Discussion question for ICP 351

Should "hactivists" actually cooperate with their respective national governments (as suggested by Milone), or should they develop technologies designed to secure the infrastructure from surveillance by any government, including their own?
Is "hacktivism" a form of cyberpolitical participation that could support, or constrain, "democratization" in both the developed and developing worlds?




The immediate answer that I would give is that the national governments should, in collaboration with hacktivists, work to solve two problems. First, there is, in any nations in the developing countries, a problem of language barrier. Secondly, there is economic problem.

It is important to mention that hactivists are very skilled in computer science. One way to broaden cyberpolitical participation in any nation is that government and hacktivists and others who have skill in the new technology should work together. There are some people in any nation that know nothing or very little about computer and internet use for participation in the political processes. For example, in the developing countries people know less about internet and also there is the problem of language barrier. Every citizen should learn english language to be able to use internet and internet sources because 84% to 66% of the data are in english. Thus, the governments should cooperate with hacktivists to teach people on one hand. On the other hand, governments should provide people with internet that is affordable by the people. In this way the nations can participate via internet in the political processes and in democratization.

There are some commonly held notions that hacktivists are criminals like "bad hackers" who distract any process be it democratization or virtual chat or e-businesses. To have this notion corrected, the respective governments should give the people a correct notion about hacktivists then they can work hand in hand with hackers to promote any democratic processes.
Once there is this notion corrected and people can afford internet access, then, I think, there will be a strong democratic process and environment in which everyone, irrespective of their gender, race and family background can and will involve in "civic engagement".