In conversation with former Anonymous and Lulzsec Hacktivists

For the first time since the headline-grabbing court case in 2011, 'hacktivists' Mustafa Al-Bassam and Jake Davies, formerly a part of the Anonymous and Lulzsec group will appear together in public. They will share their thoughts on the ethics of the internet with academic Gabriella Coleman as part of the Royal Court's Big Idea discussion series.

The Background

There were just teenagers when they were tracked by the FBI and then arrested for computer hacking. It was this fascinating true story that inspired Tim Price's new drama Teh Internet is Serious Business, which opens at The Royal Court on 17th September.

As part of their sentence the pair were banned from communicating with each other and from using the internet for two years. They both payed key roles in the hacking movement that sought to take on big cooperations and expose their lapses in web security . The hackers' targets included The Sun  newspaper's  website and  the  Sony Playstation network.  Lulzsec is a contrition of two internet slang terms: Lulz stems from 'lolz', meaning laughter and 'sec' is short from security, suggest a trivialisation and mockery of so-called online security. When arrested, Jake Davies (under the guise of Topiary) deleted all his tweets except one: 'You cannot arrest an idea'.

Now Davies works on creative projects as a script consultant for theatre and film that tackles the subject of hacking. Al-Bassam (who hacked under the named Tflow) is now studying Computer Science. They both worked closely with playwright Tim Price in the development of the script for Teh Internet is Serious Business. 

The event will be the first time the pair have discussed hacktivism together. As the author of Coding Freedom: The Aesthetics and the Ethics of Hacking, Gabriella Coleman will be an astute and informed interviewer.