Web of resistance: Deleuzian digital space and hacktivism

This article argues that the Internet possesses the potential to challenge corporate and Statist domination of digital space. Mapping Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s concepts of the rhizome, smooth/striated space, and the nomad onto the idea of digital connectivity, I show how hacktivism can initiate change both online and off. In the first section, I argue that the Internet is characteristic of a rhizome. As a rhizome, the Internet’s structure affords it a flexible, morphological, and ultimately a vibrantly powerful configuration. As a result of its connective and generative power, corporate and State entities seek to control digital space. These controlling institutions stratify, segment, and claim ownership over the flat, smooth space. The second section, then, shows how the Internet becomes striated through corporate and State interests. As a remedy, the third section advocates for hacktivism as a form of nomadic action. In this section, I focus on the Distributed Denial of Service attack as a form of deterritorialization that redistributes the flow of information. Acting as a digital machine de guerre engaging in online direct action, and against the legal apparatus of the State, hacktivists create a rupture in the rhizomatic structure and form smooth spaces within a striated network. In the final section, I advocate for sustained smooth digital spaces that allow for new modes of association that radiate outward from the digital to the physical world.