Author: Vishwa Shah United World School of Law, Gandhinagar
“Truth never damages a cause that is just.” – Gandhi.
The world we reside in is a community – a force of the human race living in unity from various parts of the world belonging to different diversities and systems of belief. We belong to two types of community – An Online as well as an Offline Community. The Online platform of technology has connected the strings and linked up the progress.
The Online communication system with the worldwide platform has always led to various outcomes both positive and negative. Users from around the world share their personal identity, likes, dislikes by following various mediums. With the advent of time, the technology has evolved and given birth to various antagonist users such that time and again many users have encountered fake identity accounts and hacking of personal accounts and verified users.
Hacking has now become an easy-going activity for smart intellectuals, cyber hacking has two outlooks: Ethical and Non-ethical hacking. Then comes a community, hacking users get under cover and hack the most secure and complex websites in the world for social interest and uniting people in movements to boycott the government institutions and non-governmental organisations and the confidential information which is dangerous for the society. That movement is carried on by the “Anonymous” group of hackers i.e., the identity of these group members is not known and time and again they come up when there is social distress, they work together to showcase the truth.
The group of computer hackers is believed to have been created at the start of the millennium on the back of 4chan, a then-growing hackers forum, and where posts from those who are without a profile appear as ‘Anonymous’.
The book and film ‘V for Vendetta’ inspired the Guy Fawkes masks which have become a clear symbol of the group that is believed to comprise of around 1,000 members.[1]
The target practice of the group is to eliminate corruption, hypocrisy and to take down organisations with coercive actions by making it public. The group members are masked individuals keeping their identity intact and making videos with manipulated electronic devices.
Anonymous are a group of individuals from all over the world bound to expose people for people with no other intent but harmony and solidarity for making peace and keeping the government and non-government groups under control. They repeatedly address themselves as a “We are Legion. Expect us.”
The group came to global attention first in 2003 when unknown users were tagged as anonymous on 4chan’s board and soon came to light by raiding websites of Habbo Hotel.
The decentralized organisation again dropped its light in 2004 by using Encyclopaedia Dramatica and took action against communities that support Anti-piracy acts.
In 2008, they again came to light when they believed the Church of Scientology was spreading misinformation about Scientology using internet censorship. Anonymous used Google bombing by linking the word Scientology to “cult or dangerous” so, that searching Scientology in Google would produce misleading and wayward results. One propaganda video was posted on YouTube for which the Church sued the video website. Anonymous responded with a video of their own which generated 4.6 million views. [2]
In 2011, it targeted Dark Discovery and Cybergate, the issue of Dark Discovery was that it was a hidden darknet guiding many underground websites to conduct illegal activities like the child pornography websites, it brought it down by publishing the thousands of members of the website which paedophiles use frequently. Anonymous has proved that it is ready to go to any extent even where law officers cannot successfully get their job done.
No injustice or malpractices can be kept hidden for a longer time and the legion of anonymous stands by its words to do so.
Again in 2011, Anonymous gave it back when HB Gary Federal’s CEO Aaron Barr claimed that his cybersecurity firm had succeeded in infiltrating Anonymous and would post details about the members publicly at a conference which did not sit well with Anonymous, who showed them it is not wise to put one’s hand in a snake’s hole. [3]
They hacked his website by their own logo to spread the message that anyone should think twice before landing onto any such activities or messing with them. The legion hacked their phones and email accounts as well.
In 2012, when the FBI shut down MegaUpload for infringing copyright, Anonymous went to take back the action by shutting down Motion Picture Association’s websites.
In 2015, Anonymous legion was found more active, powerful and commanding by throwing a spotlight on major events starting from Donald Trump’s website hack when he addressed in a public meeting that he wants the Muslim community to be barred from the United States. Anonymous took down his website for an hour and started releasing a video that trump should think before he speaks.
Again in the same consequent year, they hijacked the website of WTO by the help of a confidential hacker who was involved in hijacking Israeli Arms Dealers and claimed to work with Anonymous and also claimed to hack the website of WTO and its major members through their domain and leaked the data of many members including their phone numbers, email addresses, IP addresses etc.
With a last breakthrough in the following year, Anonymous brought down the website of ISIS, a terrorist organisation by representing an ad and slamming the organisation for its work saying that they cannot move in the dark web in order to evade authorities, for they do not have any jurisdiction to evade the Anonymous.
For a couple of years, Anonymous went silent and resurfaced again after the saddening incident of George Floyd’s death by the Minneapolis Department adding to the conviction for murdering and man slaughtering at the hands of police officers.
The hacker group brewed up again after years of being invisible when the protests of Black Lives Matter, toppled up in every state of America. The protests led to a worldwide message of equality and justice for black people living in America and serving the United States, crowds in heavy amount came to streets and a bill was passed by the government for equality amongst all the citizens. The discrimination of whites as superiors have always hampered the mentality of citizens towards each other rather than living peacefully without any biasness, looking to which the legion posted a video message that they will slam the Minneapolis Department for their wrongdoings and would not spare any officer conducting any corruption or killing any citizen by taking the law in their own hands, the message stated that the legion takes a stand against the abuse of the African-American citizens by the responsible authorities in the United States.
By far and large, Anonymous is an applaudable community working at ground level without any intention of harming anyone but supporting the community to restore the values in righteousness and faith into the government system of any country in the world.
Anonymous is silently watching over any wrong conducted by any organisation and putting down as well as smashing the most secure organisations. We can always say that the Legion is a ray of hope for many people. It has a way of righteousness even though by taking measures that might not be supported by law.
This organisation can bring a change to the community and being a part of the society we should all take a note that any work done for the people or by the people should be more transparent as well as granting a bright future for generations to come.
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