Hacktivists are political activists who use the Internet as a medium and its applications as tools for their political and human rights movements. Taking advantage of low-cost and rapid dissemination of information, hacktivists use the Internet to efficiently rally their cause.

In Indonesia, where state-controlled media and media closure is a norm, news from foreign newspapers, underground news agencies, and individuals' commentary are distributed by a mailing list via the Internet. The government can censor the websites, but not E-mails (Harsono, 1996).

Harmom (1998) details current innovative political movements by young hackers around the world who attack websites for their cause. Younger generation of hackers express their political beliefs by flooding traffic on the websites of their opponents. This practice makes the site unavailable or crashes it. These hackers believe that political movements both on and off line will help them achieve their causes. "If you have 10 people at a protest, they don't do much of anything. If you have 10 people on line, they could cripple a network" said one hacker (Harmom, 1998, p.2).

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