Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Internet The practice of promoting a political agenda by hacking, especially by defacing or disabling websites.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Blend of hack and activism

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Examples

  • The man, who declined to be named because he said he feared arrest, compared the attacks on U.S. companies' Web sites - known to some as "hacktivism" - to earlier versions of civil protests: "It was like the sit-ins during the 1960s when you had college students taking up space in restaurants."

    WikiLeaks' advocates are wreaking 'hacktivism' Ian Shapira 2010

  • The man, who declined to be named because he said he feared arrest, compared the attacks on U.S. companies' Web sites - known to some as "hacktivism" - to earlier versions of civil protests: "It was like the sit-ins during the 1960s when you had college students taking up space in restaurants."

    WikiLeaks' advocates are wreaking 'hacktivism' Ian Shapira 2010

  • The man, who declined to be named because he said he feared arrest, compared the attacks on U.S. companies' Web sites - known to some as "hacktivism" - to earlier versions of civil protests: "It was like the sit-ins during the 1960s when you had college students taking up space in restaurants."

    WikiLeaks' advocates are wreaking 'hacktivism' Ian Shapira 2010

  • The man, who declined to be named because he said he feared arrest, compared the attacks on U.S. companies' Web sites - known to some as "hacktivism" - to earlier versions of civil protests: "It was like the sit-ins during the 1960s when you had college students taking up space in restaurants."

    WikiLeaks' advocates are wreaking 'hacktivism' Ian Shapira 2010

  • You still hear about "hacktivism" -- this summer, for instance, there was an attack on Estonian servers, presumably originating in Russia.

    From the WSJ Opinion Archives James Taranto 2007

  • Circle the PCs hacktivism The Chinese appeal's organizers said it is unlikely to address whether hackers should reject working for a government or hacking for a political cause—known as "hacktivism."

    Week in Words 2011

  • The Chinese appeal's organizers said it is unlikely to address whether hackers should reject working for a government or hacking for a political cause—known as "hacktivism."

    China Hackers Seek to Rally Peers Against Cybertheft Owen Fletcher 2011

  • This social design practice can be called the hacktivism of fashion.

    we make money not art 2009

  • This high-stakes "hacktivism" makes great headlines, but law-enforcement officials worry that it is distracting attention from a far more worrying trend: rising Internet fraud.

    Is That a Bull's-Eye On Your Wallet? 2007

  • Real civil disobedience is a dangerous act of idealism; Dominguez and Stalbaum's "hacktivism" was a risk-free act of self-promotion.

    From the WSJ Opinion Archives James Taranto 2007

  • Only a portion of the attacks are presented as politically motivated “hacktivism”, in which the targets are often state governments that have made moves to restrict abortion or LGBTQ+ rights.

    ‘Gay furries’ group hacks agencies in US states attacking gender-affirming care Jason Wilson 2023

  • The hugely influential Cult of the Dead Cow, jokingly named after an abandoned Texas slaughterhouse, is notorious for releasing tools that allowed ordinary people to hack computers running Microsoft’s Windows. It’s also known for inventing the word “hacktivism” to describe human-rights-driven security work.

    Beto O’Rourke’s secret membership in America’s oldest hacking group JOSEPH MENN in SAN FRANCISCO 2019

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  • “Ms. Jones said the incident may have been “hacktivism,” an attack with a social or political motivation. “The point could purely be just to prove the site is insecure,” she said.”

    The New York Times, Web Attack on Twitter Is Third Assault This Year, by Jenna Wortham and Nick Bilton, December 18, 2009

    December 20, 2009