Hackers vs states: Subversion, repression and resistance in the online public sphere

Abstract

The article uses the concept of "insurgent citizenship" to analyze the way online activists subvert the laws regulating freedom of expression and the democratic public sphere. It examines states' repressive responses aimed at restoring legality and the strategies that activists develop to circumvent and resist repression. By focusing on three groups of insurgent citizenship - Copwatch (a website documenting and denouncing police abuse in France), WikiLeaks (an organization devoted to leaking secret information) and The Pirate Bay (a peer-to-peer file-sharing platform) -, the article shows how cyberculture is giving way to a new human rights movement seeking to legalize "para-legal" militant practices and change the power balance between civil society and the state in the online public sphere.