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Anonymous (used as a mass noun) is a group initiating active civil disobedience and spread through the Internet while staying hidden, originating in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, representing theconcept of many online community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic, digitized global brain.[2] It is also generally considered to be a blanket term for members of certain Internet subcultures,a way to refer to the actions of people in an environment where their actual identities are not known.[3]
In its early form, the concept has been adopted by a decentralized online community actinganonymously in a coordinated manner, usually toward a loosely self-agreed goal, and primarily focused on entertainment. Beginning with 2008, the Anonymous collective has become increasingly associatedwith collaborative, international hacktivism, undertaking protests and other actions, often with the goal of promoting internet freedom and freedom of speech. Actions credited to "Anonymous" areundertaken by unidentified individuals who apply the Anonymous label to themselves as attribution.[4]
Although not necessarily tied to a single online entity, many websites are strongly associated withAnonymous. This includes notable imageboards such as 4chan, Futaba, their associated wikis, Encyclopædia Dramatica, and a number of forums.[5] After a series of controversial, widely-publicized protestsand distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks by Anonymous in 2008, incidents linked to its cadre members have increased.[6] In consideration of its capabilities, Anonymous has been posited by CNNto be one of the three major successors to WikiLeaks.[7]
Background

Origins as a concept and a meme

An anonymous figure cosplays as Anonymous. Photographed at ROFLcon on April 26, 2008
Thename Anonymous itself is inspired by the perceived anonymity under which users post images and comments on the Internet. Usage of the term Anonymous in the sense of a shared identity began on...