Barrett Lancaster Brown (born August 14, 1981) is an American

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

, hacktivist, writer, and associate of

Anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anonym ...

. He is mainly known for his role alongside Anonymous during the early 2010s, including during the Stratfor email leak. Born in a wealthy family, Brown grew up opposed to authority, before becoming a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

writer for various media outlets. In 2009, he founded Project PM, a crowdfunded investigation wiki. Around that time, he also started working with

and being one of their associates, helping them during some of their actions, such as during the Tunisian revolution or against the

Australian government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

. In 2011–2012, he was involved in the Stratfor email leak, during which hacktivists managed to obtain and publish thousands of intelligence documents related to the, among others, American military-industrial complex. In 2012, the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

executed search warrants at his home and later arrested him, also targetting his mother. Three years later, in January 2015, Brown was ultimately sentenced to more than 5 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to accessory after the fact,

obstruction of justice In United States jurisdictions, obstruction of justice refers to a number of offenses that involve unduly influencing, impeding, or otherwise interfering with the justice system, especially the legal and procedural tasks of prosecutors, investiga ...

, and threatening a federal officer stemming from the FBI's investigation into the 2012 Stratfor email leak. After his release, he would later be involved in Pursuance, a platform trying to link activists together, before moving to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Brown has written for ''Vanity Fair'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', the ''Huffington Post'', '' The Onion'' and other outlets. In 2016, he won a National Magazine Award for a series of jailhouse memoirs published in '' D Magazine'' and '' The Intercept''. His memoir, ''My Glorious Defeats: Hacktivist, Narcissist, Anonymous'', was published in July 2024. According to NRP, his life gave rise to the character of Eliott in the TV series ''Mr. Robot''. His life also influenced '' House of Cards,'' where it was depicted. He is regarded as a seminal example of the hacktivist tendency aiming to organize hacktivist actions and focus on clearly defined objectives.

Biography

Early life

Brown was born and grew up in Dallas County. His father Robert was a wealthy real estate investor until the FBI investigated him for fraud and he lost the family's money. Robert Brown was charged in a real-estate-fraud scheme, but the charges were eventually dropped. His parents divorced when he was 7. After the divorce he lived with his mother Karen Lancaster. His young life would have been marked by the example of his father and resistance to authority. Brown exhibited an early interest in writing and journalism, creating his own newspapers on his family's computer while attending Preston Hollow Elementary School where he was the poet laureate. He went on to contribute to his school newspapers, and interned at several weekly newspapers during his teenage years. While in middle school, he began exploring the possibilities of online networks and reading

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum; , 1905March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system which s ...

. He attended the Episcopal School of Dallas through his sophomore year of high school, where he created the Objectivists Club and placed second in a national Ayn Rand essay contest. In 1998, Brown spent his would-be junior year in

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

with his father who was residing there for a

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, truckssafari hunting. While in Africa, Brown completed high school online through a

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public university, public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the flagship instit ...

program, earning college credits as well as his high school diploma. In 2000 he enrolled at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

and spent two semesters taking writing courses before leaving school to pursue a full-time career as a

writer.

Early career

After dropping out of college, Brown remained in Austin freelancing and taking various writing jobs. He's stated he started out just wanting to write humor. In 2007 his book ''Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Easter Bunny,'' co-authored with Jon P. Alston, was published. In that same year, Brown and a group of friends moved to

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

where their apartment was a hang out spot which included a group of marijuana dealers. He wrote columns for '' Vanity Fair'' and '' The Onion'' and other publications but much of what he published was on blogs like the ''

Daily Kos Daily Kos ( ) is a group blog and internet forum focused on the U.S. Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party and Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal American politics. The site publishes blog posts, polls, election and cam ...

'' for which he was not paid. During this time, Brown started spending more time online and his heroine use increased which he had used on and off with since he was 19. Becoming a griefer in

Second Life ''Second Life'' is a multiplayer virtual world that allows people to create an Avatar (computing), avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user-created content within a multi-user online environment. Developed for person ...

, he socialized with other griefers on imageboards like 4chan and the

wiki A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...

