Epic Fail : How Hacktivists Expose Democracy's Flaws

A provocative and clear-eyed exploration of hacktivism as a democratic practice.

In 1998, the early hacktivist group Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) burst onto the world stage with their “virtual sit-in” in support of the Zapatistas’ struggle against neoliberalism in Mexico, but by the time WikiLeaks and Anonymous made their own headlines in the 2010s, they were all but forgotten by the public. As all three groups begin to recede into the past, we are left with the question of the efficacy of hacktivism.

In Epic Fail, Ashley Gorham uses democratic theory to unpack this question by examining these three especially prominent hacktivist groups. While each is shown to have its own “bug” or “fail,” failure itself is rehabilitated as an inevitable component of all democratic action, which serves as both warning and inspiration for future democratic theorists and actors alike.

The book enriches our understanding not only of hacktivism but also of democratic theory as the groups’ bugs highlight problems within the individual theories discussed—epistemic and radical democracy.