Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Just days after “declaring war” on al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and other terror groups in retaliation for the attacks on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, hackers claiming to be affiliated with the Anonymous collective have reportedly taken down a jihadist website.
According to CNN, the French jihadist site ansar-alhaqq.net was re-directed to take visitors to the search engine Duck Duck Go. Hackers using the @OpCharlieHebdo Twitter handle claimed responsibility for the attacks, and Anonymous has also released dozens of social media accounts reportedly belonging to jihadists on the website Pastebin.
The attacks come after the hacking group posted a YouTube video in which they said that they would track down and target websites and social media accounts linked to terrorists, the website added. They also promised to avenge the deaths of last week’s terror attacks in France.
BBC News reported on Friday that the video was uploaded to the Anonymous YouTube account in Belgium, and that the short film featured a masked and hooded figure that spoke in French and with a distorted voice. In it, the person said, “We are declaring war against you, the terrorists.”
A total of 12 individuals, including the editor of the magazine and eight journalists, were killed in the attacks last Wednesday. Two days later, two brothers believed to have been responsible for the shooting were killed in an assault at a warehouse located north of Paris.
A hostage held by those two brothers was freed and was not harmed, but four hostages were killed at another hostage situation at a Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris at the same time, the British news organization added. A fifth person, identified as the captor, was also killed.
The three hostage-takers were said to be working together to some degree, and police are still on the lookout for a fourth individual – a 26-year-old woman identified as Hayat Boumeddiene – in connection with the attack. Media reports indicate that Boumeddiene has likely fled to Syria.
Now Anonymous has gotten involved, and according to The Telegraph, members of the group posted a Pastebin entitled “a message to the enemies of freedom of expression.” In the message, they offered condolences to “the families of the victims of this cowardly and despicable act” and said that it was their “duty” to respond to an “inhuman assault” against “freedom of expression.”
However, as BBC News pointed out, some critics believe that the attacks may do harm than good, since intelligence agencies often used online activity to monitor the activity of such groups. Forcing them offline could cause jihadists to use alternate forms of communication that cannot be so easily monitored by security officials.
“The attack on Charlie Hebdo has prompted an outpouring of solidarity, sparking some news organizations to republish the magazine’s most controversial cartoons – including of the Prophet Mohammed,” CNN’s David Goldman and Mark Thompson said.
On Sunday, millions of men and women, as well as more than 40 leaders from all over the world, marched in an anti-terrorism rally in Paris. The French Mission to the United Nations called the gathering was the largest in the country’s history.
—–
Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.
Comments