Encyclopedia Dramatica with whom he collaborated to harass other users and coordinate elaborate pranks. Though not a hacker himself, the hackers he associated with would later be known as

. Brown wrote that he "became obsessed with the question of what would happen when these people realized what they were capable of." By December 2009, Brown was living on a couch at a friend's apartment in Brooklyn, spending most of his time online and shooting heroin. In the spring of 2010, he moved back to Dallas and entered outpatient treatment for his addiction. As part of his treatment he was prescribed Suboxone, a synthetic opioid..

Association with Anonymous

Brown began working with Anonymous after watching it form into a hackivist collective with their 2008 attacks on the Church of Scientology. Following Operation Titstorm in February 2010 which Anonymous launched

denial-of-service attacks In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyberattack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host co ...

against the

, he wrote the article “Anonymous, Australia, and the Inevitable Fall of the Nation-State” in ''The Huffington Post'' explaining Anonymous and reasons for the attacks. Because those involved with Anonymous would not reveal their name, Brown became the de facto contact for media whose inquiries were previously being fielded by Gregg Housh. He gave interviews on major TV networks and various media outlets and considered himself "information operations" for the group, though he was often erroneously referred to by the media as their spokesperson or similar. ''Rolling Stone'' stated "part of his appeal was the act of his drily affected pseudo-aristocratic-asshole persona, which he exaggerated during media appearances" With Operation Tunisia starting in January 2011 which Anonymous supported the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...

by attacking the Tunisian government, Brown become directly involved by creating a guide for protesters. Barrett Brown was also referenced by The Jester in some of their communications, where The Jester adressed him. In May 2011, Brown announced he was stepping away from Anonymous to focus on Project PM citing the lack of quality control and some of their actions, such as Operation Sony, did not align with his aims. In early October 2011 Anonymous launched OpCartel against the Zetas drug cartel and Mexican government then later claimed an Anonymous member was kidnapped by the cartel. In November, Brown said that 25,000 emails from the Mexican government containing the names of 75 members of the Zetas and associates would be released if a member of Anonymous kidnapped by the cartel was not set free. Anonymous later said the member released and called a truce. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' raised doubts about the operation and kidnapping claim. Brown stated he would continue the work to expose drug cartels and their associates and that he working with CNN on a story about a

district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

who was working with drug cartels. In his memoir, Brown wrote OpCartel "fizzled out" after he "made a few halfhearted efforts to obtain information" but that he "lacked the wherewithal to get anything accomplished" and was working through "a haze of opiates and mania" during the events.

Project PM

In 2009, Brown began work on his crowdsourced investigation wiki, Project PM. By Brown's count, Project PM had 75 members at its peak who communicated through an IRC chat room and published their findings on the Project PM wiki. The group dug through huge amounts of hacked files and emails from intelligence contractors, hoping to expose companies like HBGary and Stratfor, earning the trust of the hacktivist community. According to Project PM members, Brown and members sometimes pranked called research subjects at home. In June 2011, he and Project PM released an exclusive report about a surveillance contract called "Romas/COIN" which was discovered in e-mails hacked from HBGary by Anonymous. It consisted of sophisticated data-mining techniques leveraging mobile software and aimed at Arab countries. After Project PM was shut down by his 2012 arrest and incarceration, he restarted it in late 2020 while seeking asylum in the UK.

Stratfor email leak

In December 2011, Brown told reporters that Anonymous had hacked millions of emails from Stratfor over Christmas and that they would be released by

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by ...

. Brown suggested that Anonymous tell Stratfor they would "consider making any reasonable redactions to e-mails that might endanger, say, activists living under dictatorships" before emailing Stratfor CEO George Friedman directly. Brown didn't participate in the hack or know how to code but he did post a link in a chat which linked to documents already released online that contained email addresses and credit card information.

