen as May 9 is the anniversary of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard
's book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health
. Over 400 people were present at the May 10, 2008 protests in cities in Australia. Wen Hsing, a member of Anonymous, commented to scopical.com.au about the Church of Scientology's denial of its "Fair Game" policy: "Even if the name 'fair game' is not in use, the Church of Scientology is an organisation that continues to practice a vicious policy of retribution against perceived enemies, and it teaches its members that extreme measures are morally justified if they aid the Church."
May 2008
On May 10, a teenager who went to the protests in front of the Queen Victoria Street
Church of Scientology in London was issued a court summons after being asked to take down a sign that read "Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult". Posting anonymously on a forum, the teenager stated "Within five minutes of arriving ... I was told by a member of the police that I was not allowed to use 'that word'". He said that the police told him he had 15 minutes to take down the sign. The teenager did not, citing a 1984 high court ruling by Justice Latey which he described the Church of Scientology as a "cult" that was "corrupt, sinister and dangerous". The sign was then confiscated. Shami Chakrabarti
, the director of Liberty
, a human rights group, said that, "They will be banning words like 'war' and 'tax' from placards and demonstrations next. This is just barmy". On May 23, 2008, the legal action against the boy was dropped. A Crown Prosecution Service
(CPS) spokesman said: "In consultation with the City of London Police, we were asked whether the sign was abusive or insulting. Our advice is that it is not abusive or insulting and there is no offensiveness (as opposed to criticism), neither in the idea expressed nor in the mode of expression." Anonymous also held a protest in Budapest
, Hungary, in the same time and location with a program of the local Scientology church.
June–October 2008
A protest was held June 14, 2008 titled "Sea Arrrgh" (a satirical reference to the Church of Scientology's Sea Org
). Protesters dressed up as pirates. According to Macquarie National News
, members of Anonymous highlighted the controversial practices of the Sea Org, including what the protesters believe to be forced contracts where Scientologists work below a livable wage, that female Sea Org members who become pregnant are pressured to have abortions, and that children of families in the organization are made to perform difficult physical labor. An international protest held on July 12, 2008 titled: "Spy vs. Sci" highlighted the Church of Scientology's Office of Special Affairs
. A press release by the group posed the question: "Why does something that describes itself as a religion need an intelligence agency that aggressively persecutes critics?" The group posted a video in early August 2008 calling for renewed activity in their protest efforts, and planned a subsequent international protest for August 16, 2008. About 35 protesters gathered twice in September 2008 during the first preview and premiere of Arthur Miller
's play All My Sons
. They encouraged Scientologist Katie Holmes
, who is married to Tom Cruise, to leave the Church. The most recent international organized protest was held October 18, 2008. Members of Anonymous dressed as zombie
s, and highlighted what they described as questionable deaths and suicide
s of Scientologists.
December 2008
The film Valkyrie
, starring and produced by Tom Cruise, had a premiere in New York on December 17. Entertainment reporter Roger Friedman noted that it was held "in the private screening room at the Time Warner Center
. Not the or Loews Lincoln Square
, where most premieres are held in public." The venue was chosen in part to minimize the exposure to Scientology protestors gathered at the Time Warner Center. For the same reason, Cruise arrived at the December 18 Los Angeles screening through an underground tunnel. There were also Scientology protests at the European premiere in Berlin
, where one protester got his V for Vendetta mask autographed by Tom Cruise. Chanology participants shared the limelight with a person in a bunny suit protesting against the hero worship of Claus von Stauffenberg.
, pubic hair
, and toenail clippings. He then proceeded to toss books around and smear the mixture on objects in the building. The man, identified by police as Mahoud Samed Almahadin, was charged with burglary, criminal mischief, and aggravated harassment as hate crimes. Two weeks later, 21 year-old film student and Anonymous member Jacob Speregen was charged with aggravated harassment and criminal mischief as hate crimes after he filmed Almahadin carrying out his prank. According to his mother and the video, Speregen was filming the event from behind the barricade. Scientology critics Mark Bunker and Jason Beghe
disagreed with the individual's actions.
Anonymous organized a 12th global protest against Scientology for January 10, 2009, to coincide with the Chanology movement's first anniversary. On February 10, 2009, Anonymous released a statement: "Scientology operatives still continue to paint Anonymous in a negative light as a means of distracting attention from Scientology operations and attempting to discredit those who bring truth to the issues at hand. It just isn’t working." The group claimed credit for leaks of internal Scientology documents that appeared on the website Wikileaks
, and announced further global protests for subsequent weekends in February 2009. Members of Anonymous continued to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Chanology movement during February 2009, with protests held in locations including Hemet, California
.
to 30 feet or further from an individual's residence. The ordinance was originally introduced by Supervisor Jeff Stone, board chairman, in November 2008, and went through multiple changes. Critics of the ordinance stated that Stone proposed the measure due to favor for Scientology, which has its Hemet, California compound located in Riverside County. "The whole ordinance is tainted. The reasons behind it are tainted," said county resident Lirra Bishop. Stone stated the measure was intended for all residents of the county, though he cited protests at Scientology's Gold Base
facility which houses residences and Scientology's Golden Era Productions
as an example of why the ordinance is needed. Protesters at Gold Base have included members of Anonymous, and Scientology officials claimed they were "threatened with violence". Protesters told the Board of Supervisors that due to the lack of sidewalk near Gold Base, the anti-picketing ordinance would severely hamper the ability to protest outside the Scientology compound.
After stating on October 17, 2008 that he would plead guilty to involvement in the January 2008 DDoS attacks against Church of Scientology websites, an 18-year-old self-described member of Anonymous entered a guilty plea related to hacking charges in May 2009. A release from the United States Department of Justice
said that the individual, a resident of New Jersey
, "participated in the attack because he considered himself a member of an underground group called 'Anonymous'". Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said that the Church of Scientology had cooperated in the investigation. The individual faces a sentencing scheduled for August 2009.
In May 2009, members of Anonymous told WSMV-TV
that they were bullied by off-duty security guards while protesting at a Scientology event in April in Nashville, Tennessee
. According to WSMV-TV, a protester stated he was assaulted by three Scientology security guards while on public property, 400 yards away from the Scientology building. The Church of Scientology had previously informed the security guards that the protesters were "dangerous people". A protester was issued three citations by the Scientology security guards, but these were all dismissed by the district attorney. On May 8, 2009, WSMV-TV reported that "laws appear to have been broken" in the manner in which the Scientology security guards handled the protesters. The Scientology security guards were not clearly identified as off-duty police officers, and permits for the Scientology event attended by the Anonymous protesters were for the wrong day. "The armed people from the other county are not identified police officers. You're looking for a problem," said John M. L. Brown, a Fraternal Order of Police attorney.
interviewed former Scientologist Mandy Mullen, who had joined the Manhattan org in 2008 after seeing information on 4chan
about Chanology protests. Over the next year, she recalled cases of members being coerced into donating more and more money. When she told her "leader" that she had looked at websites run by anti-scientology protesters (and disagreed with them), he reportedly replied "That's like saying I don't burn niggers, I just like to party with the KKK!" In Fall 2008 Mullen left the church, joining a group of Chanology protesters across the street. Church of Scientology Manhattan President John Carmichael issued a response the following week, stating "Mandy Mullen’s story about Scientology... is all lies in the service of Anonymous, a hate group that targets our Church, or even anyone who just falls onto their radar." On November 13, 2009, Independent Australian Senator Nick Xenophon
used parliamentary privilege to accuse the Church of Scientology of being a criminal organisation.
that the group has shifted strategy to activities which fight Scientology but are not deemed illegal by the United States government
, including an attempt to get the Internal Revenue Service
to investigate the Church of Scientology's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status
. Another woman from Anonymous told Newsweek
that the group plans to accomplish this through a lobbying
campaign. United States tax authorities removed the Church of Scientology's tax-exemption status in 1967, stating that the organization's auditing techniques
served as a for-profit operation for L. Ron Hubbard. In 1984, the United States Tax Court
ruled that the Church of Scientology was guilty of "manufacturing and falsifying records to present to the IRS, burglarizing IRS offices and stealing government documents, and subverting government processes for unlawful purposes." The Church of Scientology's tax-exempt status in the United States was reinstated in 1993.
A member of Anonymous calling herself "Envie" told Today Tonight
that the group has longer term plans against the Church of Scientology: "We are incredibly determined ... There are those of us who have been talking about plans for the next 12 to 18 months." A member of Anonymous calling herself "Sarah" spoke with Radar Magazine about a letter-writing campaign: "We're sending letters to senators and congresspeople requesting that their tax-exempt status be looked at."
that she thought the Anonymous members were a "pathetic" group of "computer geeks". On January 26, 2008, CNET News reported that Karin Pouw, public affairs director for the Church of Scientology, did not address their specific request for a comment about the denial-of-service attacks but instead only responded to the appearance of the Tom Cruise video on YouTube. Pouw stated that the video consisted of "pirated and edited" excerpts of Cruise from a 2004 Scientology event, and that after the video appeared, there was increased traffic to Scientology sites as shown by top lists compiled by search engines. Pouw went on to state "Those wishing to find out the Church of Scientology's views and to gain context of the video have the right to search official Church Web sites if they so desire."
On January 28, 2008, Radar Online
reported that the Church of Scientology asked the U.S. Attorney General
's office in Los Angeles, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
, and the Los Angeles Police Department
to start a criminal investigation of possible criminal activity related to the DDoS attacks. An unnamed source told Radar that the Church of Scientology argued to law enforcement that the Internet attacks are a form of "illegal interference with business." Radar also reported that in statements to law enforcement the Church of Scientology emphasized its status as a religious organization in the United States in order to assert that the DDoS attacks can be classed as hate crime
s. The day after the Church of Scientology complained to law enforcement about the DDoS attacks, one of the main Project Chanology sites was down, and a message on the site said that their site crashed due to attacks from Scientologists. In a statement issued to Wikinews
, a Church of Scientology employee confirmed that actions of Anonymous had been reported to law enforcement: "Activities of Anonymous have been reported to the Authorities and actions are being taken. Their activities are illegal and we do not approve of them. At the same time, our main work is to improve the environment, make people more able and spiritually aware. ... yes, we are taking action."
The Church of Scientology issued a statement explaining the website move to Prolexic Technologies: "The attacks have defaced and rendered inoperable a number of CoS web sites. But as a very wealthy institution, the Church has fought back with technological answers. On January 21, the Church of Scientology moved its domain to Prolexic Technologies, a group that specializes in protecting Web sites from [denial of service] attacks by creating a safe tunnel by filtering all incoming mail and then allowing only clean messages through."
