Content Analysis of Hackbloc

Upon hearing that our class had to visit Hackbloc and analyze it within the framework of social media, I took a few hours to not only look at the site itself, but also the sites it linked to. By looking at what other websites, organizations, and movements that Hackbloc supports, we can gain a good understanding of where their interests lie. First I want to give a brief description of Hackbloc from my initial observations and then use Pierre Levy’s six planks of hacker ethic as a springboard into talking about Hackbloc and the sites it links to.

By brief description I mean brief description. On Hackbloc they’re definitely not “just” hackers or just “technophiles;” they actively pursue, participate in, and disseminate information revolving around Hacktivism, which is described by Wikipedia as electronic direct action working toward social change by combining programming skills with critical thinking.

Pierre Levy’s “six planks of hacker ethic.”


1. Access to computers should be unlimited:
Although I don’t see this explicitly stated on the site, everything else they strive to promote could not be done unless computers were commonplace. In fact, this first plank of hacker ethic is outdated. Information is not only accessed through computers but all types of mobile communication devices. The real world political action tool they employ, entitled Tapatio, relies on members to use mobile devices to provide instant feedback and reports. Also, their underlying support for the open source movement is no doubt driven by this ideal.


2. All Information should be free:
They see the internet as the beacon of free information for all. This is why they actively condemn any form of censorship or control on the internet and actually help develop tools and programs so that people can keep their internet secure, private, and open to all information. The fact that they support the open source movement, on the grounds that open source software is free, solidifies their conformity to this plank of hacker ethic.


3. Mistrust authorities and promote decentralization:
One only has to look at three of the points on their “points of unity” to see their support for this goal.
- Reject all forms of domination and oppression.
- Actively confront censorship and oppression whether it occurs online or in the physical world.
- Engage in creative and traditional direct action to advance struggles for liberation.

They even state that part of their mission is to “ research, create and disseminate information, tools, and tactics that empower people to use technology in a way that is liberating.”
As you can see, the word liberation appears often on the site, as does anarchy.


4. Hackers should be judged by own prowess rather than formal organization:
As this applies specifically to “hacking” it doesn’t appear much on the site. However, while reading through several weeks of their blog posts I saw several posts that gave “hacker cred” to people who had broken into servers. The nature of a group they support, and likely participate in, called Anonymous is specifically about no “formal organization” - everyone remains completely anonymous. I wonder if there emerges an ethical dilemma among Anonymous members who want “hacker cred” for what they accomplished under the banner of Anonymous. On the one hand they support Anonymous because it emphasises security from authorities, while on the other hand much of why they enjoy hacking in the first place is for “hacker cred.”


5. One can create art and beauty on a computer:
No where on the site did I find an example of this, no matter how far I expanded the definition. In fact, judging by the design of the site I don’t think they tend to care much about art in its traditional sense. Maybe beauty is just code and I am only looking at what is on the surface of this code.


6. Computers can change lives for the better:
Again, the use of only the term computers renders this plank rather outdated, but its message still remains. I think it can be updated to say something more along the lines of "technology can change lives for the better."

In Hackbloc’s mission it states that they want to “empower people to use technology in a way that is liberating.” Everything they support from anarchy to open source software suggests that not only do most things they participate in revolve around the use of technology, but if it doesn’t they find a way to use technology to achieve their goals. For example, the support for Anarchy isn’t necessarily relegated to people who believe that technology can change the world, but Hackbloc goes ahead in promoting it - partly due to the dialectic between freedom of information and anarchy - through the use of hacking and coding, and using both to form real-life activism.

Not stemming from early hacker culture, I found several other more modern hacktivist minded views on the site.

For one, they’re nerdy/geeky. Although hackers could be said to be this to begin with, Hackbloc takes it to the next level by sharing links to sites like i09 which writes mostly about science fiction and nerd culture. There is a large subculture online that shares interests in technology, science fiction, and progressivism. This subculture dominates sites like Digg and Reddit, and Hacktivism is definitely a subculture of this subculture.

Progressivism is dominate on Hackbloc as well, which is echoed in their cosmopolitan, anti-racist, anti-xenophobic, anti-nationalist, anti-homophobic points of unity.