Arrest and sentencing

On March 6, 2012, the FBI executed search warrants at Brown's apartment and his mother's house. During the search, agents took possession of his laptop computers. The seized laptops included thousands of pages of chat logs from March 2011 to February 2012. These chats were produced as evidence in the trial against Jeremy Hammond and in Brown's trial. On September 12, 2012, Brown was arrested in

Dallas County, Texas Dallas County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 2,613,539, and was estimated to be 2,656,028 in 2024, making it the List of counties in Texas, second-most populo ...

for threatening an

agent in a

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

video that has been called "unhinged". At his sentencing he stated he was going through "sudden withdrawal from paxil and suboxone" on the day he made the video. A magistrate denied

bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Court bail may be offered to secure the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when ...

because he was judged "a danger to the safety of the community and a risk of flight." On October 3, 2012, a federal

grand jury A grand jury is a jury empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify. A grand ju ...

indictment was returned against Brown on charges of threats, conspiracy and retaliation against a federal law enforcement officer. Various tweets, YouTube uploads and comments made by Brown before his arrest were cited as support within the indictment. In December 2012, Brown was indicted on an additional 12 federal charges related to the December 25, 2011 hack of Austin-based private intelligence company Stratfor. A trove of millions of Stratfor emails from the hack, including authentication information for thousands of credit card, was shared by the hacker collective

LulzSec LulzSec (a contraction for Lulz Security) is a Grey hat, grey hat computer hacking group that claimed responsibility for several high profile attacks, including the 2011 PlayStation Network outage, compromise of user accounts from PlayStation N ...

with

. Brown faced up to 45 years in federal prison for allegedly sharing a link to the data as part of Project PM. On January 23, 2013, a third indictment was filed against Brown on two counts of obstruction for concealing evidence during the March 6, 2012, FBI raid of his and his mother's homes. Brown's mother was sentenced on November 8, 2013, to six months of

probation Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offence (law), offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incar ...

and a $1,000 fine for a

misdemeanor A misdemeanor (American English, spelled misdemeanour elsewhere) is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies, but theoretically more so than admi ...

charge of obstructing the execution of a search warrant. In September 2013, Brown was under a federal court-issued gag order. He faced at the time around 105 years in prison. The targeting of Brown's mother is cited by Taylor Owen as an example illustrating how state repression also affects the families of anarchist activists. In February 2014, he self-published the book ''Keep Rootin' for Putin: Establishment Pundits and the Twilight of American Competence''. In March 2014, most charges against Brown were dropped. In April 2014, Brown agreed to a

plea bargain A plea bargain, also known as a plea agreement or plea deal, is a legal arrangement in criminal law where the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest to a charge in exchange for concessions from the prosecutor. These concessions can include a ...

and plead guilty to accessory after the fact in the unauthorized access to a protected computer, threatening an FBI agent and obstructing the execution of a search warrant. At sentencing, the government introduced additional chat logs seized from Brown's laptop. D Magazine wrote that the logs "painted Barrett as a leader of Anonymous, someone who knowingly stole and distributed credit card information, a wreaker of real and serious damage" in an attempt to secure a lengthy prison sentence. This caused further delays, as the defense was not given prior access. In January 2015, Brown was sentenced to 63 months in prison. He was also ordered to pay $890,250 in fines and

restitution Restitution and unjust enrichment is the field of law relating to gains-based recovery. In contrast with damages (the law of compensation), restitution is a claim or remedy requiring a defendant to give up benefits wrongfully obtained. Liability ...

. Journalist Janus Kopfstein accused the government of making false statements about Brown before his sentencing. Much of Brown's December sentencing hearing was spent in drawn-out arguments over the definitions of Project PM and Brown himself.

Prison

During his incarceration, Brown published a series of jailhouse memoirs in '' D Magazine'' and '' The Intercept'', for which he won a National Magazine Award in 2016. He publicly burned the award three years later in protest of ''The Intercept'' closing their Snowden archives. Brown was released from prison on November 29, 2016, and moved into a halfway house close to downtown Dallas, Texas. Brown was ordered to pay at least $200 of his $890,000 restitution every month.

