Everyday in these new online lives we encounter technical glitches. Pages vanish, connections fail, bandwith stretches and servers fail. Occasionally something more dramatic happens and our complacency is kicked in the nads when we discover a favourite site has been attacked. Predominately these are carried out by hacktivists like the labyrinthine 'Anonymous' raising our awareness of the corporate soul sucking behemoths that we've signed up to and whose bland teat we greedily drink from.
'Anonymous' are legend, their attacks on the government websites in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Iranian election , Zimbabwe, the hate filled Westboro Baptist church, Scientology the wonderful 'Operation Titstorm' on the Australian governments attempt at filtering content and the ongoing Operations Payback, Avenge Assenge and Bradical (the illegal detention of the alleged Wikileaks source Bradley Manning) are all excellent examples of usually young intelligent people defending democracy.
What we saw yesterday in the attack on Newsnet was not a bunch of bored kids playing at high jinks and messing with an evil big megacorp. As Newsnet say, all indications are that this was a concerted Denial of Service (DOS) attack. The sort of thing we tend to find totalitarian regimes like China doing in an attempt to shut down dissenting voices. China, for example where artist Ai Weiwei is currently imprisoned for the great crime of tweeting on his Twitter account: "I didn’t care about jasmine at first, but people who are scared by jasmine sent out information about how harmful jasmine is often, which makes me realize that jasmine is what scares them the most. What a jasmine!"
What we need to ask now is who organised this attack, which vested interest, commercial or political would decide to attack a site which is dedicated to the abiding principles of Democracy? You can knock out the eponymous 'Anonymous', they attacked Fine Gaels site and left their logo and this message "Nothing is safe, you put your faith in this political party and they take no measures to protect you. They offer you free speech yet they censor your voice. WAKE UP!"
Newsnet have put their faith in the SNP, the only credible voice on the Scottish media landscape to do so. Obviously I discount the Supersoaraway's endorsement of the SNP today, that decision has nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with business. Will they put a noose around Labour's neck on May 5th?
Newsnet back the SNP because they believe in Independence. Because they've witnessed a concerted negative attack from the moment in 2006 when the first polls suggested the SNP's positive message was winning over the electorate. They need and deserve our support.
The news of this attack, needs to be shouted from the rooftops. Whilst your talking to those who would vote Tory, remind them failing to vote SNP in their regional vote makes Iain Gray First Minister and above all else tell them about this attack on Scottish democracy, because sure as shit, their daily newspaper or state broadcaster wont.
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