Elektronik Sivil İtaatsizlik Bağlamında Hacktivizmin Meşruluğu Üzerine
On The Legitimacy of Hacktivism in The Context of Electronic Civil Disobedience

Author(s): Özlem Çetin Öztürk
Subject(s): Media studies, Civil Society, Politics and communication, Criminology
Published by: Özgür Yayın Dağıtım Ltd. Şti.
Keywords: electronic civil disobedience; Hacktivism; digital systems;
Summary/Abstract: As digital tools have been used to protest and influence policy, activists' repertoire of collective action has changed. Hacking is one of the forms of action used by activists. The use of hacking as an activist tactic with a political motivation is called hacktivism. However, as the act of hacking crosses legal boundaries, the legitimacy of hacktivism and the contexts in which it can be understood as an acceptable form of activism are debated. Some studies of the legitimacy of hacktivism highlight the relationship between hacktivism and the concept of civil disobedience. The fact that civil disobedience is a type of action based on deliberate disobedience of the law for political and social reasons brings to the agenda that the illegal aspect of hacking can be treated as disobedience to the prohibition of access to digital systems. This has led to the conceptualization of hacktivism as a politically motivated act of hacking as electronic civil disobedience. This study examines the context in which hacktivism can be understood as a form of electronic civil disobedience and its legitimacy as electronic civil disobedience. To this end, the paper first discusses the conceptual treatment of hacktivism with historical examples and then discusses the theoretical treatment of civil disobedience in the context of its legitimacy. Finally, the concept of electronic civil disobedience and the limits of evaluating hacktivism on a legitimate ground are revealed. Conceptually, the study argues that hacktivism, as the transfer of civil disobedience into virtual space on a legitimate ground, should be considered electronic civil disobedience.

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