THE YES MEN AND ACTIVISM IN THE INFORMATION ... - Index of

available in print form but widely accessed online, mimics headlines from journalistic papers
while poking fun at the inherent absurdity and sensationalism of the banal that is rampant in local
paper headlines. 104 With the rise of the world wide web as a source of mass communication,
RTMark and the Yes Men now share the stage with hoards of other activists, each with their
own agenda, message, marked prey, and target audience.
Among the ranks of activists using the Internet as their soapbox are those labeled
“hacktivists,” a certain breed of activists who use computers and the Internet as tools for civil
disobedience or cultural critique. The Yes Men fall under this classification. Hacktivism is defined
by the group Cult of the Dead Cow, who coined the phrase, as “a policy of hacking, phreaking or
creating technology to achieve a political or social goal.” 105 In clearer terms, hacktivism is a
specific social and cultural phenomenon which emerged at the turn of the 21 st century based on
popular political action carried out in cyberspace. 106 Hacking is a form of decentralized,
networked resistance against a modernist, centralized power source. What makes hacking a viable
form of resistance is its decentralized nature. 107 If one part goes down, there are still many other
viable parts left up and running. Their targets, however, are usually centralized, with one base of
power. By taking out that single source of power, hacking can take down the entire power
system. Though they use current technology within their distributive mode of operation,
104 http://www.theonion.com/.
105 Quote taken from http://www.thehacktivist.com/hacktivism.php.
106 Jordan and Taylor, 1.
107 Galloway, 159-60.
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