ALLOW the Resurgence of Hacktivism!



 Recently, I came across a quite interesting post as I was scrolling through X, my beloved social media platform where I get to practice my love of free speech (outside of when I am going off on this blog). It was a post from the account called @Bitdefender_Ent about the resurgence of Hacktivism. Apparently, in this great, technologically advanced year of 2025, people are expecting Hacktivism to spike back up into a more popular and normalized act.

Specifically, @Bitdefender_Ent shared that Martin Zugec, a tech speaker and blogger, claims that hacktivist groups are blurring the lines between activism and financial gain due to apparently adopting certain dangerous cybercrime tactics. Truthfully, I think this is an interesting way to put things. I would like to know where exactly this 'line' is stemming from, because I have always been a supporter of moral and ethical hacktivism. The hacktivism I have grown to love, support, and appreciate as a form of digital resistance seems to be facing a little bit of a misunderstanding with society, especially the team over at Bitedefender. Although I agree that it is important to consider the ethical and moral implications of the ever-changing aspects of hacktivism, it is also important to tie it back to its roots. Instead of going as far as saying that hacktivism is simply collapsing and transforming into pure criminal acts is simply unfair, it simply proves their point and shows that hacktivists are right in their opinions and acts.

The lack of accountability, transparency, and trust from governments is what prompted hacktivism to start to begin with. Sure, hacktivists cover topics and commit acts that may be uncomfortable for society to face, such as leaking documents or exposing lies through hacking and breaches... HOWEVER, I think that we as a society need to think of this more as these people are just trying to help and save society by showing us the truth. Hacktivists risk their lives and safety for the sake of the truth and proper information transparency. The fact that some people have the nerve to ignore the effort and heart that goes into behind this kind of activism is disappointing. Instead of painting all hacktivists as some sort of cybercriminals that take advantage of their skills for the worse, maybe think about the other important branches.

Something important to consider is seeing this topic from a lot of different perspectives. Martin Zugec seems to paint hacktivism in a very poor light in general. He acknowledges that the world is going through a lot of political turmoil, and then jumps straight into the idea that hacktivists are young Gen-Z males that are money-hungry cybercriminals also craving notoriety. Where is the correlation there? Let's ask ourselves why certain habits and practices seem to be getting picked up by hacktivists. This could help us greatly understand the root of any existing problems in this form of activism to better address it, rather than hopping on social media and painting such a bad yet simplified image.

Before we, as a society, decide to shun a group of people (hacktivists) that were originally created with good hearts of honesty and transparency, let us dive deep into figuring out why certain subgroups with potentially bad intentions are forming. Let us question how we can combat the negative sides of a positive movement.

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