Lee Sheldon of the Church of Scientology of Orlando and Lee Holzinger of the Church of Scientology of Santa Barbara issued similar statements regarding the February 2, 2008 protests in Florida and California, respectively. Sheldon stated "we recognize the right to legal protest," and Holzinger said "People have the right to express themselves ... The Church of Scientology has always defended the right of freedom of expression." Both representatives also expressed concerns regarding the spread of "hate speech".
The Church of Scientology released a statement regarding the February 10, 2008 worldwide protests, which was published February 7, 2008 in the St. Petersburg Times
. In the statement, the Church of Scientology called the organizers of the protests "cyberterrorists", and stated: "We take this seriously because of the nature of the threats this group has made publicly. We will take every step necessary to protect our parishioners and staff as well as members of the community, in coordination with the local authorities." The statement also referred to the actions of members of Project Chanology as "hate crimes" and "religious bigotry", and in a media release said that the group is guided by Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf
; one of the organizers of the protest responded to the latter allegation by stating: "I don't know where they got that from, but I don't think that's true considering that I am a capitalist and a Jew". Pat Harney, spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology in Clearwater, Florida told the St. Petersburg Times: "We are dealing with a worldwide threat ... This is not a light matter." In preparation for the February 10, 2008 protests outside Scientology's spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, the Church of Scientology spent $4,500 to hire ten off-duty police officers for security. Clearwater Police Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Daly-Watts stated that the off-duty police officers will make sure that protesters do not trespass on Scientology property or violate the law, but will report to police supervisors and not representatives of the Church of Scientology.
The Church of Scientology posted a YouTube video claiming that Anonymous are "terrorists" and alleging that Anonymous is perpetrating "hate crimes" against the church. The video does not provide any evidence supporting their claims, and the FBI has not named any suspects for several of the threats mentioned. Anonymous has denied involvement in the more severe accusations. The church also released a DVD containing the YouTube video. The DVD called Anonymous a "dangerous" group and accused them of making threats against Scientology. Men claiming to be from the law firm Latham and Watkins delivered the DVD to family members of at least one person who protested.
YouTube user "AnonymousFacts", which Radar Online described as an associate of Scientology, displayed the names and personal information of several supposed Anonymous members and accused the group of violent threats and terrorism. YouTube quickly took the video down and suspended the "AnonymousFacts" account.
The Church of Scientology sought an injunction and a restraining order to prevent Anonymous from protesting on March 15, 2008, citing threats allegedly made by Anonymous. Both the injunction and the restraining order were denied. On March 31, 2008, Radar Online reported that representatives of law firms delivered legal letters to suspected Anons, often at their homes. The Church filed complaints of trespassing and criminal harassment against Boston organizer Gregg Housh, who was charged with disturbing an assembly of worship, disturbing the peace, and harassment. The District Attorney's office dropped the harassment charge, and Judge Thomas Horgan issued a continuance
without finding for the remaining charges.
In a May 8, 2008 appearance on CNN
, Church of Scientology spokesman Thomas W. Davis
said that Scientology was "dealing with ninety-six death threats, bomb threats, acts of violence, vandalism" from the group Anonymous. CNN's John Roberts responded, stating that the Federal Bureau of Investigation
found nothing connecting Anonymous to the Church of Scientology's accusations of violence: "You are leveling these accusations at this group, the F.B.I., which is looking into it, says it has found nothing to connect this group Anonymous with what you're talking about, or death threats against members of the church, the F.B.I. at this point says - it has no reason to believe that charges would be leveled against this group."
Andreas Heldal-Lund
, founder of the Scientology-critical website and non-profit organization
Operation Clambake
, released a statement criticizing the digital assault against Scientology. Heldal-Lund commented, "People should be able to have easy access to both sides and make up their own opinions. Freedom of speech means we need to allow all to speak - including those we strongly disagree with. I am of the opinion that the Church of Scientology is a criminal organisation and a cult which is designed by its delusional founder to abuse people. I am still committed to fight for their right to speak their opinion." He also stated that "Attacking Scientology like that will just make them play the religious persecution card ... They will use it to defend their own counter actions when they try to shatter criticism and crush critics without mercy."
Mark Bunker
, an Emmy Award
-winning journalist
and Scientology critic who runs the website XenuTV.com, posted a video to YouTube and asked Anonymous to tone down their campaign against the Church of Scientology. According to NPR's Morning Edition
, Bunker has "become a revered voice to many members of Anonymous," and they refer to him as "Wise Beard Man". Bunker told Newsweek that he was pleased to see a large group of young individuals acting against Scientology, but stated he was also concerned for their safety: "I know the way Scientology works: they're going to get these people in trouble ... I'm very concerned about their safety, and I'm concerned about the Scientologists' safety, too." Bunker stated that he has received 6,000 emails from individuals who say they are part of Anonymous. Bunker attended the February 10, 2008 protest against Scientology in Los Angeles.
Tory Christman
, a critic of Scientology and former Scientologist from 1969 to 2000, stated she disapproved of illegal tactics but felt encouraged by the new influx of critics of Scientology. Christman told Morning Edition: "It feels like we've been out in this desert, fighting this group one-on-one by ourselves, and all of a sudden this huge army came up with not only tons of people, thousands of people, but better tools..." Scientology critic Arnaldo Lerma
told the St. Petersburg Times he was impressed by a video of a protest against Scientology which took place in Orlando, Florida: "I've never seen anything like that before. This is incredible. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it on a Web cam."
In a February 4, 2008 appearance on the G4
television program Attack of the Show!
, Mark Ebner
, journalist and author of the book Hollywood, Interrupted
, and Nick Douglas of Gawker.com commented on Project Chanology. Ebner stated that "Hacking their site is not really the best way to go about taking them (the Church of Scientology) down. Most critics you talk to want the Scientology site to be up there so that people who are interested can see the stupidity they have on the web and at the same time they can go - they are a few keystrokes from getting a thousand other opinions." Nick Douglas explained that the group decided to shift their strategy away from the attacks to Scientology websites: "Anonymous even decided that they were going to stop that attack, that it was a bad idea. It's the usual thing they used to do when they really hadn't had a thought out plan, and here they're realizing they actually have to figure out some real plan against a real enemy."
University of Alberta
professor Stephen A. Kent
weighed in on the issue, and said "I think these disruptions probably are illegal. At the very least, they’re forms of harassment ... We now have three parties involved. Anonymous, Scientology and law enforcement." Kent stated that "The hacker community has been angry at Scientology for (their) attempts to block free speech on the Internet." Reaction to the denial of service attack on the Church of Scientology websites was mixed in message board forums for PC World
. Some readers praised the actions of Anonymous, while others commented that the DDoS attacks bring more attention to Scientology. The Economist
likened the DDoS attacks used by Project Chanology to "cyberwarfare techniques normally associated with extortionists, spies and terrorists," and referred to Anonymous as "internet activists".
Dan Schultz of PBS
's MediaShift Idea Lab commented that the movement "...is a really fascinating case study of how current technologies and information dissemination via digital media can snowball into something that actually results in real world action". In a follow-up piece, Schultz discussed the tools used by digital media to achieve community impact, including lower barriers to entry and greater efficiencies through the use of information systems. Schultz wrote "For members of Anonymous I'm betting most of these things are already unspoken understandings," and pointed to their use of meme
s and cited the forums of the website enturbulation.org as an example of the group's ability to collaborate effectively to accomplish goals.
In a May 8, 2008 report on the recent actions of Anonymous against Scientology, CNN
reporter Kareen Wynter
commented: "Legal experts say the church may be facing its biggest challenge yet – trying to protect its image, in a loosely-policed medium seen by millions of people. In a July 2008 interview with Entertainment Weekly
, Alan Moore
had this to say about the use of the Guy Fawkes
motif, adopted from his comic V for Vendetta
: "I was also quite heartened the other day when watching the news to see that there were demonstrations outside the Scientology headquarters over here, and that they suddenly flashed to a clip showing all these demonstrators wearing V for Vendetta [Guy Fawkes] masks. That pleased me. That gave me a warm little glow."
Audio/video media (Video broadcast.)
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
movement against the practices of the Church of Scientology
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
by members of Anonymous
Anonymous (group)
Anonymous is an international hacking group, spread through the Internet, initiating active civil disobedience, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Originating in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, the term refers to the concept of many online community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic,...
, a leaderless Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
-based group that defines itself as ubiquitous. The project was started in response to the Church of Scientology's attempts to remove material from a highly publicized interview with Scientologist Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
from the Internet in January 2008.
The project was publicly launched in the form of a video posted to YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, "Message to Scientology", on January 21, 2008. The video states that Anonymous views Scientology's actions
Scientology versus the Internet
"Scientology versus the Internet" refers to a number of disputes relating to the Church of Scientology's efforts to suppress material critical of Scientology on the Internet through the use of lawsuits and legal threats. In late 1994, the Church of Scientology began using various legal tactics to...
as Internet censorship
Internet censorship
Internet censorship is the control or suppression of the publishing of, or access to information on the Internet. It may be carried out by governments or by private organizations either at the behest of government or on their own initiative...
, and asserts the group's intent to "expel the church from the Internet". This was followed by distributed denial-of-service attack
Denial-of-service attack
A denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...
s (DDoS), and soon after, black fax
Black fax
The term black fax refers to a prank fax transmission, consisting of one or more pages entirely filled with a uniform black tone. The sender's intention is typically to consume as much of the recipient's fax ink, toner or thermal paper or disk space as possible, thus costing the recipient money...
es, prank call
Prank call
A prank call is a form of practical joke committed over the telephone. Prank phone calls began to gain an America-wide following over a period of many years, as they gradually became a staple of the obscure and amusing cassette tapes traded amongst musicians, sound engineers, and media traders...
s, and other measures intended to disrupt the Church of Scientology's operations. In February 2008, the focus of the protest shifted to legal methods, including nonviolent
Nonviolence
Nonviolence has two meanings. It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle It can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action Nonviolence has two (closely related) meanings. (1) It can refer, first, to a general...
protests and an attempt to get the Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
to investigate the Church of Scientology's tax exempt status
Tax exemption
Various tax systems grant a tax exemption to certain organizations, persons, income, property or other items taxable under the system. Tax exemption may also refer to a personal allowance or specific monetary exemption which may be claimed by an individual to reduce taxable income under some...
in the United States.
