Telecomix
Encyclopedia
Telecomix is a decentralized cluster
of net activists, committed to the freedom of expression. Telecomix is a name used by both WeRebuild and Telecomix. WeRebuild is a collaborative project used to propose and discuss laws as well as to collect information about politics and politicians. The Telecomix is the operative body that executes schemes and proposals presented by the WeRebuild. On September 15, 2011, Telecomix diverted all connections to the Syrian web, and redirected internauts
to a page with instructions to bypass censorship.
Moreover, "Telecomix circulated the ways of using landlines to circumvent state blockages of broadband networks" during the Egyptian uprisings of 2011. Their most recent intervention was a large release of Bluecoat
surveillance log files, allegedly revealing vast interception in Syria
, which was analyzed and made public from the "telecommunist cluster" of Telecomix . The leak had previously been criticized for possibly revealing too much sensitive information about Syrian users by security researcher and hacker Jacob Appelbaum
. Exposing the Bluecoat logs is, according to Telecomix, a part of their "Blue Cabinet" documentation project.
. Erik Josefsson asked the audience to help him to stop the surveillance laws that were about to be passed in the European Parliament. The evening after the seminars, a group informally created Telecomix.
During the first months of Telecomix' existence, focus was mostly on the Telecoms Package
, the Data Retention Directive
and the FRA law
. Work consisted of gathering information about the laws and the political processes involved, public conversations with legislators and art projects.
As Telecomix grew larger, the definition and boundaries of the cluster became more undefined. According to one interview, an activist described it as "an ever growing bunch of friends that do things together" consisting of "[...] roughly 20 extremely active members, 50 active and some 300 total including lurkers" .
and The Pirate Bay
. There is membership overlap with The Julia Group and La Quadrature du Net
, as well as with the hackerspace Forskningsavdelningen in Malmö
. As Telecomix has a very vague concept of being a "member" of the group (the only formal ritual is to enter their IRC chat), it is however difficult to assess with certainty what their origins are.
According to Marcin de Kaminski, who gave one of the earliest interviews on Telecomix's first project (which used to be under the domain telekompaketet.se, now with a new unrelated site owner), he points to a heritage line from Piratbyrån via a sudden side-project called Tapirbyrån ("The Bureau of Tapir
s", which is an anagram of the word Pirate in Swedish), which then led to the formation of Telecomix . Apart from this statement by de Kaminski, there are no known written records of this story, and no member of Tapirbyrån has yet confirmed nor denied it.
As Telecomix was founded, the initial work consisted of engaging parliamentary politics, to serve as an interface between concerned communities and politicians. As the work gradually moved over to direct interventions and rescue operations, the cluster moved over to a gradually more militaristic rhetoric, with heavy influences from 1990s-style crypto-anarchism
.
However, during 2011 some Telecomix activists have given interviews and talks at various technology-related conferences under their real names . This is in stark contrast to the earlier practice of eschewing real and individual names in favour of using Telecomix as a collective pseudonym.
Rasmus Fleischer
argues that the formation of Telecomix signified the end of a long era of pirate rhetoric, and instead shifted attention to a hacktivist approach to politics. Moreover Christopher Kullenberg describes how "Telecomix News Agency" was shaped as a consequence of close online and offline friendships in connection with the trial against The Pirate Bay
in his manifesto Det Nätpolitiska Manifestet.
In the book Svenska Hackare ("Swedish Hackers"), the two technology journalists, Daniel Goldberg and Linus Larsson, describe how WeReuild (a project name used by Telecomix) appeared on a seminar on net neutrality held by the Swedish Government in 2009, to influence the implementation of the Telecoms Package
.
. The aim is to mirror certain types of content that gets blocked or censored.
page containing Telecomix information and projects.
surveillance equipment. Blue Coat Systems were eventually forced to admit that their devices were used in Syria, although they had not been directly sold to the country.
), described as:
Due to the questionable legality of Blackthrow computers, Telecomix maintains no records of such devices being live and running.
in the middle is a symbol of kopimi philosophy, a project originally started by Piratbyrån
. Moreover, the lightning arrows seem to originate from the logo of Televerket (Sweden)
, the old telecoms monopoly of Sweden. The star is a symbol of telecommunism, and the Omega
sign is a symbol of resistance, as in Ohm's law
. This interpretation of the symbols is sometimes referred to as the Gothenburg
interpretation, as many of the founding members are from this town. Others have, however, associated the symbols in the logotype with secret societies, due to several of them being associated with the Illuminati
and freemasonry
.
