We are Anonymous. We are legion. Anonymous does not forgive; Anonymous does not forget.This is the creed of Anonymous, the shadowy Internet-based group that has declared war on the Church of Scientology.The group originated in the murky underbelly of the Internet. Its origins are generally traced to the image board 4chan, where users can post whatever they want.When I say anything, I mean exactly that. The Web site is full of some of the most fascinating — and absolutely most disturbing — content the world has ever produced.If you value your sanity, avoid this Web site at all costs. Imagine the absolute darkest, sickest things the human mind can conceive. Now imagine a world without censorship, where no one knows who or where you are and this sickest of material is posted freely.That is 4chan.The anonymous nature of the Web site is what gives the group spawned by the image board its name.Because of its origins, Anonymous consists almost entirely of computer-obsessed “basement dwellers.” The group’s previous achievements include hacking the American Epilepsy Foundation Web site and embedding images with bright flashing colors and loud noises, causing countless seizures nationwide. The group is also infamous for harassing posters to its threads. Once their documents are found, Anonymous typically hacks the victim’s MySpace or Facebook account, posting huge amounts of pornography and shock images.To be fair, the image boards Anonymous populates have created some truly hilarious content — the popular Internet memes “roflcats,” “demotivational posters” and even “rickrolling” originated on either 4chan or a similar Anonymous stomping ground.Recently, Anonymous has made a name for itself by combating the Church of Scientology (CoS), which has a history of conflict with Internet organizations. The Church elicited the rage of the group when it began using its crack team of lawyers to regulate what content was posted on YouTube.com. The group began applying pressure to the site that led to videos criticizing Scientology being removed – in some cases, anti-Scientologists even lost their accounts.The final straw came in January 2008, when a video of Tom Cruise was posted to YouTube. While “Mission: Impossible” music played in the background, Cruise — looking manic, even insane — rambled about his love for Scientology, making such absurd claims like only Scientologists can help after a car accident and that Scientologists are the leading authority on curing addictions.After threat of litigation from the Church, the video was removed.The actions by the CoS — who Anonymous refers to as Co$, deriding their apparent greed — infuriated a great deal of Internet junkies, who saw the act as Internet censorship.The war on Scientology — which is being termed “Project Chanology” — began with massive computer attacks on the church’s Web sites. An unknown number of hackers employed programs that flooded the Scientologist servers with server requests.Without getting into the techno-babble, the Scientologist Web sites were brought down.The Church proceeded to hire a Web-hosting service that specialized in securing servers against attacks. The Scientologists then issued a press-release informing Anonymous of this movement, warning them not to try the attack again.Apparently, the CoS grossly underestimated their enemy. Before the day was out, the Web sites were down again.In addition, Anonymous used the Google Bomb tactic to route users who search “dangerous cult” to the Church of Scientology main Web site.As Operation Chanology continued, the pressure mounted to switch to legal tactics against the organization. This pressure came to a head when Mark Bunker, known as “Wise Beard Man,” called them out and switched to conventional tactics.Instead of hack attacks, Operation Chanology now largely consists of real-life protests outside CoS buildings. In these protests, participants almost always wear some form of mask (most commonly a Guy Fawkes mask, popularized by the movie “V for Vendetta”), and wield signs and bullhorns protesting the group’s attempts at censorship.Also, the group has begun challenging the organization’s tax-exempt religious status. Because the Church requires payment for many religious services, they believe it should lose this tax-exempt status.Although it seems almost  criminal to condone the actions of basement-dwelling hackers with a penchant for ruining lives, Anonymous does actually raise some strong questions. Why should Scientology be allowed to force YouTube to remove content that damages their image while politicians, celebrities and ordinary people are defamed in videos every day?Scientology is essentially using threats of litigation to censor what information is posted about it on the Internet. If this weren’t bad enough, the group is only able to do so because it requires payments — sometimes exorbitant ones — to advance within its ranks. Thus the Church of Scientology has gathered deep coffers with which to wield the justice system as cudgel of intimidation to censor the Internet.This is unacceptable.As long as Anonymous continues to use legitimate means of protest, their cause is also perfectly legitimate.Even if the way they function is relatively unconventional.–Contact Matthew Albright at [email protected]