Reactions from the Church of Scientology regarding the protesters' actions have varied. Initially, one spokesperson stated that members of the group "have got some wrong information" about Scientology. Another referred to the group as a group of "computer geeks". Later, the Church of Scientology started referring to Anonymous as "cyberterrorists" perpetrating "religious hate crimes" against the church.
Detractors of Scientology have also criticized the actions of Project Chanology, asserting that they merely provide the Church of Scientology with the opportunity to "play the religious persecution card". Other critics such as Mark Bunker
Mark Bunker
Mark Bunker is a television journalist. He won an Emmy Award in 2006 from the Pacific Southwest Emmy Awards division of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences...
and Tory Christman
Tory Christman
Tory Christman is a prominent American critic of Scientology and former member of the organization. Originally brought up to believe in Catholicism, Christman turned to Scientology after being introduced to the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health authored by Scientology founder L...
initially questioned the legality
Legality
The principle of legality is the legal ideal that requires all law to be clear, ascertainable and non-retrospective. It requires decision makers to resolve disputes by applying legal rules that have been declared beforehand, and not to alter the legal situation retrospectively by discretionary...
of Project Chanology's methods, but have since spoken out in support of the project as it shifted towards nonviolent protests and other legal methods.
Background
The Church of Scientology has a history of conflict with groups on the Internet. In 1995, attorneys for the Church of Scientology attempted to get the newsgroupNewsgroup
A usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...
alt.religion.scientology
Alt.religion.scientology
The newsgroup alt.religion.scientology is a Usenet newsgroup started in 1991 to discuss the controversial beliefs of Scientology, as well as the Church of Scientology, which claims exclusive intellectual property rights thereto and is viewed by many as a dangerous cult...
(a.r.s.) removed from Usenet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
. This attempt backfired and generated a significant amount of press for a.r.s. The conflict with a.r.s led the hacker
Hacker (computer security)
In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...
group Cult of the Dead Cow
Cult of the Dead Cow
Cult of the Dead Cow, also known as cDc or cDc Communications, is a computer hacker and DIY media organization founded in 1984 in Lubbock, Texas. The group maintains a weblog on its site, also titled "Cult of the Dead Cow"...
to declare war on the Church of Scientology. The Church of Scientology mounted a 10-year legal campaign against Dutch writer Karin Spaink
Karin Spaink
Karin Spaink is a journalist, writer and feminist.Spaink is a free speech advocate and social critic. Some of her battles include:* New-age writers who assert all diseases are only a psychological phenomenon;...
and several Internet service providers after Spaink and others posted documents alleged to be secret teachings of the organization. The Church of Scientology's efforts ended in a legal defeat in a Dutch court in 2005. This series of events is often referred to as "Scientology versus the Internet
Scientology versus the Internet
"Scientology versus the Internet" refers to a number of disputes relating to the Church of Scientology's efforts to suppress material critical of Scientology on the Internet through the use of lawsuits and legal threats. In late 1994, the Church of Scientology began using various legal tactics to...
".
Tom Cruise video
On January 14, 2008, a video produced by the Church of Scientology featuring an interview with Tom CruiseTom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
was posted on YouTube. In the video, music from Cruise's Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible (film)
Mission: Impossible is a 1996 action thriller directed by Brian De Palma and starring Tom Cruise. Following on from the television series of the same name, the plot follows a new agent, Ethan Hunt and his mission to uncover the mole within the CIA who has framed him for the murders of his entire...
films plays in the background, and Cruise makes various statements, including saying that Scientologists are the only people who can help after a car accident, and that Scientologists are the authority on getting addicts off drugs. According to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, Cruise can be seen in the video "extolling the virtues of Scientology". The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
characterized Cruise as "manic-looking" during the interview, "gush[ing] about his love for Scientology".
The Church of Scientology asserted that the video material that had been leaked to YouTube and other websites was "pirated and edited" and taken from a three-hour video produced for members of Scientology. YouTube removed the Cruise video from their site under threat of litigation. The web site Gawker.com
Gawker.com
Gawker is a newsmagazine/blog based in New York City that bills itself as "the source for daily Manhattan media news and gossip" and focuses on celebrities and the media industry....
did not take down their copy of the Tom Cruise video, and other sites have posted the entire video. Lawyers for the Church of Scientology sent a letter to Gawker.com requesting the removal of the video, but Nick Denton of Gawker.com stated: "It's newsworthy, and we will not be removing it."
Formation
Project Chanology was formulated by users of the English-speaking imageboardImageboard
An imageboard or image board is a type of Internet forum that revolves around the posting of images. The first imageboards were created in Japan, and many English-language imageboards today are centered around Japanese culture...
s 711chan.org and 4chan
4chan
4chan is an English-language imageboard website. Launched on October 1, 2003, its boards were originally used for the posting of pictures and discussion of manga and anime...
, the associated partyvan.info wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
, and several Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file...
channels, all part of a group collectively known as Anonymous, on January 16, 2008 after the Church of Scientology issued a copyright violation claim against YouTube for hosting material from the Cruise video. The effort against Scientology has also been referred to by group members as "Operation Chanology". A webpage called "Project Chanology", part of a larger wiki, is maintained by Anonymous and chronicles planned, ongoing and completed actions by project participants. The website includes a list of suggested guerrilla tactics
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
to use against the Church of Scientology. Members use other websites as well to coordinate action, including Encyclopedia Dramatica
Encyclopedia Dramatica
Encyclopædia Dramatica was a satirical open wiki that used MediaWiki software. Launched on December 10, 2004, it lampooned both encyclopedic topics and current events, especially those related or relevant to contemporary internet culture. It was frequently utilized by a socially fluid and dynamic...
and the social networking
Social network service
A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service consists of a representation of each user , his/her social...
site Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, where two groups associated with the movement had 3,500 members as of February 4, 2008. A member of Anonymous told the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
that, as of February 4, 2008, the group consisted of "a loose confederation of about 9,000 people" who post anonymously on the Internet. A security analyst told The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
that the number of people participating anonymously in Project Chanology could number in the thousands: "You can't pin it on a person or a group of people. You've thousands of people engaged to do anything they can against Scientology."
Members of Project Chanology say their main goal is "to enlighten the Church of Scientology (CoS) by any means necessary." Their website states: "This will be a game of mental warfare. It will require our talkers, not our hackers. It will require our dedicated Anon across the world to do their part." Project Chanology's stated goals include the complete removal of the Church of Scientology's presence from the Internet and to "save people from Scientology by reversing the brainwashing". Project Chanology participants plan to join the Church of Scientology posing as interested members in order to infiltrate the organization.
Andrea Seabrook
Andrea Seabrook
Andrea Seabrook is an American radio reporter for NPR. She began hosting weekend broadcasts of that organization's signature news magazine All Things Considered on September 29, 2007, after six years of primarily reporting on the United States Congress for the same outlet...
of National Public Radio's All Things Considered
All Things Considered
All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
reported Anonymous was previously known for "technologically sophisticated pranks" such as spamming chat rooms online and "ordering dozens of pizzas for people they don't like". Ryan Singel
Ryan Singel
Ryan Singel is a San Francisco-based blogger and journalist covering tech business, tech policy, civil liberty and privacy issues. His work has appeared extensively in Wired.com, and Singel co-founded the Threat Level blog with journalist and convicted hacker Kevin Lee Poulsen...
of Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
appeared on the program on January 27, 2008, and told Seabrook that members of Anonymous were motivated by "the tactics the Church of Scientology uses to control information about itself" rather than the "controversial nature of Scientology itself".
Internet activities
Project Chanology began its campaign by organizing and delivering a series of denial-of-service attackDenial-of-service attack
A denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...
s against Scientology websites and flooding Scientology centers with prank calls and black fax
Black fax
The term black fax refers to a prank fax transmission, consisting of one or more pages entirely filled with a uniform black tone. The sender's intention is typically to consume as much of the recipient's fax ink, toner or thermal paper or disk space as possible, thus costing the recipient money...
es. The group was successful in taking down local and global Scientology websites intermittently from January 18, 2008 until at least January 25, 2008. Anonymous had early success rendering major Scientology websites inaccessible and leaking documents allegedly stolen from Scientology computers. This resulted in a large amount of coverage on social bookmarking
Social bookmarking
Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to organize, store, manage and search for bookmarks of resources online. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves aren't shared, merely bookmarks that reference them....
websites.
The denial-of-service attacks on Scientology.org flooded the site with 220 megabit
Megabit
The megabit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix mega is defined in the International System of Units as a multiplier of 106 , and therefore...
s of traffic, a mid-range attack. Speaking with SCMagazineUS.com, a security strategist for Top Layer Networks, Ken Pappas said that he thought that botnet
Botnet
A botnet is a collection of compromised computers connected to the Internet. Termed "bots," they are generally used for malicious purposes. When a computer becomes compromised, it becomes a part of a botnet...
s were involved in the Anonymous operation: "There are circles out there where you could take ownership of the bot machines that are already owned and launch a simultaneous attack against [something] like the church from 50,000 PCs, all at the same time".
In response to the attacks, on January 21, 2008 the Scientology.org site was moved to Prolexic Technologies
Prolexic Technologies
Prolexic Technologies is a privately held American information technology and services company headquartered in Hollywood, FL. Prolexic is the world’s largest provider of on-demand, cloud-based Distributed Denial of Service mitigation services...
, a company specializing in safeguarding web sites from denial-of-service attacks. Attacks against the site increased, and CNET News reported that "a major assault" took place at 6 p.m. EST on January 24, 2008. Anonymous escalated the attack on Scientology on January 25, 2008 and on January 25, 2008, the Church of Scientology's official website remained inaccessible.
On January 21, 2008, Anonymous announced its goals and intentions via a video posted to YouTube entitled "Message to Scientology", and a press release declaring "War on Scientology", against both the Church of Scientology and the Religious Technology Center
Religious Technology Center
The Religious Technology Center is a Californian non-profit corporation. RTC was founded in 1982 by the Church of Scientology in order to control and oversee the use of all of the trademarks, symbols and texts of Scientology and Dianetics, including the copyrighted works of Scientology founder and...
. In the press release, the group stated that the attacks against the Church of Scientology would continue in order to protect freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
and to end what they characterized as the financial exploitation of church members.
