Anonymous, the hacker group better known for their attacks on large corporations, responded instantly, publishing names, street addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, employers, SSN numbers and bank details of key church members across the internet. They identified a number of websites owned and run by the church and shut them down. They released the following chilling video.
We will render you obsolete. We will destroy you.
We are coming.
We are coming.
Now normally I'm no supporter of this kind of action. I believe in free speech, and to be honest the idea of someone's SSN or bank details being broadcast over the net leaves me decidedly uncomfortable in all circumstances except this one. This action I support wholeheartedly.
Anonymous hacktivists have hijacked twitter accounts belonging to key members of the church and have threatened a full-on war of attrition. Follow the hashtag #OpWestBoro to follow events as they happen.
Westboro Baptist Church has had this coming for a long, long time. These people are cultists; there is no communicating rationally with them on any level. Their actions are hateful, spiteful and downright abhorrent. They invade the most personal, private and traumatic moments of people's lives and turn them into a public spectacle. They thrive on conflict and - like children - it seems that any attention is good attention.
Well let's see how they like this attention.
Anonymous are also fighting WBC on a legal front, opening two White House petitions: the first to investigate Westboro's Tax Exempt Status, the second to revoke their claims to be a religious organisation and officially recognise WBC as a hate group.I urge you, if you're eligible, sign them both.
It is time this nasty little organisation was brought to book. Sometimes you have to be Anonymous to do the right thing.
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Kate Aaron is the bestselling author of contemporary and fantasy gay romances.
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I have to say I feel exactly the same. I generally frown on "doxing" someone - but these people don't seem to respond to any other method of communication.
ReplyDeleteI've never rooted for hackers before now. Those people are disgusting--no scratch that--they left disgusting in their rearview mirror years ago. I can't imagine what the parents of those children must be going through. The last thing they need is for these sick and depraved people picketing outside as they prepare to bury their kids.
ReplyDeleteI support what Anonymous is doing to Westboro. What Westboro is doing isn't free speech. Milton clearly stated that urging people to action against another person/group is not free speech (WBC has "Kill the Fags" signs - which can't be any clearer as a spur to action). I'm surprised this group hasn't been stopped through legal means already. Sure, people are allowed to state their opinions through free speech, but isn't there any law in America about discrimination? Or does LGBT not fall under that law?
ReplyDeleteSadly in a lot of states LGBT people are not considered protected minorities as they are in the UK, making it perfectly legal to, for example, dismiss an employee solely for being gay.
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