Attacks By Aaron Swartz: A Critical Analysis

Already, whistleblowers and journalists, who commonly defy governments’ expectations of how information should be used and shared, already face threats from those nations who disapprove of their actions--provisions like this could further endanger them. The United States has had to respond to quite a few “attacks” by Internet hacktivists in the last decade. One such attack was carried out by Aaron Swartz, a young entrepreneur and committed online freedom activist. Perhaps the first thing I should mention about Swartz is that I remember his death sharply. I remember hearing about it and feeling desperate and panicky and sad. He died in January of 2013. At the time, all I’d heard was that he was driven to suicide after relentless (pursual?) …show more content…
Governments and people around the world have very different ideas about what Internet freedom means… Some believe it means “use of the Internet by citizens to achieve freedom from political oppression.” Others believe noninterference by governments or other entities… Free expression and assembly… Free and open architecture and governance… Keeping the Internet free, open, and globally interconnected. In the United States, there does seem to be a push for the first definition--the U.S. has famously tried to help citizens of other countries circumvent censorship by undemocratic governments. However, there is significant pull for the final definition, too, which takes a much broader stance. Some say that the United States’ investment in preventing censorship and preserving democracy overseas is hypocritical, considering the “threats to Net neutrality, disregard for user’s privacy, draconian copyright and DRM [digital rights management] restrictions… and rampant surveillance” (MacKinnon PN) at home. Generally, it seems it can be said that governments believe in at least some control--so not …show more content…
She was a U.S. army officer and intelligence analyst stationed in Iraq, and had for some time been uneasy about the kind of war she saw taking place there. When she happened upon an appalling video recording of U.S. soldiers in a helicopter shooting into a crowd of unarmed Reuters journalists and local citizens, she knew she had to do something, and speak up about the unspeakable. She shared the video with WikiLeaks, as well as hundreds of pages of classified information--including Afghan and Iraq war logs, diplomatic cables, and Guantanamo Bay files--that held evidence of torture of prisoners, civilian casualties, corruption, and shady negotiations in international