In an article in French Magazine Lesinrocks, Fabrice Epelboin argues that the pyramid in the Telecomix logo symbolizes power, and that "it is bordered by a bunch of elements - the Omega, the lightning, the star - the challenge ahead". In the same article Fabrice d'Almeida, historian of the propaganda images describes the logo as "giving the impression of a large machine capable of unleashing great energy".
s and imitation rather than through rules and regulations" .
Jellyfish
are an important part of the symbolism of Telecomix, circulating both as a meme
and as an organizational concept guiding participants in evolving the organization. In June 2009 a blog post on "jellyfish memetics" was posted at a Telecomix-affiliated blog, arguably sparking a great interest within Telecomix for the philosophical implications of decentralized self-organization
.
. Their project Cryptoanarchy.org aims at promoting cryptographic research and security technologies.
speech bot named Cameron. According to one member it is "a computer generated representation of all of us" . Cameron has become a core symbol for Telecomix, and her function in governing the actions of the activists, remains obscure.
Cluster
-In science:* Cluster , a small group of atoms or molecules* Cluster chemistry, an array of bound atoms intermediate in character between a molecule and a solid...
of net activists, committed to the freedom of expression. Telecomix is a name used by both WeRebuild and Telecomix. WeRebuild is a collaborative project used to propose and discuss laws as well as to collect information about politics and politicians. The Telecomix is the operative body that executes schemes and proposals presented by the WeRebuild. On September 15, 2011, Telecomix diverted all connections to the Syrian web, and redirected internauts
Internaut
Internaut is a term for a designer, operator, or technically capable user of the Internet. Beginning with participants in the Internet Engineering Task Force , it gradually expanded to members of the Internet Society and the larger community....
to a page with instructions to bypass censorship.
Moreover, "Telecomix circulated the ways of using landlines to circumvent state blockages of broadband networks" during the Egyptian uprisings of 2011. Their most recent intervention was a large release of Bluecoat
Bluecoat
The bluecoat is a style of dress code, traditionally worn in Bluecoat schools .The main element of the bluecoat is a long coat, belted at the waist, with white neck decoration...
surveillance log files, allegedly revealing vast interception in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, which was analyzed and made public from the "telecommunist cluster" of Telecomix . The leak had previously been criticized for possibly revealing too much sensitive information about Syrian users by security researcher and hacker Jacob Appelbaum
Jacob Appelbaum
Jacob Appelbaum is an independent computer security researcher and hacker. He is currently employed by the University of Washington, and is a core member of the Tor project. Appelbaum is known for representing Wikileaks at the 2010 Hope conference...
. Exposing the Bluecoat logs is, according to Telecomix, a part of their "Blue Cabinet" documentation project.
History
Telecomix was created at April 18, 2009, as a suggestion from Erik Josefsson at a seminar about surveillance, the FRA-law and laws that were being processed at the time in the European ParliamentEuropean Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
. Erik Josefsson asked the audience to help him to stop the surveillance laws that were about to be passed in the European Parliament. The evening after the seminars, a group informally created Telecomix.
During the first months of Telecomix' existence, focus was mostly on the Telecoms Package
Telecoms Package
The Telecoms Reform Package is a law of the European Union, aimed at updating the EU Telecoms Rules of 2002 and unifying Europe's tele-communications market for all 27 EU member states...
, the Data Retention Directive
Data Retention Directive
The Data Retention Directive, more formally "Directive 2006/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications...
and the FRA law
FRA law
The FRA law is a Swedish legislative package that authorizes the state to warrantlessly wiretap all telephone and Internet traffic that crosses Sweden's borders...
. Work consisted of gathering information about the laws and the political processes involved, public conversations with legislators and art projects.
As Telecomix grew larger, the definition and boundaries of the cluster became more undefined. According to one interview, an activist described it as "an ever growing bunch of friends that do things together" consisting of "[...] roughly 20 extremely active members, 50 active and some 300 total including lurkers" .
Origins
Telecomix has their roots in a heterogenous activist and hacker scene. Many of the founding members had followed and participated in and around PiratbyrånPiratbyrån
Piratbyrån was a Swedish organization established to support people opposed to current ideas about intellectual property — by freely sharing information and culture...
and The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
. There is membership overlap with The Julia Group and La Quadrature du Net
La Quadrature du Net
La Quadrature du Net is a French advocacy group that promotes the digital rights and freedoms of citizens. More specifically, it advocates for the adaptation of French and European legislations to respect the founding principles of the Internet, most notably the free circulation of knowledge...
, as well as with the hackerspace Forskningsavdelningen in Malmö
Malmö
Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...
