At its heart, the ASRG's theory of change is a radical one. It posits that traditional methods of technology critique—such as policy advocacy, consumer choice, and academic deconstruction—are insufficient to counter the deeply embedded structural injustices, supremacist perspectives, and necropolitical authoritarian power layered into what it calls the "algorithmic empire". Instead, it champions a turn towards direct action: sabotage. This is not an atavistic fear of technology, but a calculated . The ultimate objective is to strengthen, promote, and defend human rights and fundamental freedoms by actively undermining the systems that threaten them.
ASRG functions as a decentralized cataloger of offensive tactics built to compromise the integrity, functionality, and reliability of large-scale AI operations. Activists, webmasters, and developers build on the collective's collected methodologies to deploy several foundational direct actions: 1. Web Scraper Tarpits
The Algorithmic Sabotage Research Group is part of a growing ecosystem of independent researchers, artists, and cyber-activists resisting automated data extraction. algorithmic sabotage research group asrg
: Cutting through ideological structures that utilize algorithms to automate "thoughtlessness" and social classification.
Forging direct community-led leverage to dismantle algorithmic domination. At its heart, the ASRG's theory of change is a radical one
The ASRG's emergence is part of a much larger story about the growing backlash against the extractive and often predatory nature of the tech industry. The group explicitly links its work to a , a 19th-century movement of English textile workers who destroyed machinery as a form of protest against the harsh realities of industrialization. The modern "data-luddite" is not against technology per se, but against the algorithmic systems of power that exploit workers, plunder data, and accelerate ecological destruction. In this context, the ASRG's catalog of practical methods is a tool for contemporary data-luddites to fight back.
Welcome to the .
The Algorithmic Sabotage Research Group does not yet exist, but the need for it grows with every opaque model deployed in housing, justice, and healthcare. Its name is deliberately jarring: sabotage, after all, comes from the French sabot —a wooden shoe thrown into machinery to stop production. That humble act of refusal is the ancestor of all algorithmic accountability. The ASRG would take that wooden shoe and turn it into a research instrument, asking not “How fast can this machine run?” but “Who gets crushed when it does—and how do we safely make it stop?” In answering those questions, it would do nothing less than reclaim the politics of failure from the engineers of inevitability.
: Do not confuse this group with the Automotive Security Research Group or the Anti-Spam Research Group , which share the same acronym but focus on industry-standard security and email protocols. Drop #17. Manifesto On Algorithmic Sabotage This is not an atavistic fear of technology,
The group’s central ideological document, the , outlines ten statements (numbered 0 to 9) that define its mission. Rather than seeking to "fix" or "improve" existing AI models, ASRG advocates for militant resistance and the transformation of discourse into praxis. Key pillars of their philosophy include: