Sadly, I doubt they can be stopped.
The chickens are coming home to roost on the ATF thing and I sincerely hope that, if my suspicions are true, they do the same on this.
I'm not sold on this being one gigantic government conspiracy. I wouldn't doubt the existence of this being one giant social engineering tactic, but something in the back of my head tells me otherwise. I stand by the belief however that this group is just further enabling the US and other nations to take actions against internet freedom by their tactics against it.
Yes, I'm advocating some well-thought-out censorship in this case.
Anonymity + audience = lulzsec. If we remove the audience, we remove LulzSec.
1. You will give far more publicity to LulzSec than they are already getting by acknowledging them as such a severe concern you've pulled your engineers off other more valuable tasks to enact draconian and totally meaningless interdiction efforts
2. It won't actually shut them up. LulzSec is an example the ultimate asymmetrical enemy. They have fewer numbers, fewer financial resources and less technology, but have a mastery of the terrain. You don't defeat a guerrilla by pretending they don't exist. You do not attack them where they are strongest.
3. You're not actually achieveing anything here. Twitter isn't exposing itself to legal vulnerability here, and you certainly wouldn't shut up LulzSec for even a split second by just taking away their Twitter account.
I mean, honestly, have you thought this through at all? Have you paid attention to anything in the last 20 years? This kind of short-sighted feel-good finger-in-the-dyke measure is exactly why we're all sitting here screaming into the wind about copyright and piracy. What a shame that there are so many people who think this is the way to handle serious issues on the Internet.
Nope.
You're correct. When I'm presented with a problem, I tend to point out the first solution that comes to mind. If there are secondary problems, I refine the solution until the problem is solved.
In this case, the secondary problems would be that LulzSec would gain more audience, rather than be effectively censored, due to the Streisand effect. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect)
Do you have any ideas for a solution?
Those things just depend on which side of the fence you stand; that's why they shouldn't be considered.
As Voltaire said or Evelyn Beatrice Hall wrote: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”