Orwell Versus the Terrorists: A Digital Short
by
Jamie Bartlett
Published 12 Feb 2015
Genuine anonymity has and does grant people the space to speak their mind, to push boundaries, to propel society forward. In the US the eighteenth-century Federalist Papers – a brilliant series of essays in favour of the US constitution by Maddison, Hamilton and Jay – were anonymously authored. According to Mike Harris from the free-speech consultancy 89up – which advises NGOs and companies on privacy and free expression – ‘we used to view privacy and freedom of expression in conflict, but I see them as complementary. If you cannot hold private conversations, you cannot speak freely.’ That’s especially true of the whistleblowers: Edward Snowden himself used Tor to send information about the NSA’s Prism programme to the Washington Post and the Guardian.
Among the Braves: Hope, Struggle, and Exile in the Battle for Hong Kong and the Future of Global Democracy
by
Shibani Mahtani
and
Timothy McLaughlin
Published 7 Nov 2023
He pushed aside her skepticism, deciding instead to take his activism a step further. Armed with capital, Finn and Stand with Hong Kong began to emerge from the online world of LIHKG and thrust themselves into the world of lobbying—but still with their identities protected. They engaged a London-based PR firm to represent them. The firm, 89Up, could not reveal too much about its clients when it reached out to journalists and politicians, representing them vaguely as a group of pro-democracy activists. Interest in the Hong Kong protests was so high that people were willing to put aside their doubts and work with the group despite the condition of anonymity.