With the taking down of the website of the white supremacist radio show host Hal Turner offline, this particular group of internet vigilantes has received quite the limelight. However, they’re not to be taken lightly. This particular group is a rather stunning representation of what the movie – V For Vendetta tried to achieve.
“People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.”
This group is merciful when it comes to the innocent but absolutely ruthless when it comes to traitors. Not only have they taken down major government operations but have also exposed the bigotry and evils of the upper-classmen – the dark web and its uses in child porn operations, for instance.
They like to be called Anonymous.
The Identity Of Anonymous
It all began in 2003 on the 1st of October owing to an image-based bulletin board website called 4chan. The website posts nothing but absolutely random content. What makes this particular website stand out is the ability it gives its users to remain anonymous.
People can post anything and everything anonymously. However, unlike most social media pages which revel in its anonymity and become toxic after a point of time, 4chan mainly is just for memes mostly based on Japanese pop culture.
That’s how Anonymous was born.
Widely known for their various cyber attacks against several governments, government institutions and government agencies, corporations, and the Church of Scientology, Anonymous is a decentralized international activist and hacktivist collective and movement that do not have any political agenda of their own.
They are known to promote freedom of speech and take a stand against everything that is wrong in the world – censorship, government control, child abuse, racism, homophobia, corruption, and the list goes on.
The members of Anonymous are referred to as “Anons.” They distinguish themselves from the masses by wearing the Guy Fawkes mask. According to a celebrated commentator of comics Rich Johnston,
“The film of V for Vendetta ends with an image of a crowd of Londoners all wearing Guy Fawkes masks, unarmed and marching on parliament. It is that image of collective identification and simultaneous anonymity that is appealing to Anonymous and other groups.”
Hence, the mask. Apart from the mask, the anons camouflage their voice with the help of voice changers or text-to-speech programs thereby; nobody would ever know what they originally sound like.
Anonymous does not have a particular social media presence either.
However, almost a year back, a Redditor came forward and revealed himself to be the founder of Anonymous.
”I am Aubrey Cottle a.k.a. Kirtaner. I am the founder of the hacker collective “Anonymous”. Yes. Really. Ask me anything.”
Aubrey Cottle, also known as Kirtaner, is a Canadian hacker, computer security researcher, and software engineer. He came forward and revealed that he was the founder of Anonymous and urged the Redditors to ask him anything.
What’s actually surprising is that he replied to each and every question that was asked until he closed the option for commenting.
He ended his post with,
“FUCK SCIENTOLOGY, FUCK XENU, FUCK L. RON HUBBARD, FUCK DAVID MISCAVIGE, FUCK PETER THIEL, FUCK JEFF BEZOS, FUCK RUPERT MURDOCH, FUCK STEVE BANNON, FUCK ROBERT MERCER, FUCK MARK ZUCKERBERG, FUCK CHARLES KOCH’S ROTTING CORPSE, FUCK DAVID KOCH, FUCK FALUN GONG, FUCK NAZIS, FUCK TRUMP, FUCK THE DISINFORMATION PUMPING GOVERNMENT MACHINES, AND FUCK QANON.”
The philosophy that Anonymous live by has been stated by themselves,
“We [Anonymous] just happen to be a group of people on the Internet who need—just kind of an outlet to do as we wish, that we wouldn’t be able to do in regular society. …That’s more or less the point of it. Do as you wish. … There’s a common phrase: ‘we are doing it for the lulz.”
Read More: In Pics: Visuals From Ukraine As Russia Invades And Enters The Capital City Of Kyiv
Major Operations Of The Anonymous
The first time that Anonymous unleashed their cyber-attack was in 2008 on the Church of Scientology owing to their removal of a video that was made by Tom Cruise who was a Scientologist himself speaking about his religious beliefs.
The retaliation by Anonymous was known as Project Chanology. According to the Church, Tom Cruise was extolling the virtues of Scientology. Protests were held with 7000 people appearing in Guy Fawkes masks demanding the shutting down of the Church of Scientology.
In 2010, Anonymous was believed to be responsible for cyberattacks on Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal, after the financial services firms blocked donations to the controversial whistleblower WikiLeaks.Anonymous seemed to have a blast in the year 2011.
Not only did they launch a harangue against the Westboro Baptist Church known for its acute opposition to homosexuality, but also managed to sabotage Sony’s Playstation on grounds of Sony backtracking from providing a feature that had already been advertised. In that very year, Anonymous also went after the Egypt and Tunisia government websites.
In 2012, Anonymous shut down the website of the FBI and the Department of Justice owing to the ban of the popular file storage website Megaupload.
Over the span of almost 20 years, Anonymous has managed to shut down child pornography websites and recruit portals for the Islamic State. And the list goes on. To enlist everything that Anonymous has ever done is a book in its own right.
What Has Anonymous Planned For Russia?
When he revealed his identity as the founder of Anonymous, Cottle took to Reddit and shared,
“Anonymous has all walks of life. The most infamous is, obviously, the hacker type, but just as important are the ones that mobilize online and spread awareness, do research, and collaborate in that manner. If you have a voice, you can help Anonymous. I hope my next generation of hackers will tackle Privacy rights, big data, monolithic mega corporations owning everything about you and your life.”
In short, Anonymous is not to be taken lightly.
With the recent ensuing war between Russia and Ukraine, Anonymous has resurfaced. They have declared cyberwar against Russia.
“The Anonymous collective is officially in cyberwar against the Russian government,” Anonymous had tweeted.
The Kremlin, the Duma, and the Ministry of Defense – the Russian government’s websites, were all hit by the hacker collective’s ‘cyber attack.’
Now, Russia’s foreign intelligence has the most crucial information about almost every nation in the entire world. India has RAW, Russia has KGB. If Anonymous manages to expose the KGB database, it will wreak havoc and Russia will have to retreat.
All one needs to do now is wait. Will Anonymous be able to take down Russia where it’s merely a catalyst for deadlier destruction coming our way, or will this just be another tried but failed attempt?
Disclaimer: This post is fact-checked.
Image Sources: Google Images
Sources: The Guardian, The Indian Express, Times Now
Find the Blogger: @Rishita51265603
This post is tagged under Russia, Ukraine, Russia-Ukraine war, Anonymous, hacker group, activists, decentralized group, Guy Fawkes mask, V for Vendetta, cyber attacks, attacks against government, attacks against corporations, Church of Scientology, Tom Cruise, Extreme homophobia, child pornography, dark web, Russian intelligence exposed, KGB exposed, George Floyd, FBI website shutdown, Department of Justice website shut down
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