A group of hackers claims to have stolen Disney’s internal chat logs and dumped them on the internet, in a protest against the entertainment giant’s treatment of human artists in an age of AI-generated art. First published in full last week, the hacked data totals more than a terabyte, and includes discussions about unreleased projects, studio technology, and more.

Calling themselves NullBulge, the self-proclaimed hacktivists’ mission is “protecting artists’ rights and ensuring fair compensation for their work”. According to a statement on the hack (via the Wall Street Journal) it selects its targets based on a mix of social, economic, and political factors. Apparently, it chose Disney “due to how it handles artist contracts, its approach to AI, and it’s [sic] pretty blatant disregard for the consumer”.

Disney has been using AI to supplement human-created artworks for many years, and in 2023 it launched a dedicated task force to explore cost-cutting AI tech that could be implemented across all areas of the entertainment conglomerate. This is despite wide backlash against AI in the creative industries, which has been supported by artists, animators, writers, and actors alike.

The data was allegedly stolen by NullBulge from Disney’s Slack archive, including every message and file from almost 10,000 channels. We’re picturing a lot of Goofy and Princess Elsa roleplay, but the chat logs also include employee conversations, login credentials, and raw images and code that appear to be legitimate.

NullBulge claims to have accessed the Disney Slack via an “inside man” who eventually “got cold feet” and kicked the group out. It has publicly named a manager of software development at Disney on its website, but it’s unclear whether he was knowingly involved in the hack, or to what extent. NullBulge has hinted that it initially compromised his computer via a Trojan horse virus in a video game add-on.

In the wake of the hack, a spokesperson for Disney told the Wall Street Journal that the company “is investigating this matter”.

NullBulge lists a sort of manifesto on its website, alongside its logo: an anthropomorphised lion with a bulging crotch, covered in blue slime... It says that it only hacks people who have committed one of its “sins”. These include the use of AI-generated artwork, which it says “harms the creative industry and should be discouraged”. The other two “sins” are crypto promotion, and any form of theft from artists or the platforms that support them, like Patreon.

The group – if it is, in fact, a group and not just one person acting alone – says that it published the Disney data because it would have been pointless to make any behind-the-scenes demands or hold it for ransom. “If we said ‘Hello Disney, we have all your Slack data’ they would instantly lock down and try to take us out,” it says. “In a duel, you better fire first.”