The Tom Cruise video is referred to specifically at the start of the Anonymous YouTube video posting, and is characterized as "propaganda video". The video utilizes a synthesized voice and shows floating cloud images using a time lapse method as the speaker addresses the leaders of Scientology directly: "We acknowledge you as a serious opponent, and we are prepared for a long, long campaign. You will not prevail forever against the angry masses of the body politic. Your methods, hypocrisy, and the artlessness of your organization have sounded its death knell. You cannot hide; we are everywhere." The video goes on to state: "We shall proceed to expel you from the Internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form ... We are anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us." By January 25, 2008, only four days after its release, the video had been viewed 800,000 times, and by February 8, 2008 had been viewed over 2 million times. Author Warren Ellis
Warren Ellis
Warren Girard Ellis is an English author of comics, novels, and television, who is well-known for sociocultural commentary, both through his online presence and through his writing, which covers transhumanist themes...
called the video "creepy in and of itself" and a "manifesto, declaration of war, sharp political film".
In a different video posted to YouTube, Anonymous addresses news organizations covering the conflict and criticizes media reporting of the incident. In the video, Anonymous criticizes the media specifically for not mentioning objections by the group to certain controversial aspects of the history of the Church of Scientology, and cited past incidents including the death of Lisa McPherson
Lisa McPherson
Lisa McPherson was a member of the Church of Scientology who died of a pulmonary embolism while under the care of the Flag Service Organization , a branch of the Church of Scientology...
: "We find it interesting that you did not mention the other objections in your news reporting. The stifling and punishment of dissent within the totalitarian organization of Scientology. The numerous, alleged human rights violations. Such as the treatment and events that led to the deaths of victims of the cult such as Lisa McPherson." Lisa McPherson was a Scientologist who died in 1995 under controversial circumstances. Initially, The Church of Scientology was held responsible and faced felony charges in her death. The charges were later dropped and a civil suit brought by McPherson's family was settled in 2004. This second video was removed on January 25, 2008, YouTube citing a "terms of use violation". Organizers of the February 10, 2008, Project Chanology protests against the Church of Scientology told the St. Petersburg Times the event was timed to coincide with the birthday of Lisa McPherson.
In addition to DDoS attacks against Church of Scientology websites, Anonymous also organized a campaign on one of their websites to "begin bumping Digg," referring to an attempt to drive up Scientology-related links on the website Digg.com. On January 25, 2008, eight of the top ten stories on Digg.com were about either Scientology-related controversies or Anonymous and attempts to expose Scientology. Digg CEO Jay Adelson told PC World
PC World (magazine)
PC World is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal-technology products and services...
that Anonymous had not manipulated the site's algorithm system to prevent artificial poll results, stating: "They must have done a very good job of bringing in a diverse set of interests ... It just happened to hit a nerve that the Digg community was interested in." Adelson said two other instances which similarly have dominated the Digg main page in the past were the Virginia Tech Massacre
Virginia Tech massacre
The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting that took place on April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. In two separate attacks, approximately two hours apart, the perpetrator, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people...
in the aftermath of the incident and the "7/7" London bombings in 2005
7 July 2005 London bombings
The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....
. Adelson commented on the popularity of Scientology theme within the Digg community: "In the history of Digg, there's no question that the topic of Scientology has been of great interest to the community ... I can't explain why."
On January 29, 2008, Jason Lee Miller of WebProNews reported that a Google bomb
Google bomb
The terms Google bomb and Googlewashing refer to practices, such as creating large numbers of links, that cause a web page to have a high ranking for searches on unrelated or off topic keyword phrases, often for comical or satirical purposes...
technique had been used to make the Scientology.org main website the first result in a Google search for "dangerous cult". Miller wrote that Anonymous was behind the Google bomb, and that they had also tried to bump Scientology up as the first result in Google searches for "brainwashing cult," and to make the Xenu.net
Operation Clambake
Operation Clambake, also referred to by its Web address, Xenu.net, is a Web site and Norway-based non-profit organization, launched in 1996, that publishes criticism of the Church of Scientology. It is owned and maintained by Andreas Heldal-Lund, who has stated that he supports the rights of all...
website first result in searches for "scientology". Rob Garner of MediaPost Publications wrote: "The Church of Scientology continues to be the target of a group called Anonymous, which is using Google bombs and YouTube as its tools of choice."
In a February 4, 2008, article, Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw
Karin Pouw
Karin Pouw is an American spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology, and currently the Director of Public Affairs for Church of Scientology International...
told the Los Angeles Times that Church of Scientology's websites "have been and are online." Danny McPherson, chief research officer at Arbor Networks, claimed 500 denial-of-service attacks had been observed on the Scientology site in the week prior to February 4, some of which were strong enough to bring the website down. Calling Anonymous a "motley crew of internet troublemakers," Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
blogger Ryan Singel
Ryan Singel
Ryan Singel is a San Francisco-based blogger and journalist covering tech business, tech policy, civil liberty and privacy issues. His work has appeared extensively in Wired.com, and Singel co-founded the Threat Level blog with journalist and convicted hacker Kevin Lee Poulsen...
said that, while attempting to bypass the Prolexic servers protecting the Church of Scientology website, users of a misconfigured DDoS tool inadvertently and briefly had targeted the Etty Hillesum Lyceum, a Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
in Deventer
Deventer
Deventer is a municipality and city in the Salland region of the Dutch province of Overijssel. Deventer is largely situated on the east bank of the river IJssel, but also has a small part of its territory on the west bank. In 2005 the municipality of Bathmen Deventer is a municipality and city in...
. Another hacking group associated with the project, calling themselves the "g00ns," mistakenly targeted a 59-year-old man from Stockton, California
Stockton, California
Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
. They posted his home telephone number, address and his wife's Social Security number
Social Security number
In the United States, a Social Security number is a nine-digit number issued to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and temporary residents under section 205 of the Social Security Act, codified as . The number is issued to an individual by the Social Security Administration, an independent...
online for other people to target. They believed that he was behind counter-attacks against Project Chanology-related websites by the Regime, a counter-hack group who crashed one of the Project Chanology planning websites. The group allegedly attempted to gain personal information on people involved in Project Chanology to turn that information over to the Church of Scientology. After discovering they had wrongly targeted the couple, one of the members of the g00ns group called and apologized.
Protests planned
A new video entitled "Call to Action" appeared on YouTube on January 28, 2008, calling for protests outside Church of Scientology centers on February 10, 2008. As with the previous videos, the two-minute video used a synthesized computer voice and featured stock footage of clouds and sky. The video was accompanied by a text transcript with British EnglishBritish English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
spelling. The video denied that the group was composed of "super hackers," stating: "Contrary to the assumptions of the media, Anonymous is not 'a group of super hackers.' ... Anonymous is everyone and everywhere. We have no leaders, no single entity directing us." The video said that Project Chanology participants include "individuals from all walks of life ... united by an awareness that someone must do the right thing." Specific controversies involving the CoS were cited in the video as the explanation for actions by Anonymous.
In an email to CNET News, Anonymous stated that coordinated activities were planned for February 10, 2008, in many major cities around the world. Anonymous hoped to use "real world" protests to rally public opinion to their cause. According to the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, the protests were meant to draw attention to what the group refers to as a "vast money-making scheme under the guise of 'religion'". By January 30, 2008, 170 protests had been planned outside Church of Scientology centers worldwide. A video posted to YouTube called "Code of Conduct" outlined twenty-two rules to follow when protesting, and urged protestors to remain peaceful.
February 2008
February 2On February 2, 2008, one hundred and fifty people gathered outside of a Church of Scientology center in Orlando, Florida
Orlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
to protest the organization's practices. Small protests were also held in Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
(during the Santa Barbara International Film Festival
Santa Barbara International Film Festival
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is a film festival and non-profit organization, established in 1985, that showcases independent American and international films. The SBIFF line-up includes 20 world premieres and 11 U.S. premieres, with newly expanded 11-day festival...
), and Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, England. Protesters in Orlando carried signs with messages "Knowledge is Free" and "Honk if you hate Scientology". According to WKMG-TV
WKMG-TV
WKMG-TV channel 6 is the CBS network affiliate for Central Florida . WKMG is licensed to Orlando and is owned and operated by Post-Newsweek Stations, Inc., a subsidiary of the Washington Post Company. The station refers to itself as "Local6". WKMG's transmitter is located in Bithlo, Florida...
, the protesters called the Church of Scientology a "dangerous cult" and said the organization is responsible for crimes and deaths. The Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
The Orlando Sentinel is the primary newspaper of the Orlando, Florida region. It was founded in 1876. The Sentinel is owned by Tribune Company and is overseen by the Chicago Tribune. As of 2005, the Sentinel’s president and publisher was Kathleen Waltz; she announced her resignation in February 2008...
reported that the protest was "part of a worldwide campaign by a group that calls itself Anonymous," and an unnamed organizer who spoke to the paper stated that the group was protesting "a gross violation of the right to see free church material," referring to the Tom Cruise video that was pulled from YouTube.
Protesters at the demonstration wore masks, and said they were attempting to inform the public about what they believed to be "restrictions of free speech and profiteering through pyramid schemes" by the Church of Scientology. They asserted they were not protesting the doctrine of Scientology, but rather alleged actions of individual Scientologists. One protester stated that he had created a Facebook group to organize the protest, explaining "It started online with a group called Anonymous ... They got upset with Scientology because the church hides important documents that are supposed to be released to the public."
February 10
On February 10, 2008, about 7,000 people protested in at least 100 cities worldwide.
Within 24 hours of the first protest, a search for "Scientology" and "protest" on Google Blog Search returned more than 4,000 results and more than 2,000 pictures on the image-sharing site Flickr
Flickr
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
. Cities with turnouts of one hundred or more protesters included Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, and Sydney, Australia; Toronto, Canada; London,; Dublin; Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, Boston, Massachusetts, Clearwater, Florida
Clearwater, Florida
Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, US, nearly due west of Tampa and northwest of St. Petersburg. In the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and in the east lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 108,787. It is the county seat of...
, and New York City, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, United States.
One hundred and fifty people protested at the Church of Scientology building in Sydney, Australia, carrying signs and wearing costumes. Participants were masked to maintain their anonymity and avoid possible retaliation from the Church of Scientology. Protesters chanted "Church on the left, cult on the right" (in reference to the Church that was beside the Church of Scientology building), "Religion is free" and "We want Xenu". Scientology staff locked down the building and set up a camera to record the event. After the protest in Sydney, a surge in online Internet traffic due to individuals attempting to view pictures from the protest crashed hundreds of websites when a server was overloaded. The Sydney protest was one of the first worldwide, and after the first images of the protest went online a surge in traffic drove the hosting company's bandwidth usage up by 900 per cent. The hosting company Digitalis temporarily prevented access to hundreds of its clients' sites, and customer support representative Denis Kukic said the surge was unexpected: "We had no advance notice that there was going to be a sudden surge of traffic or that there would be more than 100 times the average traffic that this customer's website normally consumes."
