On Twitter, @AnonymousIRC claims to have been responsible for bringing the *.mit.edu network down for a few hours last night in protest of MIT’s legal “back-and-forth” with Aaron Swartz. Later on they went on to ‘hack’ two sub-domains in the MIT network (the “Cogeneration Project” and an RLE site, seemingly they just picked two random ones easy to break) posting a message about Aaron. Here are some of my thoughts about attacking the MIT network following this tragedy:

MIT has more than 10,000 students, researchers, and professors working on areas ranging from cancer research, renewable energy, and urban planning to free software (FSF), open internet (W3C), and the future of computing in general (CSAIL). In many ways, what MIT, as a community, stands for is more representative of the Swartz and Anon cause than the Anonymous themselves.

To think that bringing e-mail or a network down sent shivers down the spines of the MIT Corporation, General Counsel, or Administration is nonsense— all it did is harassed the student body and researchers. Those who are working on the same causes other groups are supposed to be working on.

Second, Hal Abelson is a fine man, co-founder of Creative Commons, close ally of Swartz, and an activist and champion for an open internet. Those who are cynical about his investigation know nothing about the man or the dynamics of this institution. Larry Lesisg himself, a great man (and co-founder of Creative Commons with Abelson, friend and mentor of Swartz), who yesterday called MIT’s interactions with Swartz “shameful” recognizes the fact that MIT’s response right now is a positive development, not a negative.

Third, no— bringing sites down is not a form of protest. Especially not when the collateral is the cause you are arguing for itself.

When will the hacker community mature to realize that they can harness their skills to achieve much better activism that does not hurt the people who are working on their same causes? The immaturity we initially saw in the likes of LulzSec has plagued anonymous for years now. Get it together.