In The Valley of Silicon

occupyallstreets:

anonmedics:

Call of Duty: Black Ops II will apparently feature Anonymous as enemy terrorists, hinting at as much in two promotional videos released this week.  Kotaku reports:

A series of documentary style clips tackle different elements of technology and warfare; in two of them, the Guy Fawkes mask appears on screen.

In a clip titled “Synopsis”, Oliver North talks about his nightmare scenario, and when he says, “The enemy could be anywhere, and it could be anyone,” an individual wearing a Guy Fawkes appears on screen. I don’t worry about the guy who wants to hijack a plane,” North continues. “I worry about the guy who wants to hijack all the planes.”

In another clip, titled “When the Enemy Steals the Keys,” the Guy Fawkes mask pops up again. The footage is slightly different — it’s tighter, more of a close-up.

“You know, if there are guys out there who are smart enough to hack into our banks and people’s personal information, then certainly, eventually, there’s gonna be someone who’s smart enough to hack into our aircraft,” drone pilot Major Hercules Christopher says in the clip. “If you can hack a bank, you can hack a drone.”

The moment the pilot says “gonna be someone who’s smart enough”, the Guy Fawkes mask once again appears on screen, seeming to insinuate indirectly that Anonymous members are going to be smart enough to hack drones — or even want to. Once again, the Guy Fawkes mask is cast as the enemy.

We assume Vivendi has already anticipated, and adjusted for, the massive drop in sales that may result from so unimaginatively and dully vilifying their player base, and that they have secured their corporate servers from any objections that may arise to such ham-handed misrepresentation.

More troubling than the Fawkes iconography is the blithe use of known war criminal Oliver North as a spokesman for “peace” and “freedom”.  The Kotaku commentors have this one in the bag:

May 2, 2012 at 10:39 PM

Was this the same Oliver North who sold guns to Iran to finance the actions of the Contra rebels in Nicaragua? The ones who regularly killed and tortured civilians?

The enemy could be anywhere, and he could be anyone, he says…

Activision: Lets hire a real-life convicted felon who caused multiple deaths to tell the general public that the real terrorists is a hacktivist group responsible for exposing government corruption.

Great Job, Activision. Alienating your customer base

(via anarcho-queer)