Only two business days after declaring war on the Islamic State for its role in Friday’s massacre in Paris, Anonymous is already working to get justice for the victims. The hacktivist collective has focused its efforts on degrading ISIS’ presence on Twitter, one of the terror network’s main recruitment tools. As of Wednesday night, that effort has shredded thousands of pro-ISIS Twitter accounts.
Anonymous vowed that ISIS would be the target of its “biggest operation ever,” and it doesn’t look like the collective is kidding. Within hours of the attacks, Anonymous set up an official Twitter account for the anti-ISIS push, “#OpParis.” It has also set up a database of ISIS accounts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media accounts called “OpIceISIS.” They’re even inviting the public to join in the fight.
https://twitter.com/opparisofficial/status/666735609390592000
The site was down–presumably hacked by pro-ISIS hackers–early on Wednesday night. However, you can view an archived version here.
Anonymous activists are reporting these accounts to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others in hopes that they will be shredded on sight. Coordinating and supporting terrorist activity is a blatant violation of the terms of service of all social media platforms. It looks like this effort is already getting results, based on a triumphant tweet sent out early Wednesday morning (Eastern time).
https://twitter.com/opparisofficial/status/666553008541552640
That may not seem like much on paper. But consider that a Brookings Institution study this past spring identified some 46,000 pro-ISIS accounts on Twitter. By my math, Anonymous has shredded the equivalent of 12 percent of that figure in just two business days.
You also have to consider that ISIS relies heavily on social media to recruit new members and spread its extremist agenda. Every account shredded makes it that much harder for ISIS to get more potential fighters on the field. As any student of history knows, once Napoleon and Adolf Hitler started running out of warm bodies for their armies, they were done. Every Twitter account that gets shredded does as much damage to ISIS as any coalition airstrike could do, and possibly more.
Twitter seems to be staying out of the way and letting Anonymous fight, unlike Facebook. You may recall that on Friday night, Facebook briefly deleted a group dedicated to exposing pro-ISIS social media accounts. This was a terrible mistake magnified by exceptionally bad timing. The deletion came just hours before the Paris massacre. Thankfully, the group was restored.
Remembering how past mass data dumps sometimes ensnared innocent people, Anonymous has started releasing a good chunk of its data to the press, in hopes that journalists will be able to verify the information. For instance, Anonymous believed it found the physical address of one of ISIS’ European recruiters. It asked The Independent, one of the UK’s biggest newspapers, to chase down the details.
The saying, “You play with a bull, you get the horns” definitely applies. ISIS has effectively called down the wrath of the entire civilized world with its cowardly attack on Paris. What Anonymous is doing is the manifestation of that wrath.