Masked protesters in Seattle, United States congregated in front of the Church of Scientology of Washington State. Protesters were quoted as saying, "We believe in total freedom of belief. We have nothing against the people of Scientology, however the Church of Scientology has committed crimes. They're vehemently anti-opposition. Anyone who opposes them, must go down." A Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
protester emphasized that their opposition was against the organization, not the belief system, and that they supported the Scientology split-off group known as the Free Zone
Free Zone (Scientology)
The Free Zone comprises a variety of groups and individuals who practice Scientology beliefs and techniques independently of the Church of Scientology . Such practitioners range from those who closely adhere to the original teachings of Scientology's founder L...
. Protesters turned out in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
despite unusually cold weather. The masked crowd consisted mainly of college students, including some who had travelled from as far as Penn State University.
Protesters in Boston, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, London, and other cities worldwide, wore Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes , also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.Fawkes was born and educated in York...
masks modeled after the 2005 film V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta (film)
V for Vendetta is a 2005 dystopian thriller film directed by James McTeigue and produced by Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers, who also wrote the screenplay. It is an adaptation of the V for Vendetta comic book by Alan Moore and David Lloyd...
. Guy Fawkes was an English Catholic executed for a 1605 attempt to blow up the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
. In V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta is a ten-issue comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd, set in a dystopian future United Kingdom imagined from the 1980s to about the 1990s. A mysterious masked revolutionary who calls himself "V" works to destroy the totalitarian government,...
, a rebel against a near-future fascist regime uses the mask in his public appearances and distributes many of its copies to the population to enable mass protests. The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
characterized usage of the Guy Fawkes masks as "an allusion to the British insurgent and a film depicting an antigovernment movement". Aaron Tavena of College Times wrote that the Guy Fawkes masks provided a "dramatic effect" to the protests, and Nick Jamison of The Retriever Weekly wrote: "During the February 10 protests, Anonymous was informative, Anonymous was peaceful, and Anonymous was effective. After seeing all of the pictures from the 10th with everyone in disguise, many sporting Guy Fawkes masks, I wanted to be a part of that." Scott Stewart of University of Nebraska at Omaha
University of Nebraska at Omaha
The University of Nebraska at Omaha is a four-year state university located in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. Founded in 1908 as Omaha University, the institution became the public Municipal University of Omaha in 1931. It assumed its current name in 1968 following a merger into the University...
's The Gateway wrote: "Many participants sported Guy Fawkes masks to draw attention both to their identity as Anonymous and the Church of Scientology's abuse of litigation and coercion to suppress anti-Scientology viewpoints."
The Internet meme
Meme
A meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
"Rickroll", where a link is given to a seemingly relevant website only to be directed to a music video of singer Rick Astley
Rick Astley
Richard Paul "Rick" Astley is an English singer-songwriter, musician, and radio personality. He is known for his 1987 song, "Never Gonna Give You Up", which was a #1 hit single in 25 countries...
's pop single "Never Gonna Give You Up
Never Gonna Give You Up
A group of London dance producers, called The Rickrollerz made a house music cover version of "Never Gonna Give You Up" on that day, and in honor of that event....
", has been used as a theme in the protests against Scientology. At February 10 protests in New York, Washington, D.C., London and Seattle, protesters played the song through boomboxes and shouted the phrase "Never gonna let you down!", in what The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
called "a live rick-rolling of the Church of Scientology". In response to a website created by Scientologists showing an anti-Anonymous video, Project Chanology participants created a website with a similar domain name with a video displaying the music video to "Never Gonna Give You Up". In a March 2008 interview, Astley said that he found the rickrolling of Scientology to be "hilarious"; he also said that he will not try to capitalize on the rickroll phenomenon with a new recording or remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
of his own, but that he'd be happy to have other artists remix it.
Following the protests, there were reports that YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
was freezing the view counts on videos criticizing Scientology, including clips from the protests themselves, potentially preventing them from being displayed on YouTube's front page. Similarly, the original "Message to Scientology" video had received nearly 2.5 million views and yet failed to be featured as a "most-watched".
The net neutrality activist group movieLOL
NEE
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
strongly criticized YouTube for a "display of the decay of internet freedom". YouTube's official response stated: "There was an issue with video view counts not increasing that has now been resolved. The correct number of views should be displayed in the next 24 hours. Thanks for your patience."
Jonathan Holmes
Jonathan Holmes
Jonathan Holmes is a British-born Australian television journalist and producer who has been, since 2008, the presenter of the ABC1 weekly programme Media Watch....
, the presenter of the Australian Media Watch watchdog
Watchdog journalism
Watchdog journalism aims to hold accountable public personalities and institutions, whose functions impact social and political life. The term "lapdog journalism", for journalism biased in favour of personalities and institutions, is sometimes used as a conceptual opposite to watchdog...
program, reported on two cases of media censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
of the protests. News.com.au pixelated a poster carried by a protester which was revealed, through a Today Tonight
Today Tonight
Today Tonight is a controversial Australian News and Current Affairs program, produced by the Seven Network and shown weeknightly at in direct competition with rival Nine Network program A Current Affair....
segment, to have displayed the word "CULT". The Advertiser erased Tom Cruise's name from a protest placard, rendering the placard's message meaningless, without informing its readers. The Advertisers editor, Melvin Mansell, stated that the alteration had "slipped by" and that he was opposed to the publication of doctored photographs.
March–December 2008
March 2008According to NBC11
KNTV
KNTV, channel 11, is the NBC owned-and-operated television station in the Bay Area market. It is licensed to San Jose, with its transmitter located on San Bruno Mountain, just south of San Francisco. It shares facilities in San Jose with NBC Universal sister station KSTS and CNBC's Silicon...
, a woman from Anonymous contacted them and stated that protests were planned against Scientology each month through May 2008; and that a large protest was planned for two days after Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard
L. Ron Hubbard
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard , was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology...
's birthday, on March 15, 2008. Carlos Moncada of The Tampa Tribune
The Tampa Tribune
The Tampa Tribune, published in Tampa, Florida, is one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area, second in circulation and readership to the St. Petersburg Times. The paper's tagline is "Life...
reported that an "open letter to the press from Anonymous" was sent out via e-mail, and states that a protest is planned for March 15, 2008. The e-mail refers to the Ides of March
Ides of March
The Ides of March is the name of the 15th day of March in the Roman calendar, probably referring to the day of the full moon. The word Ides comes from the Latin word "Idus" and means "half division" especially in relation to a month. It is a word that was used widely in the Roman calendar...
: "We, too, wish to celebrate this event, albeit in our own special way ... Beware the Ides of March, Church of Scientology!" The March protests were titled "Operation Party Hard".
Protests began in Australia on March 15, 2008, and were followed by protests in major cities worldwide including Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, London, Seattle, Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, and Los Angeles. Approximately 7,000 to 8,000 people protested in about 100 cities worldwide. The protests took place in locations in Australia, Europe, Canada, and the United States.
Approximately 200 masked protesters gathered outside of the Church of Scientology's headquarters in Adelaide, Australia, and an anonymous spokesman told News.com.au that Scientology should lose its tax-exempt status. About 150 protesters came to the Yonge Street
Yonge Street
Yonge Street is a major arterial route connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. It was formerly listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world at , and the construction of Yonge Street is designated an "Event of...
headquarters of Scientology in Toronto, Canada; sang "Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to You
"Happy Birthday to You", also known more simply as "Happy Birthday", is a song that is traditionally sung to celebrate the anniversary of a person's birth...
" and chanted "we want cake". During the Los Angeles protests, a plane flew overhead trailing a large sign that read "Honk if you think Scientology is a cult." 150 protesters demonstrated in Clearwater, Florida, and a local organizer for Anonymous told The Tampa Tribune: "We feel that we have an obligation to educate the public about the things that have gone on and hopefully make the Church of Scientology understand that they have to change."
Two people were arrested by DeKalb County
DeKalb County, Georgia
DeKalb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. The population of the county was 691,893 at the 2010 census. Its county seat is the city of Decatur. It is bordered to the west by Fulton County and contains roughly 10% of the city of Atlanta...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
police for using megaphone
Megaphone
A megaphone, speaking-trumpet, bullhorn, blowhorn, or loud hailer is a portable, usually hand-held, cone-shaped horn used to amplify a person’s voice or other sounds towards a targeted direction. This is accomplished by channelling the sound through the megaphone, which also serves to match the...
s while stepping onto the surrounding street opposite of the church during a protest. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that a total of five protesters were cited for "causing 'hazardous' or 'offensive' conditions", and that eight motorists were pulled over by police and ticketed for excessive use of horns, after they honked while driving past the protest. The American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
and Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
are investigating the reaction of the police at the Atlanta protest.
In contrast, an LAPD
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
officer at the Los Angeles protest was widely praised after a video was uploaded to YouTube showing him acknowledging the demonstrators' right to protest and encouraging them to stay on the sidewalk for their own safety.
April 2008
Anonymous held its third international protest against Scientology on April 12, 2008. Named "Operation Reconnect", the protest focused on increasing awareness of the Church of Scientology's disconnection
Disconnection
Disconnection, when used in Scientology, is a term used to describe the severance of all ties between a Scientologist and a friend, colleague, or family member deemed to be antagonistic towards Scientology. The practice of disconnection is a form of shunning. Among Scientologists, disconnection is...
policy. Protesters around the world gathered in over 50 cities, including Toronto, London, Sydney, and Berlin. A subsequent international protest was planned for May 10, 2008, according to The University Register it was titled "Operation Battletoad Earth", and an additional protest was planned for June 2008. According to John DeSio of The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
, the May 10, 2008 protests were referred to as "Operation : Fair Game : Stop", and National Nine News
National Nine News
Nine News is the news service of the Australian Nine Network.Nine News's flagship bulletin is the nightly 6:00pm localised bulletin, produced by networked owned-and-operated stations in Sydney , Melbourne , Brisbane and Darwin alongside localised bulletins produced by the WIN-owned Nine Network...
has reported that the full title of the May 10 protests is "Battletoad Earth: Operation Fairgame Stop". The May 10 date was chosen as May 9 is the anniversary of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard
L. Ron Hubbard
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard , was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology...
