In revenge for the Charlie Hebdo massacre, the Anonymous hackers declared war on Al Qaeda and jihadist websites.
The Belgian hackers posted a video online addressed to “al Qaida, the Islamic State and other terrorists.”
In the video, which was uploaded to the hacking group’s YouTube account, a man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask and a hood says in a distorted French voice, “We are declaring war against you, the terrorists.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1sCVOG9BF8
In declaring cyber war against jihadist groups, Anonymous said it would protect free speech from “obscurantism and mysticism.” The hackers expressed their disgust at the “cowardly and despicable acts,” and offered their condolences to the families of the murdered victims and said it was now their duty to react.
“Disgusted and also shocked, we can’t fall down, it is our responsibility to react. Expect a massive reaction from us.”
The hacker in the video said that the group will track down and close all accounts on social networks related to suspected terrorists. As part of the hackers’ war against jihadists, they have created a Twitter account and asked its followers to report Twitter accounts of suspected terrorists. The hackers have already collected more than 100 accounts on Twitter to target.
Do you want to help us? Find terrorists twitter profiles, report them. #No2IS #JeSuisCharlie #OpCharlieHebdo #CharlieHebdo #StopDonkyLovers
— OpCharlieHebdo (@OpCharlieHebdo) January 9, 2015
The hackers have already taken responsibility for bringing down Ansar-Alhaqq.net with a distributed denial of-service attack. The religious website is published in French and Arabic and flies the Islamic State flag.
#TangoDown : http://t.co/rHJrjTZ8mA Expect us. #JeSuisCharlie #OpCharlieHebdo #CharlieHebdo pic.twitter.com/RK7gBWr8QS
— OpCharlieHebdo (@OpCharlieHebdo) January 10, 2015
The mysterious hacking group that have declared war on Al Qaeda have previously been linked to online attacks around the world aimed at targeting governments for policies of which the hackers disapprove.
Speaking to the New York Daily News , Gabriella Coleman, a professor at Montreal’s McGill University, said that the jihadists are a typical enemy of the hacking group.
“It was wholly unsurprising that Anonymous launched #OpCharlieHebdo as censorship is one of the only core issues to continually garner their attention.”
It is not exactly clear how many members are operating in Anonymous or the identity of the figure in the video. The hackers are a capable outfit previously responsible for hacking websites belonging to government departments, companies, and large organizations.
The hackers have declared war, and their message is loud and clear, “We will find you.”