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rfmcdonaldThe Toronto Star has more.
Via other commenters, I've been directly introduced to the Toronto website of Project Chanology, which has been responsible for coordinating attacks against Scientologist websites as well as these real-world protests.
Today's protest is occurring on what would have been the 49th birthday of Lisa McPherson, a woman who was under medical care of the Church of Scientology when she died.
They are anonymous. They are legion. And they are either an elaborate, viral Internet prank played by bored adolescents on a painfully easy target – the much-maligned, star-studded Church of Scientology – or the amalgamation of a vast network of resourceful cyber-activists intent on wobbling the organization permanently.
Either way, about 150 of them are expected to turn up on Yonge St. today – most of them masked, in the interest of remaining, well, anonymous – to hand out flyers and generally make life uncomfortable at the church's Toronto property (in their online forums at enturbulation.org, Anons urge one another to practise polite protestation. As one poster put it, "Bring your warm clothes, your signs, your fliers (sic), your food and water. Do not bring your weapons, your inappropriate language, your bad temper or your stupid rowdy troublemaking ass.")
[. . .]
Organized online and completely nonhierarchical, the amalgamation of Anonymous is the direct result of a very public gaffe by the very private organization. Last month, an internal promotional video was leaked to the Internet. In it, a wild-eyed Tom Cruise – the organization's marquee adherent among Hollywood brethren like John Travolta, Kirstie Alley and Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson – lionized the church as the saviour of a society.
It appeared on several news sitesand YouTube, but its widespread distribution was brief. The organization's lawyers threatened legal action based on copyright violation.
But one site, Gawker.com, the satirical entertainment industry blog run by Nick Denton, refused, claiming it was newsworthy. The video can still be seen there and has been millions of times: nearly 2.8 million as of yesterday, a new record for the site.
The video, in which Cruise, rhapsodic about Scientology's potential to heal the world – "We are the authorities on getting people off drugs, we are the authorities on the mind, we can rehabilitate criminals," he says in the video; "We can bring peace and unite cultures" – has spurred renewed interest in the organization, which has been described by its critics as an oppressive cult.
The most visible product of Cruise's suddenly public proclamations, though, appears to be a backlash against an intensely secretive organization that has been accused of harassment of its critics and members who choose to leave it. And the most tangible manifestation of that backlash is Anonymous.
"It basically came down to a tipping point," said one of the organizers of today's Toronto protest. "There was a random suggestion after the video came out – `We should do something about this.' And it snowballed into this international effort."
Via other commenters, I've been directly introduced to the Toronto website of Project Chanology, which has been responsible for coordinating attacks against Scientologist websites as well as these real-world protests.
A new video "Call to Action" appeared on YouTube on January 28, 2008, calling for protests outside Church of Scientology centers on February 10, 2008. As with the previous videos, the two-minute video utilizes a computer synthesized voice and stock footage of the sky. The video is accompanied by a transcribed text version in British English spelling. This video attempts to debunk the idea that the group is composed of "super hackers," stating "Contrary to the assumptions of the media, Anonymous is not 'a group of super hackers.' ... Anonymous is everyone and everywhere. We have no leaders, no single entity directing us." The video states that Project Chanology participants include "individuals from all walks of life ... united by an awareness that someone must do the right thing". Specific controversies involving the Church of Scientology are cited in the video as an explanation for the actions of Anonymous.
In an email to CNET News, Anonymous stated that activities were planned for February 10, 2008 in New York City, Montreal, Canada, Houston, Texas, London, Melbourne, Australia, and Los Angeles, California. Other cities with planned protests for February 10, 2008 include Clearwater, Florida, Edinburgh, Scotland, Berlin, Germany, Paris, France, Stockholm, Sweden, Vancouver and Toronto, Canada and Sydney, Australia. Anonymous hope to use the "real world" protests to spur public opinion to their cause. According to the Associated Press, the protests are meant to draw attention to what the group refers to as a "vast moneymaking scheme under the guise of 'religion'". As of January 30, 2008, 170 protests were planned outside Church of Scientology centers worldwide. According to NBC11, a woman from Anonymous contacted them and stated that over 300,000 people would be participating in the protests on February 10, 2008. The member stated that Anonymous has monthly protests planned against Scientology each month through May 2008, and that a large protest is planned for two days after Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's birthday of March 15. A video posted to YouTube called "Code of Conduct" outlined twenty-two rules to follow when protesting, and urged protestors to be peaceful.
Today's protest is occurring on what would have been the 49th birthday of Lisa McPherson, a woman who was under medical care of the Church of Scientology when she died.
