Firebrand Waves of Digital Activism 1994-2014 ― The Rise and Spread of Hacktivism and Cyberconflict

Firebrand Waves of Digital Activism 1994-2014 introduces four waves of upsurge in digital activism and cyberconflict. The rise of digital activism started in 1994, was transformed by the events of 9/11, culminated in 2011 with the Arab Spring uprisings, and entered a transformative phase of control and mainstreaming since 2013 with the Snowden affair. The book's argument is that digital activism is entering a phase of mainstreaming as 'politics as usual': an established element in the fabric of political life with no exceptional qualities, normalized and mainstreamed by governments through collaboration with corporations and the cooptation of NGOs. Cyberconflict will revolve more around high-level information warfare of attacking infrastructure, rather than just using ICTs to mobilise or as a weapon for low-level societal and largely symbolic attacks. The book goes on to elaborate on how the higher level character of conflict in digital networks will intensify to the extent that digital activism and cyberconflict of the last two decades shall pale by comparison.

Athina Karatzogianni is Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication at the University of Leicester, UK. She specialises on the intersections between new media theory, resistance networks and global politics, and studies the use of digital technologies by social movements, protest, and insurgency groups.