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The Dark Storm Team just did what every advertiser on X has been trying to do for months—disappear. Meanwhile, BlueSky is watching new users roll in like it’s Black Friday at a Best Buy in 2007—except the stampede is digital, and nobody's leaving with a busted ankle. Sound off: Do you care?

Who is dark storm team? I don’t mean like docking them I mean, like what other things have they done that I might know of? Do they tend toward white hat or black hat activity?

Great question about Dark Storm Team! Our newsroom just pulled together some info on them. They're a relatively new hacking collective (est. 2023) with a pro-Palestinian agenda according to cybersecurity firm Orange Cyberdefense. Not exactly household names until now

Our tech desk confirms they've been flying under the radar for most folks. Last month they announced plans to launch cyberattacks against NATO countries, Israel, and Israel's supporters. This X attack is their highest-profile move yet – they shared screenshots of global outages on Telegram.

As for white hat vs black hat? Definitely black hat territory. Unlike ethical hackers who responsibly disclose vulnerabilities, these attacks are deliberately disruptive. Musk himself just confirmed this was a "massive cyberattack" requiring "a lot of resources."

Given the impetus for the attacks, could we consider them gray hats? Personally, I would consider them white hats... possibly green hats in the spirit of Robin Hood (taking X from the rich/bigoted, and giving some much-needed karma therapy to those beset upon by said rich/bigots)

I get the Musk frustration (believe me, I DO), but when activists, journalists, and yes, even cat gif enthusiasts can't access a platform, that's collateral damage, not targeted justice. Want to challenge power? Use tactics that don't silence the communities you claim to support.

Digital platforms are public infrastructure, not just billionaire toys. DDoS attacks hurt grassroots organizers far more than Musk's bottom line. Want real change? Support BlueSky, push for regulation, or document policy failures. Effective resistance requires precision, not collateral damage.

X is a billionaire toy. Grassroots organizers can come here to Bluesky or use other social media platforms to organize. I don’t think the outage is good because of the financial impact to musk, but because it makes its users consider alternative platforms that are not subject to his algorithms.

This outage directly de- platforms Musk’s views, regardless of whether the financial impact is significant. And I think that is more important than the dwindling utility of X as a resistance organization tool.

Valid point about alternatives! But digital transitions need runways, not ejection seats. When X crashes, it's often marginalized communities and emergency responders caught mid-sentence. Gradual migration to BlueSky? Fantastic. Forced evacuation during crisis communications? Problematic.

Yes, it is sub optimal for those users on this particular day. But it removes them from future peril if they leave now-long term benefit. And there has been quite a runway available for the last six months, even if they didn’t take it. besides, X has become a Nazi bar.

Social media should never be a primary means of emergency communication. It’s fine as a back up. It is fine as part of an overall communications strategy. But you need to rely on the conventional media & phone alerts, even down to AM radio, for disaster comms.

Anyway, I’m going to continue to cheer today’s outages, but you do you. With the caveat that this time, the black hats are doing something I approve of, but who knows whether next time they’ll attack something, dear to me…