's book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health is a book by L. Ron Hubbard which sets out self-improvement techniques he developed, called Dianetics. The book is also one of the canonical texts of Scientology. It is colloquially referred to as Book One...
. Over 400 people were present at the May 10, 2008 protests in cities in Australia. Wen Hsing, a member of Anonymous, commented to scopical.com.au about the Church of Scientology's denial of its "Fair Game" policy: "Even if the name 'fair game' is not in use, the Church of Scientology is an organisation that continues to practice a vicious policy of retribution against perceived enemies, and it teaches its members that extreme measures are morally justified if they aid the Church."
May 2008
On May 10, a teenager who went to the protests in front of the Queen Victoria Street
Queen Victoria Street, London
Queen Victoria Street, named after the British monarch from 1837 to 1901 is a long street in the City of London which runs east by north from its junction with New Bridge Street in Castle Baynard Ward, along a section that divides those of Queenhithe and Bread Street , then lastly through the...
Church of Scientology in London was issued a court summons after being asked to take down a sign that read "Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult". Posting anonymously on a forum, the teenager stated "Within five minutes of arriving ... I was told by a member of the police that I was not allowed to use 'that word'". He said that the police told him he had 15 minutes to take down the sign. The teenager did not, citing a 1984 high court ruling by Justice Latey which he described the Church of Scientology as a "cult" that was "corrupt, sinister and dangerous". The sign was then confiscated. Shami Chakrabarti
Shami Chakrabarti
Shami Chakrabarti CBE , has been the director of Liberty, a British pressure group, since September 2003. Chakrabarti is the Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University.-Early life:...
, the director of Liberty
Liberty (pressure group)
Liberty is a pressure group based in the United Kingdom. Its formal name is the National Council for Civil Liberties . Founded in 1934 by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith , the group campaigns to protect civil liberties and promote human rights...
, a human rights group, said that, "They will be banning words like 'war' and 'tax' from placards and demonstrations next. This is just barmy". On May 23, 2008, the legal action against the boy was dropped. A Crown Prosecution Service
Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...
(CPS) spokesman said: "In consultation with the City of London Police, we were asked whether the sign was abusive or insulting. Our advice is that it is not abusive or insulting and there is no offensiveness (as opposed to criticism), neither in the idea expressed nor in the mode of expression." Anonymous also held a protest in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary, in the same time and location with a program of the local Scientology church.
June–October 2008
A protest was held June 14, 2008 titled "Sea Arrrgh" (a satirical reference to the Church of Scientology's Sea Org
Sea Org
The Sea Organization or Sea Org is an association of Scientologists established in 1968 by L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer and founder of Scientology. Its members are found in the central management organizations of the Church of Scientology as well as in individual churches...
). Protesters dressed up as pirates. According to Macquarie National News
Macquarie National News
Macquarie National News is the name of the news service provided by Macquarie Radio Network Pty Ltd. It reaches both Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, through the radio stations 2GB, 2CH, MTR 1377 and SEN 1116. However, it also has broader reach through LIVENEWS.com.au, the websites of the...
, members of Anonymous highlighted the controversial practices of the Sea Org, including what the protesters believe to be forced contracts where Scientologists work below a livable wage, that female Sea Org members who become pregnant are pressured to have abortions, and that children of families in the organization are made to perform difficult physical labor. An international protest held on July 12, 2008 titled: "Spy vs. Sci" highlighted the Church of Scientology's Office of Special Affairs
Office of Special Affairs
The Office of Special Affairs or OSA is a department of the Church of Scientology. According to the Church, the OSA is responsible for directing legal affairs, public relations, pursuing investigations, publicizing the Church's "social betterment works," and "oversee[ing its] social reform programs"...
. A press release by the group posed the question: "Why does something that describes itself as a religion need an intelligence agency that aggressively persecutes critics?" The group posted a video in early August 2008 calling for renewed activity in their protest efforts, and planned a subsequent international protest for August 16, 2008. About 35 protesters gathered twice in September 2008 during the first preview and premiere of Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
's play All My Sons
All My Sons
All My Sons is a 1947 play by Arthur Miller. The play was twice adapted for film; in 1948, and again in 1987.The play opened on Broadway at the Coronet Theatre in New York City on January 29, 1947, closed on November 8, 1947 and ran for 328 performances...
. They encouraged Scientologist Katie Holmes
Katie Holmes
Katherine Noelle "Katie" Holmes is an American actress who first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. Her movie roles have included the blockbuster Batman Begins along with art house films such as The Ice Storm and thrillers...
, who is married to Tom Cruise, to leave the Church. The most recent international organized protest was held October 18, 2008. Members of Anonymous dressed as zombie
Zombie
Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...
s, and highlighted what they described as questionable deaths and suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
s of Scientologists.
December 2008
The film Valkyrie
Valkyrie (film)
Valkyrie is a 2008 American historical thriller film set in Nazi Germany during World War II. The film depicts the 20 July plot in 1944 by German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and to use the Operation Valkyrie national emergency plan to take control of the country...
, starring and produced by Tom Cruise, had a premiere in New York on December 17. Entertainment reporter Roger Friedman noted that it was held "in the private screening room at the Time Warner Center
Time Warner Center
The Time Warner Center is a mixed-use skyscraper developed by AREA Property Partners and The Related Companies in New York City. Its design, by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, consists of two 750 ft towers bridged by a multi-story atrium containing upscale retail shops...
. Not the or Loews Lincoln Square
Lincoln Square, New York
Lincoln Square is the name of both a square and the surrounding neighborhood within the Upper West Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan...
, where most premieres are held in public." The venue was chosen in part to minimize the exposure to Scientology protestors gathered at the Time Warner Center. For the same reason, Cruise arrived at the December 18 Los Angeles screening through an underground tunnel. There were also Scientology protests at the European premiere in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, where one protester got his V for Vendetta mask autographed by Tom Cruise. Chanology participants shared the limelight with a person in a bunny suit protesting against the hero worship of Claus von Stauffenberg.
January–February 2009
On January 8, 2009, an 18 year-old male member of Anonymous ran into the New York Scientology building shirtless and covered with VaselineVaseline
Vaseline is a brand of petroleum jelly based products owned by Anglo-Dutch company Unilever. Products include plain petroleum jelly and a selection of skin creams, soaps, lotions, cleansers, deodorants and personal lubricants....
, pubic hair
Pubic hair
Pubic hair is hair in the frontal genital area, the crotch, and sometimes at the top of the inside of the legs; these areas form the pubic region....
, and toenail clippings. He then proceeded to toss books around and smear the mixture on objects in the building. The man, identified by police as Mahoud Samed Almahadin, was charged with burglary, criminal mischief, and aggravated harassment as hate crimes. Two weeks later, 21 year-old film student and Anonymous member Jacob Speregen was charged with aggravated harassment and criminal mischief as hate crimes after he filmed Almahadin carrying out his prank. According to his mother and the video, Speregen was filming the event from behind the barricade. Scientology critics Mark Bunker and Jason Beghe
Jason Beghe
Jason Beghe is an American film and television actor and critic of Scientology. As a young man he attended the Collegiate School in New York City, where he became best friends with John F. Kennedy, Jr. and David Duchovny. Beghe is married and lives in Los Angeles, California.Beghe starred in the...
disagreed with the individual's actions.
Anonymous organized a 12th global protest against Scientology for January 10, 2009, to coincide with the Chanology movement's first anniversary. On February 10, 2009, Anonymous released a statement: "Scientology operatives still continue to paint Anonymous in a negative light as a means of distracting attention from Scientology operations and attempting to discredit those who bring truth to the issues at hand. It just isn’t working." The group claimed credit for leaks of internal Scientology documents that appeared on the website Wikileaks
Wikileaks
WikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
, and announced further global protests for subsequent weekends in February 2009. Members of Anonymous continued to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Chanology movement during February 2009, with protests held in locations including Hemet, California
Hemet, California
Hemet is a city in the San Jacinto Valley in Riverside County, California, United States. It covers a total area of , about half of the valley, which it shares with the neighboring city of San Jacinto. The population was 78,657 at the 2010 census....
.
March–May 2009
On March 3, 2009, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted to approve an ordinance which restricts residential picketing in Riverside County, CaliforniaRiverside County, California
Riverside County is a county in the U.S. state of California. One of 58 California counties, it covers in the southern part of the state, and stretches from Orange County to the Colorado River, which forms the state border with Arizona. The county derives its name from the city of Riverside,...
to 30 feet or further from an individual's residence. The ordinance was originally introduced by Supervisor Jeff Stone, board chairman, in November 2008, and went through multiple changes. Critics of the ordinance stated that Stone proposed the measure due to favor for Scientology, which has its Hemet, California compound located in Riverside County. "The whole ordinance is tainted. The reasons behind it are tainted," said county resident Lirra Bishop. Stone stated the measure was intended for all residents of the county, though he cited protests at Scientology's Gold Base
Gold Base
The Gold Base is the international headquarters of the Church of Scientology on a parcel of land in unincorporated Riverside County, California, outside of San Jacinto, and north of Hemet....
facility which houses residences and Scientology's Golden Era Productions
Golden Era Productions
Golden Era Productions is an organization operated by the Church of Scientology that produces promotional material for the Church's membership, as well as many of the restored lectures, E-meters, training films and other materials related to the works of church founder L...
as an example of why the ordinance is needed. Protesters at Gold Base have included members of Anonymous, and Scientology officials claimed they were "threatened with violence". Protesters told the Board of Supervisors that due to the lack of sidewalk near Gold Base, the anti-picketing ordinance would severely hamper the ability to protest outside the Scientology compound.
After stating on October 17, 2008 that he would plead guilty to involvement in the January 2008 DDoS attacks against Church of Scientology websites, an 18-year-old self-described member of Anonymous entered a guilty plea related to hacking charges in May 2009. A release from the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
said that the individual, a resident of New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, "participated in the attack because he considered himself a member of an underground group called 'Anonymous'". Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said that the Church of Scientology had cooperated in the investigation. The individual faces a sentencing scheduled for August 2009.
