Hacktivist group Anonymous has managed to take down more than 3,800 ISIS Twitter accounts in the wake of the Paris attacks.
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“After the attack on Charlie Hebdo in January, Anonymous posted a video that said it would attack terrorists in connection with the killings. Know that we will find you and we will never let up”. “We will launch the biggest operation ever against you”, the spokesperson continued, according to translated transcripts of the video. War is declared. Prepare yourselves.
Foreign Policy Magazine reported that Anonymous’ conflict with ISIS has been going on even before the attacks in France, but Charlie Hebdo incident became the tipping point.
It later boasted about shutting down a French website associated with extremists and helping get 1,500 IS-supporting Twitter and Facebook accounts off line.
This is not the first call to action against ISIS made by the group of hacker-activist collective. (Daesh is a lesser-known name for ISIS.) “We won’t stop opposing #IslamicState“.
The terrorist group recently posted a message encouraging its followers to download the app, which allows users to set messages to self-destruct after a period of time. In a recent tweet, the hackers stated they’ve identified over 2000 pro-ISIS Twitter accounts.
“Anonymous, while itself something of a vigilante organization, can pick enemies we also see as enemies, but they tend to knee-jerk reactions that might have unintended consequences”, Gewirtz said.
Over the past few months ISIS has extensively used modern communication tools, particularly social media, to spread its ideology.
They had announced that they were no friends of the ISIS and the real battle began in June previous year when one of their accounts was taken over by a sympathizer of the ISIS.
GSG claimed it “did detect several indicators of an attack impending and are now in the process of collecting valuable evidence for United States government officials”.
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After a group of terrorists left 129 people dead in coordinated attacks in Paris, Anonymous has mobilized and moved beyond its usual targets of social media accounts. They emerged on the scene in 2003 and have been responsible for pranks, protests and hacks.