Continuation of activism, legal cases and conflict with Assange

In 2017, Brown launched the Pursuance Project, which aimed to unite transparency activists, investigative journalists, FOIA specialists and hacktivists in a fully encrypted platform. Brown said that Pursuance would take hacktivism into the future, letting anyone sort through troves of hacked documents and even recruit teams of hackers. This project was seen as a way to organize together from far distances and act together. Pursuance's goal was to offer task management and automation environment for collaborative investigations into the surveillance state. The Pursuance Project fizzled. In February 2017, lawyers for donors to Brown's legal fund filed suit against Assistant United States Attorney Candina Heath for filing a

subpoena A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...

against WePay that resulted in divulgence of their identities. The lawyers argued that the irrelevance of donor information to the case against Brown and the provision of the information directly to the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

rather than to the prosecutor or judge led to donors' belief that the information was intended to surveil and harass the donors for activity protected by the U.S. constitution, and filed for destruction of the data and monetary damages. On October 2, 2017, Judge Maria Elena James denied a motion to dismiss the case introduced by the Department of Justice. In June 2017, the Department of Justice subpoenaed The Intercept for all communications and information on payments made to Brown. The Intercept's in-house counsel told the U.S. Attorney's Office that they would agree to turn over financial information but not communications between Brown and The Intercept. Brown suggested the subpoena related to restitution payments he was supposed to make, but commented that they should already have the information readily available. According to Brown, instead of using that information "they subpoenaed a media organization that they happen to have a great deal of interest in, The Intercept" which he called "an ill-thought-out fishing expedition". In November 2017, Brown criticized

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He came to international attention in 2010 after WikiLeaks published a series of News leak, leaks from Chels ...

for his secretive collaboration with the Trump campaign and then allegedly lying about it. Brown said Assange had acted "as a covert political operative", thus betraying WikiLeaks' focus on exposing "corporate and government wrongdoing". He considered the latter to be "an appropriate thing to do", but that "working with an authoritarian would-be leader to deceive the public is indefensible and disgusting". In 2018, three trustees of the Courage Foundation decided to remove Brown from the Courage Foundation's beneficiary list over "nasty adversarial remarks" he had made about Julian Assange", In response, Courage Foundation Director Naomi Colvin quit in protest.

Move to the United Kingdom

Brown told ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' after briefly living

Antigua Antigua ( ; ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the local population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the most populous island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua ...

, he moved to the United Kingdom in November 2020. In April 2021, images and videos spread online of him holding a protest banner which said: "Kill Cops" near where an officer had been killed. Metropolitan Police tweeted they were trying to identify him and right-wing journalist Andy Ngô tweeted an accusation that he was " antifa-linked". Claims spread online that Brown was an undercover police officer, under police protection, or an

agent provocateur An is a person who actively entices another person to commit a crime that would not otherwise have been committed and then reports the person to the authorities. They may target individuals or groups. In jurisdictions in which conspiracy is a ...

. The Metropolitan Police told

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

and Brown wrote online that the claims were false. In May 2021, he was arrested on Sylvia Mann's canal boat in east London, being there since November 2020 to claim asylum, for overstaying his visa and two incitement offenses related to the banner. The arresting officer initially charged him under an incorrect code. An internal memo included a statement by Metropolitan Police Federation Chair Ken Marsh calling the banner "abhorrent, unacceptable, and dangerous behaviour" that could have resulted "in a tragedy." After he was released from the Barking and Dagenham Custody Centre on bail, he was detained by immigration authorities for overstaying his visa. He pleaded not guilty and was convicted of one charge of causing intentional, harassment alarm or distress and he was fined £1,200. After Brown's asylum claim was denied in February 2024, he decided to fire his lawyer and appeal with another firm. Brown served on the

advisory board An advisory board is a body that provides non-binding strategic advice to the management of a corporation, organization, or foundation. The informal nature of an advisory board gives greater flexibility in structure and management compared to the ...

of the International Modern Media Institute. His memoir, ''My Glorious Defeats: Hacktivist, Narcissist, Anonymous'', was published by

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer P ...

in July 2024.

Personal life

Political views

Politically, Brown identifies as an anarchist and believes that the American government is corrupt and that the people are too complacent toward it. He sees the movement within Anonymous as an interesting collective for carrying out anarchist struggles starting from 2006, and argues that a wave of hacking would be an effective way to spread anarchist ideas and causes. He has described himself as an "

revolutionary with a lust for

insurgency An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare against a larger authority. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric warfare, asymmetric nature: small irregular forces ...

