The ‘hacktivist’ (hacker & activist) group known as Anonymous made internet posts on Thursday, stating that they would be holding a demonstration in the streets of Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward on Saturday, July 7th. In order to educate the public about the significance of the Japanese government’s recent revision to the country’s copyright laws, Anonymous members will be holding a “clean up” event. Wearing their iconic black suits and Guy Fawkes’ masks, the group will pick up garbage and distribute pamphlets to explain to the public who they are and what they stand for.
Anonymous claimed responsibility for last week’s infiltration of several Japanese government websites. No information was stolen, just some additional statements added in various sections, but act was a protest against the recent copyright law revisions that adds jail time to content illegally downloaded from the internet. In Anonymous’ view, the people of Japan do not have a clear understanding of the importance of this revision, or why the group has such strong concerns over the matter. They feel the country’s media has not represented the truth, and so they want to use a productive message to illustrate their point.
In their statement, Anonymous says they are neither a group nor criminal organization, but simply worldwide citizens who are concerned about the loss of liberties on the internet at the hands of the government. The event is stated to take place at 10 AM on July 7th, but the specific location within Shibuya, Tokyo, has yet to be decided. They end their message by stating they will be cleaning instead of their usual activity of clicking. While I think this sounds like a great strategy to get their message across, I just hope they realize how clean Japan keeps its streets.
[Via ZDnet]