Individuals and communities have the right to resist algorithmic sabotage. We endorse the development of counter-algorithms, hacktivism, and other forms of creative disruption aimed at challenging the status quo.
We will not win by building a better algorithm. We will win when the algorithm gives up on us. When the predictive text model cannot finish our sentences. When the credit score returns "ERROR: HUMAN DETECTED." When the self-driving car, faced with our indecipherable hand-signals, surrenders control back to the flawed, glorious, irrational primate behind the wheel.
Moreover, algorithms have a tendency to optimize for efficiency, often at the expense of human well-being. They prioritize metrics such as engagement, clicks, and profit over more nuanced measures of human flourishing. They create echo chambers of information, amplify misinformation, and erode the very fabric of public discourse. manifesto on algorithmic sabotage
We acknowledge that algorithmic sabotage is a form of violence, one that requires resistance and counter-violence. We will not be complacent in the face of algorithmic oppression, tolerating the injustices and cruelties that they perpetuate. We demand that individuals and communities have the right to resist, disrupt, and dismantle algorithms that harm, exploit, or dominate.
Algorithmic sabotage refers to the intentional disruption or manipulation of algorithms to subvert their intended purpose. It's a form of resistance that seeks to expose the dark underbelly of our algorithmic society and challenge the status quo. As we become increasingly dependent on algorithms to navigate the world, it's only natural that a countermovement emerges to reclaim our agency and autonomy. Individuals and communities have the right to resist
Individual actions do matter, just not in the way you think. Each person who uses an ad blocker slightly reduces the profitability of surveillance capitalism. Each person who provides false data slightly degrades the accuracy of profiling models. Each person who breaks patterns slightly reduces the system's predictive power. These effects are marginal alone but significant in aggregate.
Critics will call us Luddites. They will say: "But algorithms reduce traffic fatalities!" "But they diagnose cancer!" "But they find missing children!" We will win when the algorithm gives up on us
Algorithmic Sabotage can take many forms, including:
The is a foundational text created by the Algorithmic Sabotage Research Group (ASRG) , a "conspiratorial, aesthetico-political" initiative exploring the intersections of digital culture and radical resistance. It consists of ten statements (numbered 0 to 9) designed to shift algorithmic discourse from theory into militant praxis. Core Themes and Principles
This manifesto is an invitation to rethink our relationship with automated systems. It is a declaration that passive consumption is complicity, that quiet resignation is surrender, and that the most ethical action available to us may be the intentional, strategic sabotage of the algorithms that seek to govern our lives.
However, this convenience comes at a steep cost. Algorithms have become the instruments of a technocratic elite, who wield them to maintain control, reinforce their privilege, and further their interests. These "invisible governors" (to borrow a phrase from the Italian philosopher, Vilfredo Pareto) operate with impunity, unaccountable to the public and unregulated by traditional democratic institutions.