. As Telecomix has a very vague concept of being a "member" of the group (the only formal ritual is to enter their IRC chat), it is however difficult to assess with certainty what their origins are.
According to Marcin de Kaminski, who gave one of the earliest interviews on Telecomix's first project (which used to be under the domain telekompaketet.se, now with a new unrelated site owner), he points to a heritage line from Piratbyrån via a sudden side-project called Tapirbyrån ("The Bureau of Tapir
Tapir
A Tapir is a large browsing mammal, similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile snout. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. There are four species of Tapirs: the Brazilian Tapir, the Malayan Tapir, Baird's Tapir and the Mountain...
s", which is an anagram of the word Pirate in Swedish), which then led to the formation of Telecomix . Apart from this statement by de Kaminski, there are no known written records of this story, and no member of Tapirbyrån has yet confirmed nor denied it.
As Telecomix was founded, the initial work consisted of engaging parliamentary politics, to serve as an interface between concerned communities and politicians. As the work gradually moved over to direct interventions and rescue operations, the cluster moved over to a gradually more militaristic rhetoric, with heavy influences from 1990s-style crypto-anarchism
Crypto-anarchism
Crypto-anarchism expounds the use of strong public-key cryptography to bring about privacy and freedom. It was described by Vernor Vinge as a cyberspatial realization of anarchism. Crypto-anarchists aim to create cryptographic software that can be used to evade prosecution and harassment while...
.
However, during 2011 some Telecomix activists have given interviews and talks at various technology-related conferences under their real names . This is in stark contrast to the earlier practice of eschewing real and individual names in favour of using Telecomix as a collective pseudonym.
Rasmus Fleischer
Rasmus Fleischer
Rasmus Fleischer is a Swedish historian, musician, freelance journalist and debater. He is currently working as a Ph.D...
argues that the formation of Telecomix signified the end of a long era of pirate rhetoric, and instead shifted attention to a hacktivist approach to politics. Moreover Christopher Kullenberg describes how "Telecomix News Agency" was shaped as a consequence of close online and offline friendships in connection with the trial against The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
in his manifesto Det Nätpolitiska Manifestet.
In the book Svenska Hackare ("Swedish Hackers"), the two technology journalists, Daniel Goldberg and Linus Larsson, describe how WeReuild (a project name used by Telecomix) appeared on a seminar on net neutrality held by the Swedish Government in 2009, to influence the implementation of the Telecoms Package
Telecoms Package
The Telecoms Reform Package is a law of the European Union, aimed at updating the EU Telecoms Rules of 2002 and unifying Europe's tele-communications market for all 27 EU member states...
.
Streisand.me
A project created and hosted by Telecomix is the Streisand project, named after the Streisand effectStreisand effect
The Streisand effect is a primarily online phenomenon in which an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely...
. The aim is to mirror certain types of content that gets blocked or censored.
WeRebuild.eu
We Rebuild is a decentralized wikiWiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
page containing Telecomix information and projects.
Egypt Operations
During the internet blackout in early 2011, Telecomix released a video stating that they would launch series of attempts at restoring internet connectivity by means of old modems, faxes and rerouting of traffic.Syria Operations
Similar in approach to the Egypt operations, Telecomix are currently intervening in Syrian networks. The most notable event was when Telecomix released log files from Blue Coat SystemsBlue Coat Systems
Blue Coat Systems Inc. is a network security and network management company based in Sunnyvale, California, United States.It identifies itself as an application delivery network specialist...
surveillance equipment. Blue Coat Systems were eventually forced to admit that their devices were used in Syria, although they had not been directly sold to the country.
search.telecomix.org
Telecomix hosts a search service based on Seeks, an open-source P2P-based search engine with an emphasis on user privacy. Seeks implements a decentralized peer-to-peer architecture: install Seeks on your machine, server or laptop, and automatically start sharing results. While users share queries over the Peer-to-Peer network, Seeks protects your privacy by sending encrypted query fragments to peers. This scheme makes it difficult for other peers to devise your initial query.Blackthrow
Telecomix members often experiment with unorthodox encryption technologies. One such project is the "Blackthrow" concept computer (sharing some etymology with the word Black faxBlack fax
The term black fax refers to a prank fax transmission, consisting of one or more pages entirely filled with a uniform black tone. The sender's intention is typically to consume as much of the recipient's fax ink, toner or thermal paper or disk space as possible, thus costing the recipient money...
), described as:
Due to the questionable legality of Blackthrow computers, Telecomix maintains no records of such devices being live and running.
