From hackers to hacktivists: speed bumps on the global superhighway?

This article traces the emergence of the new social movement of hacktivism from hacking and questions its potential as a source of technologically-mediated radical political action. It assesses hacktivism in the light of critical theories of technology that question the feasibility of re-engineering technical systems to more humane ends. The predecessor of hacktivism, hacking, is shown to contain certain parasitical elements that provide a barrier to more politically-orientated goals. Examples are provided of how such goals are much more in evidence within hacktivism. Its alternative conceptualization of the human-technology relationship is examined in terms of a purported development from conceptualizations of networks to webs that incorporate new ways of producing online solidarity and oppositional practices to global capital.