In May 2009, members of Anonymous told WSMV-TV
WSMV-TV
WSMV-TV, virtual channel 4, is the NBC-affiliated television station serving the Nashville, Tennessee area. It broadcasts its digital signal on VHF channel 10. Owned by Meredith Corporation, its transmitter and tower are located adjacent to its studios on Knob Road in west Nashville, south of...
that they were bullied by off-duty security guards while protesting at a Scientology event in April in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. According to WSMV-TV, a protester stated he was assaulted by three Scientology security guards while on public property, 400 yards away from the Scientology building. The Church of Scientology had previously informed the security guards that the protesters were "dangerous people". A protester was issued three citations by the Scientology security guards, but these were all dismissed by the district attorney. On May 8, 2009, WSMV-TV reported that "laws appear to have been broken" in the manner in which the Scientology security guards handled the protesters. The Scientology security guards were not clearly identified as off-duty police officers, and permits for the Scientology event attended by the Anonymous protesters were for the wrong day. "The armed people from the other county are not identified police officers. You're looking for a problem," said John M. L. Brown, a Fraternal Order of Police attorney.
November 2009
In November 2009, the New York PostNew York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
interviewed former Scientologist Mandy Mullen, who had joined the Manhattan org in 2008 after seeing information on 4chan
4chan
4chan is an English-language imageboard website. Launched on October 1, 2003, its boards were originally used for the posting of pictures and discussion of manga and anime...
about Chanology protests. Over the next year, she recalled cases of members being coerced into donating more and more money. When she told her "leader" that she had looked at websites run by anti-scientology protesters (and disagreed with them), he reportedly replied "That's like saying I don't burn niggers, I just like to party with the KKK!" In Fall 2008 Mullen left the church, joining a group of Chanology protesters across the street. Church of Scientology Manhattan President John Carmichael issued a response the following week, stating "Mandy Mullen’s story about Scientology... is all lies in the service of Anonymous, a hate group that targets our Church, or even anyone who just falls onto their radar." On November 13, 2009, Independent Australian Senator Nick Xenophon
Nick Xenophon
Nicholas "Nick" Xenophon is a South Australian barrister, anti-gambling campaigner and politician. He attended Prince Alfred College, and studied law at the University of Adelaide, attaining his Bachelor of Laws in 1981. Xenophon established and became principal of his own law firm, Xenophon & Co....
used parliamentary privilege to accuse the Church of Scientology of being a criminal organisation.
Campaign against Scientology's tax-exempt status
A woman who stated she was a member of Anonymous told KNTVKNTV
KNTV, channel 11, is the NBC owned-and-operated television station in the Bay Area market. It is licensed to San Jose, with its transmitter located on San Bruno Mountain, just south of San Francisco. It shares facilities in San Jose with NBC Universal sister station KSTS and CNBC's Silicon...
that the group has shifted strategy to activities which fight Scientology but are not deemed illegal by the United States government
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
, including an attempt to get the Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
to investigate the Church of Scientology's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status
Tax exemption
Various tax systems grant a tax exemption to certain organizations, persons, income, property or other items taxable under the system. Tax exemption may also refer to a personal allowance or specific monetary exemption which may be claimed by an individual to reduce taxable income under some...
. Another woman from Anonymous told Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
that the group plans to accomplish this through a lobbying
Lobbying
Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...
campaign. United States tax authorities removed the Church of Scientology's tax-exemption status in 1967, stating that the organization's auditing techniques
Auditing (Scientology)
Auditing was developed by L. Ron Hubbard, and is described by the Church of Scientology as "spiritual counseling which is the central practice of Dianetics and Scientology".-Description:...
served as a for-profit operation for L. Ron Hubbard. In 1984, the United States Tax Court
United States Tax Court
The United States Tax Court is a federal trial court of record established by Congress under Article I of the U.S. Constitution, section 8 of which provides that the Congress has the power to "constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court"...
ruled that the Church of Scientology was guilty of "manufacturing and falsifying records to present to the IRS, burglarizing IRS offices and stealing government documents, and subverting government processes for unlawful purposes." The Church of Scientology's tax-exempt status in the United States was reinstated in 1993.
A member of Anonymous calling herself "Envie" told Today Tonight
Today Tonight
Today Tonight is a controversial Australian News and Current Affairs program, produced by the Seven Network and shown weeknightly at in direct competition with rival Nine Network program A Current Affair....
that the group has longer term plans against the Church of Scientology: "We are incredibly determined ... There are those of us who have been talking about plans for the next 12 to 18 months." A member of Anonymous calling herself "Sarah" spoke with Radar Magazine about a letter-writing campaign: "We're sending letters to senators and congresspeople requesting that their tax-exempt status be looked at."
Church of Scientology response
In a January 25, 2008 statement made to News.com.au, a spokesman for the Church of Scientology said, "These types of people have got some wrong information about us." A Toronto, Canada spokesperson for the Church of Scientology said she didn't "give a damn" if the group Anonymous was responsible for disrupting access to the Scientology site. Church spokeswoman Yvette Shank told Sun MediaSun Media
Sun Media Corporation is the owner of several widely read tabloid and broadsheet newspapers in Canada and the 49 percent owner of Sun News Network...
that she thought the Anonymous members were a "pathetic" group of "computer geeks". On January 26, 2008, CNET News reported that Karin Pouw, public affairs director for the Church of Scientology, did not address their specific request for a comment about the denial-of-service attacks but instead only responded to the appearance of the Tom Cruise video on YouTube. Pouw stated that the video consisted of "pirated and edited" excerpts of Cruise from a 2004 Scientology event, and that after the video appeared, there was increased traffic to Scientology sites as shown by top lists compiled by search engines. Pouw went on to state "Those wishing to find out the Church of Scientology's views and to gain context of the video have the right to search official Church Web sites if they so desire."
On January 28, 2008, Radar Online
Radar (magazine)
RadarOnline is an American online publication. It started as a magazine first printed in 2003 as a test issue, relaunched twice in 2005 and 2006, and ceased publication in 2008. The magazine published articles on entertainment, fashion, politics, and human interest...
reported that the Church of Scientology asked the U.S. Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
's office in Los Angeles, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
, and the Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
to start a criminal investigation of possible criminal activity related to the DDoS attacks. An unnamed source told Radar that the Church of Scientology argued to law enforcement that the Internet attacks are a form of "illegal interference with business." Radar also reported that in statements to law enforcement the Church of Scientology emphasized its status as a religious organization in the United States in order to assert that the DDoS attacks can be classed as hate crime
Hate crime
In crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...
s. The day after the Church of Scientology complained to law enforcement about the DDoS attacks, one of the main Project Chanology sites was down, and a message on the site said that their site crashed due to attacks from Scientologists. In a statement issued to Wikinews
Wikinews
Wikinews is a free-content news source wiki and a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. The site works through collaborative journalism. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has distinguished Wikinews from Wikipedia by saying "on Wikinews, each story is to be written as a news story as opposed to an...
, a Church of Scientology employee confirmed that actions of Anonymous had been reported to law enforcement: "Activities of Anonymous have been reported to the Authorities and actions are being taken. Their activities are illegal and we do not approve of them. At the same time, our main work is to improve the environment, make people more able and spiritually aware. ... yes, we are taking action."
The Church of Scientology issued a statement explaining the website move to Prolexic Technologies: "The attacks have defaced and rendered inoperable a number of CoS web sites. But as a very wealthy institution, the Church has fought back with technological answers. On January 21, the Church of Scientology moved its domain to Prolexic Technologies, a group that specializes in protecting Web sites from [denial of service] attacks by creating a safe tunnel by filtering all incoming mail and then allowing only clean messages through."
Lee Sheldon of the Church of Scientology of Orlando and Lee Holzinger of the Church of Scientology of Santa Barbara issued similar statements regarding the February 2, 2008 protests in Florida and California, respectively. Sheldon stated "we recognize the right to legal protest," and Holzinger said "People have the right to express themselves ... The Church of Scientology has always defended the right of freedom of expression." Both representatives also expressed concerns regarding the spread of "hate speech".
The Church of Scientology released a statement regarding the February 10, 2008 worldwide protests, which was published February 7, 2008 in the St. Petersburg Times
St. Petersburg Times
The St. Petersburg Times is a United States newspaper. It is one of two major publications serving the Tampa Bay Area, the other being The Tampa Tribune, which the Times tops in both circulation and readership. Based in St...
. In the statement, the Church of Scientology called the organizers of the protests "cyberterrorists", and stated: "We take this seriously because of the nature of the threats this group has made publicly. We will take every step necessary to protect our parishioners and staff as well as members of the community, in coordination with the local authorities." The statement also referred to the actions of members of Project Chanology as "hate crimes" and "religious bigotry", and in a media release said that the group is guided by Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926...
; one of the organizers of the protest responded to the latter allegation by stating: "I don't know where they got that from, but I don't think that's true considering that I am a capitalist and a Jew". Pat Harney, spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology in Clearwater, Florida told the St. Petersburg Times: "We are dealing with a worldwide threat ... This is not a light matter." In preparation for the February 10, 2008 protests outside Scientology's spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, the Church of Scientology spent $4,500 to hire ten off-duty police officers for security. Clearwater Police Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Daly-Watts stated that the off-duty police officers will make sure that protesters do not trespass on Scientology property or violate the law, but will report to police supervisors and not representatives of the Church of Scientology.
The Church of Scientology posted a YouTube video claiming that Anonymous are "terrorists" and alleging that Anonymous is perpetrating "hate crimes" against the church. The video does not provide any evidence supporting their claims, and the FBI has not named any suspects for several of the threats mentioned. Anonymous has denied involvement in the more severe accusations. The church also released a DVD containing the YouTube video. The DVD called Anonymous a "dangerous" group and accused them of making threats against Scientology. Men claiming to be from the law firm Latham and Watkins delivered the DVD to family members of at least one person who protested.
YouTube user "AnonymousFacts", which Radar Online described as an associate of Scientology, displayed the names and personal information of several supposed Anonymous members and accused the group of violent threats and terrorism. YouTube quickly took the video down and suspended the "AnonymousFacts" account.
The Church of Scientology sought an injunction and a restraining order to prevent Anonymous from protesting on March 15, 2008, citing threats allegedly made by Anonymous. Both the injunction and the restraining order were denied. On March 31, 2008, Radar Online reported that representatives of law firms delivered legal letters to suspected Anons, often at their homes. The Church filed complaints of trespassing and criminal harassment against Boston organizer Gregg Housh, who was charged with disturbing an assembly of worship, disturbing the peace, and harassment. The District Attorney's office dropped the harassment charge, and Judge Thomas Horgan issued a continuance
Continuance
In American procedural law, a continuance is the postponement of a hearing, trial, or other scheduled court proceeding at the request of either or both parties in the dispute, or by the judge sua sponte. In response to delays in bringing cases to trial, some states have adopted "fast-track" rules...
without finding for the remaining charges.
