SXSW Review: We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists

Some documentaries give insights into events of the past, while others take place in the present and comment on current events. The movie We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists definitely takes place in current times. You might not have heard about Anonymous, but there is some certainty that this group's actions have affected you or someone you know.

We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists gives historical and social context to a group of loosely affiliated hackers who participate in an activity known as hacktivism. The activities of this group occur in both terrestrial and online venues. The origin of Anonymous comes from a website called 4chan.org. 4chan.org is a website started by SXSW 2011 speaker Chris Poole, where people can post and comment on images uploaded by other users. Users are not required to sign up for an account and can simply post images and content under the name Anonymous. This is where the hacker group derived their moniker.

In the movie we learn that one of Anonymous’s earliest hacktivism activities was against the Church of Scientology. In 2008, a video of Tom Cruise talking about the Church of Scientology surfaced and in typical Church of Scientology fashion they tried to get it removed from the internet. The Church of Scientology is well known for attacking news organizations and websites critical of their organization. When the Cruise video surfaced, the Church of Scientology went on blast and sent numerous DCMA notices to websites and new organizations.

This is where Anonymous went into action. Anonymous set out to disrupt the operations of Scientology with protests in front of Church of Scientology offices, prank faxes, prank phone calls and distributed denial of service attacks (a mechanism for overloading an organizations websites). Many members of Anonymous donned masks of Guy Fawkes masks, made popular by the film V for Vendetta.

This was just the first hacktivist activity documented by We Are Legion. The documentary delves into other Anonymouse hacktivites including ones against Paypal, Visa, Mastercard and Sony’s Playstation Network. 

The documentary does spend time illustrating legal difficulties facing members of the group Anonymous. The documentarians highlight what happens when members get caught participating in questionable activities coordinated by Anonymous. One particular member was what a lot of us would call a "noob" who downloaded a application called Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC). He simply pointed this application at a website and pressed Go. Pressing Go was just the start of his problems. Soon the police arrived at his door and arrested him. There are other discussions of the legal minefields that this group navigates throughout the documentary.

We are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists is a good reflection of things that are happening today and will occur long into the future. Creating an authentic documentary on an underground movement seems an impossible task. The film shines a light on this movement, providing an insightful context to their activities. The interesting thing is that this group is still active and has participated in a number of current movements including the Occupy movement, the SOPA/PIPA battle and finally the break-in at Austin company Stratfor. This documentary is but the first chapter in the story of Anonymous.