

“Is the internet the public commons, or is the internet the private estate of corporations and governments whereby they can simply brutally crush even the slightest dissent that takes place on it?” he said through a jail phone. He believes his conviction could set dangerous precedents for how the internet is used and regulated.


In a recent interview with The Chronicle from Santa Rita Jail, he said he shudders at the implications his prosecution will have on the right of people to demonstrate peacefully. Doyon describes the cyberattacks as nothing more than “peaceful protests” against local ordinances that he says targeted homeless people. The former Mountain View resident, voluntarily homeless for much of his life, pleaded guilty Tuesday to cyberattack charges out of California and Florida - hackings in Santa Cruz in 2010 and Orlando in 2011 that temporarily shut down several local government websites. As Doyon hunkered down in Canada and Mexico for the better part of the past decade, and as he has spent much of the past year in jail, his supporters have clamored for his freedom, echoing his own belief that his incarceration is unjust and an affront on freedoms of expression. A hacktivist with ties to the hacking collective Anonymous, Doyon, 57, has a dedicated following among some internet freedom and human rights advocates who know him as Commander X.
