“We Are Legion: The Story of the Hactivists,” a great documentary that shows the history of the group Anonymous, was released into select cities Oct. 22.

The film explains how the group started as pranksters not hackers, but quickly evolved into something bigger.
Out of a website “4chan” the group is a collection of people who visit the “/b” board site, where anything goes.
The posts on “4chan” are automatically attributed to “anonymous.” The idea of came from a joke that all the posts came from one guy at a computer called anonymous. But because they are all from different people, the idea is that everyone is Anonymous.

The movie explains that not everything the group did is evil. For example, they conquered a white supremacist who was spreading nonsense on the air and web. Anonymous decided to flood his website and radio station, visiting his web page thousands of times overloading the server, costing the man fees and eventually destroying his radio station.

But the other side is also shown. For example, when Sony had to shut down the Play Station store for two months, the attack was said to be Anonymous. The reasonfor the attack was Sony’s decision to take away the ability of Linux as a second operating system on Play Station 3.

And by stealing people’s credit card numbers and personal information, their purpose can be questioned.
But the film explains there is no group leader, no moral obligations besides one’s own ethics. The movie describes the members of the group on a scale — those willing to break the law for good. and those breaking the law little to no justification for the crime.

The theme is do what you feel is right and if you feel strongly about something then your opinion is worth being heard.
Anonymous feels strongly that the Internet is a place for protesting. Their support is shown during the riots and overthrow of dictator MuBurak in Egypt. They sent care packages to people giving them instructions on how to access the web when the Egyptian government decided to shut it down.

One person interviewed talks about how people should not fear their government but how government should fear its people.

The film gave me chills. It is hard not to feel the desire to be part of a group that grows from within. It is so cool.