Hacktivists: Cyberterrorists or Online Activists?

Abstract

The last decade, online activism has vastly grown. In the current digital society, from time to time citizens decide to express their opinion by attacking large corporations digitally in some way. Where the activists claim this to be a digital assembly, others see it as criminal offences. In this paper, we will explore the legal and technical borders of the digital right to assembly. By doing so, we can gain insight into digital manifestations and make up the balance on the digital right to assembly. As an additional contribution, we will discuss how the digital right to assembly could be granted and which legal and technical requirements should be set for a digital assembly.