In a May 8, 2008 appearance on CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, Church of Scientology spokesman Thomas W. Davis
Thomas W. Davis
Thomas W. "Tommy" Davis is the head of the Church of Scientology's Celebrity Centre International in Los Angeles, California.-Celebrity Centre:...
said that Scientology was "dealing with ninety-six death threats, bomb threats, acts of violence, vandalism" from the group Anonymous. CNN's John Roberts responded, stating that the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
found nothing connecting Anonymous to the Church of Scientology's accusations of violence: "You are leveling these accusations at this group, the F.B.I., which is looking into it, says it has found nothing to connect this group Anonymous with what you're talking about, or death threats against members of the church, the F.B.I. at this point says - it has no reason to believe that charges would be leveled against this group."
Reaction
Andreas Heldal-Lund
Andreas Heldal-Lund is a Norwegian anti-Scientology activist best known for operating the website Operation Clambake.-Activist:...
, founder of the Scientology-critical website and non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
Operation Clambake
Operation Clambake
Operation Clambake, also referred to by its Web address, Xenu.net, is a Web site and Norway-based non-profit organization, launched in 1996, that publishes criticism of the Church of Scientology. It is owned and maintained by Andreas Heldal-Lund, who has stated that he supports the rights of all...
, released a statement criticizing the digital assault against Scientology. Heldal-Lund commented, "People should be able to have easy access to both sides and make up their own opinions. Freedom of speech means we need to allow all to speak - including those we strongly disagree with. I am of the opinion that the Church of Scientology is a criminal organisation and a cult which is designed by its delusional founder to abuse people. I am still committed to fight for their right to speak their opinion." He also stated that "Attacking Scientology like that will just make them play the religious persecution card ... They will use it to defend their own counter actions when they try to shatter criticism and crush critics without mercy."
Mark Bunker
Mark Bunker
Mark Bunker is a television journalist. He won an Emmy Award in 2006 from the Pacific Southwest Emmy Awards division of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences...
, an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
-winning journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and Scientology critic who runs the website XenuTV.com, posted a video to YouTube and asked Anonymous to tone down their campaign against the Church of Scientology. According to NPR's Morning Edition
Morning Edition
Morning Edition is an American radio news program produced and distributed by National Public Radio . It airs weekday mornings and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 05:00 to 09:00 ET, with feeds and updates as required until noon...
, Bunker has "become a revered voice to many members of Anonymous," and they refer to him as "Wise Beard Man". Bunker told Newsweek that he was pleased to see a large group of young individuals acting against Scientology, but stated he was also concerned for their safety: "I know the way Scientology works: they're going to get these people in trouble ... I'm very concerned about their safety, and I'm concerned about the Scientologists' safety, too." Bunker stated that he has received 6,000 emails from individuals who say they are part of Anonymous. Bunker attended the February 10, 2008 protest against Scientology in Los Angeles.
Tory Christman
Tory Christman
Tory Christman is a prominent American critic of Scientology and former member of the organization. Originally brought up to believe in Catholicism, Christman turned to Scientology after being introduced to the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health authored by Scientology founder L...
, a critic of Scientology and former Scientologist from 1969 to 2000, stated she disapproved of illegal tactics but felt encouraged by the new influx of critics of Scientology. Christman told Morning Edition: "It feels like we've been out in this desert, fighting this group one-on-one by ourselves, and all of a sudden this huge army came up with not only tons of people, thousands of people, but better tools..." Scientology critic Arnaldo Lerma
Arnaldo Lerma
Arnaldo Pagliarini Lerma is an American writer and activist, a former Scientologist, and critic of Scientology, who has appeared in television, media and radio interviews...
told the St. Petersburg Times he was impressed by a video of a protest against Scientology which took place in Orlando, Florida: "I've never seen anything like that before. This is incredible. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it on a Web cam."
In a February 4, 2008 appearance on the G4
G4 (TV channel)
G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
television program Attack of the Show!
Attack of the Show!
Attack of the Show! is an American live television program shown weeknights on G4, G4 Canada and Fuel TV in Australia. The program is hosted by Kevin Pereira and Candace Bailey...
, Mark Ebner
Mark Ebner
Mark Charles Ebner is an American investigative journalist and the host of TruTV's Rich and Reckless. Ebner writes primarily about issues in the Los Angeles area, including pit bull fighting in South Central, Scientology, and celebrity scandal. He has covered celebrity culture for Spy, Rolling...
, journalist and author of the book Hollywood, Interrupted
Hollywood, Interrupted
Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon - The Case Against Celebrity is the title of a book and website authored by Mark Ebner, with co-author Andrew Breitbart. The book was published in 2004 by John Wiley and Sons. The writing focuses primarily on what Ebner sees as the disconnected,...
, and Nick Douglas of Gawker.com commented on Project Chanology. Ebner stated that "Hacking their site is not really the best way to go about taking them (the Church of Scientology) down. Most critics you talk to want the Scientology site to be up there so that people who are interested can see the stupidity they have on the web and at the same time they can go - they are a few keystrokes from getting a thousand other opinions." Nick Douglas explained that the group decided to shift their strategy away from the attacks to Scientology websites: "Anonymous even decided that they were going to stop that attack, that it was a bad idea. It's the usual thing they used to do when they really hadn't had a thought out plan, and here they're realizing they actually have to figure out some real plan against a real enemy."
University of Alberta
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...
professor Stephen A. Kent
Stephen A. Kent
Stephen A. Kent, is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He researches new and alternative religions, and has published research on several such groups including the Children of God , the Church of Scientology, and newer faiths...
weighed in on the issue, and said "I think these disruptions probably are illegal. At the very least, they’re forms of harassment ... We now have three parties involved. Anonymous, Scientology and law enforcement." Kent stated that "The hacker community has been angry at Scientology for (their) attempts to block free speech on the Internet." Reaction to the denial of service attack on the Church of Scientology websites was mixed in message board forums for PC World
PC World (magazine)
PC World is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal-technology products and services...
. Some readers praised the actions of Anonymous, while others commented that the DDoS attacks bring more attention to Scientology. The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
likened the DDoS attacks used by Project Chanology to "cyberwarfare techniques normally associated with extortionists, spies and terrorists," and referred to Anonymous as "internet activists".
Dan Schultz of PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
's MediaShift Idea Lab commented that the movement "...is a really fascinating case study of how current technologies and information dissemination via digital media can snowball into something that actually results in real world action". In a follow-up piece, Schultz discussed the tools used by digital media to achieve community impact, including lower barriers to entry and greater efficiencies through the use of information systems. Schultz wrote "For members of Anonymous I'm betting most of these things are already unspoken understandings," and pointed to their use of meme
Internet meme
The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...
s and cited the forums of the website enturbulation.org as an example of the group's ability to collaborate effectively to accomplish goals.
In a May 8, 2008 report on the recent actions of Anonymous against Scientology, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
reporter Kareen Wynter
Kareen Wynter
Kareen Wynter is a general assignment correspondent for U.S.-based television news network CNN. She is based in CNN's Los Angeles bureau. In the 1990s, Kareen Wynter worked for WEWS in Cleveland, Ohio....
commented: "Legal experts say the church may be facing its biggest challenge yet – trying to protect its image, in a loosely-policed medium seen by millions of people. In a July 2008 interview with Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
had this to say about the use of the Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes , also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.Fawkes was born and educated in York...
motif, adopted from his comic V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta is a ten-issue comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd, set in a dystopian future United Kingdom imagined from the 1980s to about the 1990s. A mysterious masked revolutionary who calls himself "V" works to destroy the totalitarian government,...
: "I was also quite heartened the other day when watching the news to see that there were demonstrations outside the Scientology headquarters over here, and that they suddenly flashed to a clip showing all these demonstrators wearing V for Vendetta [Guy Fawkes] masks. That pleased me. That gave me a warm little glow."
See also
- HacktivismHacktivismHacktivism is the use of computers and computer networks as a means of protest to promote political ends. The term was first coined in 1994 by a member of the Cult of the Dead Cow hacker collective named Omega...
- Operation LeakspinOperation LeakspinOperation: Leakspin was conceived by Anonymous, with the purpose of sorting through recent WikiLeaks releases to identify and raise awareness of potentially important and previously overlooked cables.- Background :...
- Operation PaybackOperation PaybackOperation Payback is a coordinated, decentralized group of attacks on opponents of Internet piracy by Internet activists using the "Anonymous" moniker - a group sometimes affiliated with the website 4chan. Operation Payback started as retaliation to distributed denial of service attacks on torrent...
- Scientology and the Internet
- Scientology and the legal systemScientology and the legal systemThe Church of Scientology has been involved in court disputes in several countries. In some cases, when the Church has initiated the dispute, question has been raised as to its motives. The Church says that its use of the legal system is necessary to protect its intellectual property and its right...
- Scientology controversies
- Streisand effectStreisand effectThe Streisand effect is a primarily online phenomenon in which an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely...
External links
Project Chanology- "Message to Scientology", "Anonymous", YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, January 21, 2008. - "Call to Action", "Anonymous", YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, January 27, 2008. - "Code of Conduct", "Anonymous", YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, February 1, 2008. - "The Road to February 10, 2008", "Anonymous", DailymotionDailymotionDailymotion is a video sharing service website, headquartered in the 18th arrondissement, Paris, France. According to Comscore, Dailymotion is the second largest video site in the world after YouTube....
, February 14, 2008. High quality compilation video of the Feb 10 protests and what led up to them. - "Onward - the road to March 15, 2008, "Anonymous", VimeoVimeoVimeo is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos. It was founded by Zach Klein and Jake Lodwick in November 2004...
, March 26, 2008. - Archive of 4chan thread discussing initial plans for Project Chanology
- "Why We Protest", Website set up by Anonymous about their Scientology protests
- "Scientology Declares Victory Over Anonymous"
Audio/video media (Video broadcast.)
- "Know Your Meme: Project Chanology", Know Your MemeKnow Your MemeKnow Your Meme is a web series originally from Rocketboom which documents various Internet memes and other online phenomena, and also investigates new and changing memes through research and the scientific method...
Season 2008, Episode 13, "RocketboomRocketboomRocketboom is a daily vlog produced by Andrew Baron that was most recently hosted by Meme Molly until August 25, 2011. Joanne Colan hosted from July 12, 2006 until April 17, 2009. In the intervening time between Colan and Molly, Caitlin Hill hosted a few episodes in April 2009...
", YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, December 31, 2008. (Video podcast) (Video broadcast) (Video broadcast) (Radio broadcast) (Radio broadcast) (Radio broadcast) (Audio podcast)