Title:Relax, it's just the Internet version of coffee shop talk
Author:Chai Shiew Chee
Source:http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/OnlineStory/STIStory_483956.html
Date published:Jan 30, 2010
original article:
I REFER to Tuesday's letter by Mr Keith Gerard Tan, 'New ugly Singaporean', and Mr Lionel De Souza's response on Wednesday, 'Keyboard warriors? New ugly Singaporeans are more like cyber terrorists'.
The term 'Web defacement', or rather the defacing of a webpage, has a completely different meaning. Web defacement is an attack on a website, typically by system hackers, who replace the website they attack with one of their own. Web defacement is illegal and carries a potential prison sentence.
'Keyboard warrior' was a term forged in the Internet age to describe someone who expresses his feelings (mostly anger), thoughts and beliefs online.
On top of this, the cyber warriors who are the main target of Mr Tan do not frequent websites. They are commonly found on online forums and chatrooms, and their very existence is to exchange views and voice thoughts, be they coherent or not.
I am not sure if Mr Tan knows the expression, but I am sure Mr De Souza is familiar with the term 'coffee shop talk', a term coined long ago to describe political comments made over coffee in traditional coffee shops.
Now in the modern age, we should understand we have the tools to express ourselves on a more powerful platform, that of the Internet, and comments will cover the whole spectrum and may even be of an extreme nature.
Having said that, it saddened me that Mr Tan took something that is fundamental to human rights and the human condition - to express one's unhappiness - and somehow married that to Web defacement, a criminal activity. This makes me wonder if it is such a heinous crime in Mr Tan's eyes to express unhappiness with government policies that it is now comparable to a criminal offence.
What is even more worrying is that Mr De Souza, a known security expert, states that keyboard warriors are hiding behind the cloak of anonymity when they are not. In fact, extremists have been snuffed out and tried in court, so there is no anonymity and everyone is and will be held accountable for what he says.
Chai Shiew Chee
My reflection:
I REFER to this Saturday's article'Relax, it's just the Internet version of coffee shop talk' by Madam Chai Shiew Chee. It was a response to 2 articels,Mr Keith Gerard Tan's 'New ugly Singaporean'and Mr Lionel De Souza's 'Keyboard warriors? New ugly Singaporeans are more like cyber terrorists'.She fisrly stated the definitions of 'Keyboard warrior' and 'websited defacement', and then pointed out that,'keyboard warriors' are just using the Internet to express thier feelings and we shouldn't consider them as hackers.It is just the internet version of coffee shop talk.
I agree with Mandam Chai Shiew Chee that there is nothing wrong with keyboard warriors and thier action is totally different from web defacement. Although I don't know what is a coffee shop talk, I do understand that it is a fundamental human right to express one's unhappiness. In the 21st century, the internet provided people a new way to express thier feelings and I see nothing wrong. Maybe there is a concern that extremists might take the advantage of 'the cloak of anonymity', however, most cyber warriors are just express their feelings.
In all times, people need a way to express themselves and now they are using the internet. This article reminds me of a phenomenon of Chinese internet, the 'Cyber Manhunt'. Internet users often express thier anger of some public figures by posting thier personal or private information online.For example, if one person found out that a mayor of a small city had commited corrupt practices, then all the internent users will act togethor. In 2 or 3 day's time, the mayor's illegal income, luxury villa, underground valentine will all be revealed to the public. After that, the govenment will depose the mayor due to the pressure from public voice. What's more, the 'Cloak of anonymity' protect the cyber warriors from beening revenged perfectly.
As has been stated, the keyboard warrior did nothing wrong and we should give poeple right to express themselves freely on the internet.
Wei Lai (Roy)
31,jan,2010
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I like all the technical terms in the article above like 'Keyboard warrior' & 'cyber manhunt'. They just sounds very cool, don't they? :-D
ReplyDeleteI agree with Roy that our 'warriors' are somehow good and they know what they are doing. What they express on the Internet somehow can represent voice from the bottom of a group of people's heart. Actually, we need this kind of voice to get closer to our new generation, where most of our 'warriors' come from.
However, although they have the right to express what they feel and what they think, our society and government also have the right to prevent they from being too far. I always believe that things go too extreme will become disaster, therefore, we need to balance. On the one hand, we will pay attention on how the 'warriors' act online. On the other hand, we should make efforts to stop them from going too far.