‘You do not fight Isis on the internet, you defeat them through unity instead of creating the division they want’
Anonymous has unexpectedly abandoned its notorious ‘war’ on Isis following Sunday’s tragic terror attack in Orlando.
The hacktivist group made the shock announcement on Twitter, when one of their principal accounts dismissed the seven-month digital feud as “silly”.
“You do not fight Isis on the internet,” @YourAnonNews posted, shortly after news broke of the Pulse nightclub shooting. “You defeat them through unity instead of creating the division they want”.
It’s worth noting that the account – which has 1.6 million followers – does not necessarily represent the whole organisation, so while it claims to have stopped fighting, much of Anonymous are still in battle with the militant group. @YourAnonNews, however, dismissed these members as “uncoordinated script kiddies trying to feel important in the world by doing 'something.'”
You do not fight ISIS on the internet, you defeat them through unity in stead of creating the division they want.
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) June 12, 2016
The feud was first announced in November 2015, when Anonymous posted a video online shortly after the Paris terror attacks. In it, a representative of the group declared its plans to “launch the biggest operation ever” against Isis. “Expect massive cyber attacks,” the masked man threatened. “War is declared. Get prepared.”
Since then, actual evidence of these attacks has been pretty scarce. Aside from one rumoured terror attack foil in Italy, the hacktivists seem to have kept a relatively low profile; opting for rickrolling, rubber duck mock-ups, and social media shutdowns. One faction of the group, known as Ghost Security, did eventually break away from the campaign to share their information with the federal government – though many members of Anonymous have been critical about this decision.
“Working with the government is deeply stupid because it allows for future infiltration regarding anti-government operations,” @YourAnonNews claimed at the time. “Only when anons will leak valuable information to the public and not to the government will we be in support of their actions.”
EDIT: The article was edited to acknowledge that @YourAnonNews does not speak for all Anonymous members