Ethics Assignment # 2 (Assignment #1 Revise)

On January 14, 2008, a video produced by the Church of Scientology featuring an interview with Tom Cruise, was leaked to the Internet and uploaded on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFBZ_uAbxS0&noredirect=1

The Church of Scientology issued a copyright violation claim against YouTube requesting the removal of the video. Shortly thereafter, the Hacktivist group Anonymous voiced its criticism of Scientology and began attacking the Church. Members of Anonymous coordinated “Project Chanology”, which consisted of a series of denial of service attacks against Scientology websites, prank calls to the Dianetics hotline, and black faxes to Scientology centers.

Calling the action by the Church of Scientology a form of Internet censorship, on January 21, 2008, Anonymous announced its intentions via a video posted to YouTube entitled "Message to Scientology" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCbKv9yiLiQ declaring "war" against the Church of Scientology. The purpose of the protest was to protect the freedom of speech and freedom of the internet.

The question at hand is whether it is acceptable for Anonymous to disrupt the Church of Scientology with their tactics in order to protect the freedom of speech and the freedom of the internet.

I agree with the actions of Anonymous. Their protest has made people throughout the world take a closer look at Scientology and their tactics toward those that dare speak out against them or journalists that write negative articles. Scientology is known as the most litigious organization in the world. They are known to file law suits and harass anyone or any organization that sheds them in a negative light. These cases are designed to suppress freedom of expression and scare people from stating the truth that they are more of a cult than a “church”. Although one can debate that same fact about many other so called “main stream” religions.

In the years since its inception, the Church of Scientology's lawsuits filed against newspapers, magazines, government agencies such as the IRS and individuals have numbered in the thousands. In 1991, Time magazine estimated that the Church spends an average of about $20 million per year on various legal actions [1] and it is the only client of several law firms. According to a U.S. District Court Memorandum of Decision in 1993, Scientologists "have abused the federal court system by using it, inter alia (among other things), to destroy their opponents, rather than to resolve an actual dispute over trademark law or any other legal matter. This constitutes 'extraordinary, malicious, wanton, and oppressive conduct. It is clear that the Church of Scientology has sought to harass defendants and destroy their critics through excessive litigation and other highly questionable litigation tactics.

The Church of Scientology has infiltrated the FBI, IRS and over one hundred other government agencies with members of their organization that abuse their power and position to do harm to those that criticize or oppose them. [2] The “We are Legion Video” highlights the case of a twenty year old young man named Brian Metternbrink that learned about Anonymous’ war against Scientology on 4chan.org. Brian is not a bad person. He appears to come from a good family. Brian states that he would never do anything that would hurt anyone. Brian downloaded a program called “Low Orbit Ion Cannon” and used it to launch a denial of service attack on the Scientology web site. The attack only lasted a few hours. Brian was sentenced to one year in jail and one year of supervised release in which he was not allowed to touch a computer. There are rapists, pedophiles, murderers, people that drive drunk and kill people that get a lighter sentence. Brian’s sentence is an example of the reach and power of Scientology. 

Obviously when you do battle against the Church of Scientology it is not a level playing field. They use our government and legal system to hurt people.

Freedom of speech, press and the internet are collectively referred to as Freedom of expression. The writing of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were highly influenced by English and French philosophers from the Age of Enlightenment. It was Voltaire (1694-1778) who advocated freedom of expression and separation of church and state in the eighteenth century. John Locke’s (1632-1704) first wrote the phrase “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” which inspired Thomas Jefferson. It is extremely critical that we as Americans do not allow any government, business or Church take away our inalienable rights. The first amendment to the U.S. Constitution state that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Freedom of expression is the foundation of all our other rights as Americans. It allows us to be informed, free from censorship and to speak out against oppression. 
Footnotes and references available upon request.