Logotype
The Telecomix logotype contains a variety of symbols. The origins remain unclear, but one common interpretation is that the pyramidPyramid
A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a single point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces...
in the middle is a symbol of kopimi philosophy, a project originally started by Piratbyrån
Piratbyrån
Piratbyrån was a Swedish organization established to support people opposed to current ideas about intellectual property — by freely sharing information and culture...
. Moreover, the lightning arrows seem to originate from the logo of Televerket (Sweden)
Televerket (Sweden)
Televerket was the public utility company responsible for telecommunications in Sweden between 1953-1993; however, it originated 100 years earlier....
, the old telecoms monopoly of Sweden. The star is a symbol of telecommunism, and the Omega
Omega
Omega is the 24th and last letter of the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system, it has a value of 800. The word literally means "great O" , as opposed to omicron, which means "little O"...
sign is a symbol of resistance, as in Ohm's law
Ohm's law
Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points...
. This interpretation of the symbols is sometimes referred to as the Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
interpretation, as many of the founding members are from this town. Others have, however, associated the symbols in the logotype with secret societies, due to several of them being associated with the Illuminati
Illuminati
The Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically the name refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776...
and freemasonry
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
.
In an article in French Magazine Lesinrocks, Fabrice Epelboin argues that the pyramid in the Telecomix logo symbolizes power, and that "it is bordered by a bunch of elements - the Omega, the lightning, the star - the challenge ahead". In the same article Fabrice d'Almeida, historian of the propaganda images describes the logo as "giving the impression of a large machine capable of unleashing great energy".
Jellyfish
Telecomix often refer to oceanic concepts when describing their overall structure. They state that "a siphonophoric organism transmitting its genome through memeMeme
A meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
s and imitation rather than through rules and regulations" .
Jellyfish
Jellyfish
Jellyfish are free-swimming members of the phylum Cnidaria. Medusa is another word for jellyfish, and refers to any free-swimming jellyfish stages in the phylum Cnidaria...
are an important part of the symbolism of Telecomix, circulating both as a meme
Meme
A meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
and as an organizational concept guiding participants in evolving the organization. In June 2009 a blog post on "jellyfish memetics" was posted at a Telecomix-affiliated blog, arguably sparking a great interest within Telecomix for the philosophical implications of decentralized self-organization
Self-organization
Self-organization is the process where a structure or pattern appears in a system without a central authority or external element imposing it through planning...
.
Datalove
The notion of "datalove" appeared for the first time in one of several manifestos written by Telecomix, as to "inspire the body-politic to incarnate creatively via totemized teleportation-flows of datalove" . The concept of datalove has been the leitmotif for several spawned projects, such as the Telecomix datalove.me-Site with interactive Datalove-experience or the site Datalove.net.Crypto-anarchism
Telecomix contributes to the general theme of Crypto-anarchismCrypto-anarchism
Crypto-anarchism expounds the use of strong public-key cryptography to bring about privacy and freedom. It was described by Vernor Vinge as a cyberspatial realization of anarchism. Crypto-anarchists aim to create cryptographic software that can be used to evade prosecution and harassment while...
. Their project Cryptoanarchy.org aims at promoting cryptographic research and security technologies.
Cameron
Telecomix maintains a MegaHALMegaHAL
MegaHAL is a computer conversation simulator, or "chatterbot", created by Jason Hutchens.-Background:MegaHAL was and made its debut in the 1998 Loebner Prize Contest. Like many chatterbots, the intent is for MegaHAL to appear as a human fluent in a natural language...
speech bot named Cameron. According to one member it is "a computer generated representation of all of us" . Cameron has become a core symbol for Telecomix, and her function in governing the actions of the activists, remains obscure.
See also
- Internet censorshipInternet censorshipInternet censorship is the control or suppression of the publishing of, or access to information on the Internet. It may be carried out by governments or by private organizations either at the behest of government or on their own initiative...
- Arab SpringArab SpringThe Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...
- Network neutralityNetwork neutralityNetwork neutrality is a principle that advocates no restrictions by Internet service providers or governments on consumers' access to networks that participate in the Internet...
- HacktivismHacktivismHacktivism is the use of computers and computer networks as a means of protest to promote political ends. The term was first coined in 1994 by a member of the Cult of the Dead Cow hacker collective named Omega...
- Crypto-anarchismCrypto-anarchismCrypto-anarchism expounds the use of strong public-key cryptography to bring about privacy and freedom. It was described by Vernor Vinge as a cyberspatial realization of anarchism. Crypto-anarchists aim to create cryptographic software that can be used to evade prosecution and harassment while...