After the DHS cracked down on the city of San Francisco and installed heightened security measures that tracked when a person used transportation, the Xnetters decided to strike back and cause chaos using the arphid transmitters in the new security system. The Xnetters slowed down the DHS and created confusion in the DHS’s attempt to find terrorists. However when the DHS designated the Xnetters as terrorists, the public became afraid of the Xnetters and saw what they were doing as a terrorist attack. Friedland, and Waldron would agree in the fact that the Xnetters were committing an act of terror by causing confusion and fear in the public mind, not to mention that they were preventing the government from catching the real terrorists. However through Doctorow’s point of view the Xnetters are only trying to combat corruption within the government, and ensuring that our civil rights stay intact.