I had mixed feelings after watching this documentary. On the one hand, the authors clearly explained what the Anonymous group’s goals were at the very beginning of their emergence and how they changed over time, having made a radical transformation after a particularly interesting and unusual case. However, on the other hand, it is impossible to understand from this film what hacktivism is in general. There is only one group in the film, Anonymous. The evolution of Anonymous is quite interesting, of course. I even think that her story will be interesting even to those viewers who have nothing to do with hackers, hacking and even IT.
As the film recounts, Anonymous (i.e., members of this band) began as an entertainment site on 4chan by trolling people and publishing various memasics (memes). In general, relatively harmless school entertainment (given that schoolchildren, i.e. people of school age, are by nature quite cruel). However, the story of their rather casual confrontation with Scientologists (a closed religious organization, in fact a cult), became the starting point in their transformation. I even think that Scientologists, without realizing it, gave Anonymous a purpose of existence, an idea, or even a philosophy. Scientologists were perceived by Anonymous as a collective image of the main villain (from books, films, etc.). It is a totalitarian monster, with a completely closed system and religious fanaticism of followers. There seems to be nothing human, but only mechanical movement towards the goal and suppression of everything and everything that prevents this goal and that can pose a threat to the integrity of the system. Anonymous, in turn, saw itself as an online version of the Jedi fighting for freedom and justice. Such a radical transition from childish pranks to the struggle for justice (as they saw it) is quite common at this age. The bottom line is that Anonymous decided to fight against authoritarian power, whoever it was (from FBI to Scientologists). This metamorphosis is not surprising, because the group that lives on the Internet, just used to absolute and unlimited freedom. And the place where Anonymous was born – 4chan – is a place (a kind of forum) where everything is allowed and where there are no restrictions on the part of older people, i.e. people who have all the power in the real world in their hands. However, the Anonymous group is fighting (or for a long time led) exclusively on the world wide web. From fighting Scientologists, Anonymous switched to helping people who began to fight their government in the Middle East (the so-called Arab Spring).
It is difficult to say how wide the front of the struggle is (it is impossible to understand from the film). As I see it, it is rather limited to the loudest confrontations of citizens with the government (authority). However, as I noted, only when the confrontation reaches a new, higher level (receives international coverage). Anonymous does not start first, but connects to the already begun resistance and quickly exhales (at least that is what I saw and remembered in this film).
So what is Anonymous about? The bottom line is that this group or platform trains future political (civil) activists. And in this sense, it is valuable and important for any democratic society. Yes, the group breaks the laws, but those are the inevitable costs of a free society, because otherwise we would get radicals in the spirit of the People's Will or the Red Brigades or the Black Panthers. In this case, society does without human casualties. Anonymous acts as a ranger for justice and free speech (albeit in their understanding). The fight for justice is particularly evident in Occupy Wall Street, regardless of the attitude. But the question is, to what extent are these ideas shared by other hacking groups? The film does not give an answer to this question, as a result of which we cannot recognize the truth of the thesis indicated in the title of this film - "Our Name is Legion: A History of Hacktivism." This film is not about hacktivism as a phenomenon (even within the United States), but about one, albeit very famous band - Anonymous. We don’t know what drives other hacking groups, both in the United States and around the world.
Separately, I will note the great idea to take as a symbol a mask from the film “V means vendetta”. The result was a very strong recognizable brand symbol, recognizable in all countries of the world.