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Who are Anonymous and what do they do

A few years ago I noticed an organization on social media called Anonymous. Out of curiosity, I visited their official webpage after which I started to learn more and more about this organization and follow their news. This post will be about Anonymous and what is known about them so far and major actions they have taken.

Who is Anonymous?

Anonymous is a group of people on the internet who are fighting for justice of every citizen. Their main belief is that everybody deserves freedom of speech, expression, knowledge, and belief.
The group has started in 2003 by creating an online community, which was primarily focused on entertainment and "pranks".  No one knows who is the founder of this group. Anonymous name was inspired by anonymity under which users posted on 4chan, which is an online bulletin imageboard dedicated to random content.  Members of the group call themselves "hacktivists," a combination of hacker and activist. They do not have any leadership nor a physical place.
Anonymous means a hidden identity, which is why the group represents themselves in a special type of Guy Fawkes mask for public protests and a headless man image.

Anonymous claim to have taken down nine national banks during a worldwide cyber attack
Anonymous representation in public
(Image source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/669346/Anonymous-hackers-take-down-nine-banks-in-30-day-cyber-attack)

We are Anonymous. 
We are Legion. 
We do not forgive. 
We do not forget. 
Expect us.
-Original Anonymous tagline

Actions of Anonymous

Anonymous oppose Internet censorship and control and the majority of their actions target governments, organizations, and corporations that they accuse of censorship. The first appearance on the headlines caused "Project Chanology." Church of Scientology removed Tom Cruise's video, where he is opposing the benefits of religion - it portrayed church in a negative light. Anonymous posted a video on YouTube called "Message To Scientology", where they explained how dangerous Scientology was and their violation of freedom of speech. Since then Anonymous has been involved in some major events. Here are only a few of them:
2009 Operation Tunisia - The Tunisian Revolution, which led to the ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Anonymous recruited a number of Tunisian hackers to help take down eight government websites with DDoS attacks.
2012 Operation Payback - U.S. Government demanded that WikiLeaks (organization that publishes secret information) stop releasing diplomatic secrets to the public, a number of companies that supported WikiLeaks in the past turned against the website by freezing accounts and shutting down the site's servers. Anonymous decided to step in and declared war on Visa, MasterCard, PayPal for refusing to do business with WikiLeaks. On December 8, 2010, both Visa's and MasterCard's sites were taken down by the group.
2015 #OpParis - Anonymous announced a major operation against ISIS following the Paris attacks, declaring, "Anonymous from all over the world will hunt you down. You should know that we will find you and we will not let you go." ISIS responded on Telegram by calling them "idiots", and asking "What they gonna to hack?" By the next day, however, Anonymous claimed to have taken down 3,824 pro-ISIS Twitter accounts. A week later, Anonymous increased their claim to 20,000 accounts and released a list of the accounts.
2016 #OpTrump US Presidental elections  - Anonymous was reported to have declared war on Donald Trump. However, the "Anonymous Official" YouTube channel released a video saying that #OpTrump "goes against everything Anonymous stands for" in reference to censorship and added, "we are for everyone letting their voices be heard, even, if the person at hand ... is a monster." Anonymous was also reported to have declared war on Hillary Clinton.

Anonymous Group, logo
Anonymous official logo
(Image source: http://austin.culturemap.com/news/innovation/03-12-15-anonymous-operation-destroy-daily-dot-campaign-hector-sabu-monsegur/)

There are a lot more operations, which Anonymous were involved with, which I did not cover in this post. The community and its followers seem to be growing and their actions becoming more and more impactful. I do admire morales, which Anonymous stands for and the actions they have taken for common interests, but I do hope that the increasing community does not withdraw from who they really are and what they stand for.




Used for inspiration:
Anonymous Hackers. About Anonymous.
http://www.anonymoushackers.net/about/
Hqanon. Anonymous - Who we really are and how to become Anonymous.
https://anonhq.com/anonymous-who-we-really-are-and-how-to-become-anonymous/
Wikipedia. Anonymous (Group).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group)
Becca Stannek. How Did Anonymous Start? The History Of The Mysterious "Hacktivist" Group Began Quite Some Time Ago
https://www.bustle.com/articles/65444-how-did-anonymous-start-the-history-of-the-mysterious-hacktivist-group-began-quite-some-time-ago
Complex. The 10 Craziest Hacks Done By Anonymous.
https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2011/08/the-10-craziest-anonymous-hacks/

Comments

  1. This is all beautiful on paper, but it can backfire sooooo easily.... I hope they know the power they have, and don't get in over their heads. Otherwise it could be dangerous to everyone.

    But great post! I always wanted to learn more about them, but for some reason I never bothered.

    ReplyDelete

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