Anonymous Hacks Westboro Baptist Church Facebook Page? Not Exactly
In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, the internet has been hopeful Anonymous would step up to the plate and again retaliate against real-life trolling organization the Westboro Baptist Church, a group that predictably and immediately announced an intention to harass the grieving residents of Boston with their universally unwelcome presence — but did Anonymous also hack the Westboro Baptist Church Facebook page?
Few American entities are as despised as the Westboro Baptist Church, a group that has made a name for itself by visiting and protesting the funerals of murdered children, soldiers, victims of attacks and others who died in notable and unusually sad circumstances — and when it was revealed they’d thanked God for the carnage in Boston and planned to visit with their messages of hate, Anonymous was implored to intervene. Late last night, it was reported that Anonymous had commandeered and defaced the WBC’s Facebook page.
Like the uncontrollable anti-heroes the internet has come to believe them to be, Anonymous addressed the Westboro Baptist Church issue with haste. The response echoed the one seen in December, when the group harassed and threatened the grieving families of Newtown, Connecticut and sparked fury by indicating an intent to picket the funerals of the slain Sandy Hook students.
But as for hacking the Westboro Baptist Church Facebook page? Not exactly. According to Mother Jones, initial reports that the WBC Facebook had been taken over by Anonymous to spread messages of love (and trolling) in the wake of the WBC threats to picket Boston were not precisely accurate.
What actually appears to have happened is that Anons have created a parody page, on which they counteract the Westboro Baptist Church’s terrible messages with counter pics of Martin Luther King, Jr. and some memes, and the spoof page managed to impress upon some Twitter users that a successful Facebook hack had been carried off — when that was never the intent.
MoJo explains:
“Earlier today, people on Twitter reported that Anonymous members had apparently hacked WBC’s Facebook account, rewriting bio information and plastering its wall with an assortment of meme-heavy images. Well, it turns out that they, and I, were a little too excited at the possibility. It looks like Anonymous members have been engaged in the brandjacking (read: squatting) of the (bogus) Westboro Baptist Church page for the past four months.”
Either way, internet citizens can take comfort in the fact that however they are doing it, some Anonymous factions are trolling the pants off the evil Westboro Baptist Church, an action we believe everyone can get behind.
