Are hackers revolutionaries? Some are. Part of the reason West German hackers (such as Pengo who was a punk and a Green) attempted to hack for the Russians (codename "Project Equalizer") was because they wanted to promote peace through reducing the West’s technical advantage. The 1960s New Left started Phreaking. Computer hackers and enthusiasts in general tend to be a mixture of libertarian, anarchist, and generally liberal. They are overwhelmingly opposed to authoritarian systems. Cyberpunk literature shows the individual using technology, somehow surviving in the midst of authoritarian structures.

More recently, "hacktivism" has emerged as people have learnt how to put their computer "in the way," instead of their body. Hacktivists have broken into websites to put a political message on the site (freeing computer hacker Kevin Mitnick, human rights in China, the Zapatistas, and East Timor have all been popular topics). Hacktivists invented the electronic sit-in. A program called "Floodnet" allows you to set your computer so that it is constantly requesting a webpage. Activists can cooperate from around the world, and if enough people join it will slow down the webpage, ultimately leading to a Denial of Service. In addition, it is possible to overload a target’s email account by sending them large attachments. Hacktivists flooded and email bombed the World Trade Organization during its meeting in Seattle.

It is also possible to legally use computers and the Internet to share information and build movements of resistance. The reduction of costs of communication helps both multi-national corporations and encourages the creation of a global alliance of anti-corporate resistance. For instance the student anti-sweatshop movement (United Students Against Sweatshops) has used an email list as its primary organizing tool and has arguably become the most cohesive and powerful progressive student movement in only two years.