" who "wanted to become famous for overthrowing things." In 2019, Brown's Twitter account was permanently banned from Twitter four times. He has joked that he holds the record for most Twitter permanent bans. The first three bans were overturned. The fourth and final ban was prompted by Brown tweeting that Assange should not be on trial but that he would "deserve to die by other, cleaner hands" if he knew of Erik Prince's alleged ties to Roger Stone.

Others

As of 2024 he is engaged to Sylvia Mann, a former editor of ''

Freedom Freedom is the power or right to speak, act, and change as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving oneself one's own laws". In one definition, something is "free" i ...

'', an anarchist publication. Brown has talked publicly about his history of drug use and treatment, including

methylphenidate Methylphenidate, sold under the brand names Ritalin ( ) and Concerta ( ) among others, is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy. It may be taken Oral adm ...

in the third grade until it made him suicidal, then later

sertraline Sertraline, sold under the brand name Zoloft among others, is an Antidepressant, antidepressant medication of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class used to treat major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, socia ...

. After moving to

, he began smoking crack cocaine, using

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

and injecting suboxone. Brown has been diagnosed with severe ADHD and depression and describes himself as a narcissist, a role that plays up for comedic effect. Brown has said he has been a drug addict "since early adolescence" and according to

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'' a ...

, Brown "gave a talk at Rutgers after a night of smoking crack and showed up high at the offices of the New York ''Observer''''."'' In 2010, Brown first began outpatient treatment for heroin addiction. In 2011, in response to concerns about his drug use, Brown said that “a lot of the rules don't apply to me. My heroin addiction is much different than everyone else's.” In 2012, he was still struggling with withdrawal. That summer, Brown's mental state deteriorated and he has testified that he was going through withdrawal on the day he made the video he was convicted for, and that he had induced a manic state by stopping taking Paxil. In 2020, Brown went to rehab. After Brown's friend Kevin Gallagher died due to

fentanyl Fentanyl is a highly potent synthetic piperidine opioid primarily used as an analgesic (pain medication). It is 30 to 50 times more Potency (pharmacology), potent than heroin and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Its primary Medici ...

and meth in June 2021, Brown's life spiraled and friendships and collaborations disintegrated as Brown accused them of being intelligence assets. In 2022, he attempted to commit

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

. In his memoir ''My Glorious Defeats: Hacktivist, Narcissist, Anonymous'', Brown talks about his drug abuse and said "It is a particularity of the opiate-withdrawal process that, in one's desperation, one becomes highly receptive to stray enthusiasms."

Legacy

Art

Barrett Brown's case was included as a plot point in Season 2 of the U.S. TV series '' House of Cards'' because of input from Brown's friend and fellow Anonymous member, Gregg Housh. According to NPR, Brown could have served as a basis for Eliott from the TV series Mr. Robot.

Political and cyber-activism

According to Frédéric Bardeau and Nicolas Danet, Brown and Project PM are 'emblematic' of the trend within hacktivism aimed at organizing and giving coherence to their struggle. This movement, which seeks to overcome the distance and massification inherent to the Internet by channeling it toward specific and clearly defined goals, gave rise to several subsequent hacktivist groups.

Works

Books

* * *

Cinema and Television

Brown featured in ''Relatively Free'', a 2016 short documentary by Alex Winter about Brown's drive to a halfway house after he was released from prison. He has also appeared in the 2012 documentary We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists, the 2014 documentary The Hacker Wars, and the 2021 documentary The Face of Anonymous.

References

External links

* '' Keep Rootin' For Putin'' at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Barrett 1981 births Living people 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century anarchists American anarchist writers American investigative journalists American male criminals American male journalists American male non-fiction writers American writers with disabilities Anonymous (hacker group) activists The Intercept people Journalists imprisoned in the United States People associated with WikiLeaks People of the Tunisian revolution People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder People with mood disorders People with post-traumatic stress disorder Twitter controversies Writers from Dallas