– A message from Anonymous and friends
— Anonymous ()
ISIS is small state that brutally censors visiting journalists and its own people. As such it must be opposed. The question is in what manner should it be opposed.
We think it’s great if people want to hack ISIS and publish their secrets. But engaging in social media censorship campaigns and dealing with intelligence contractors and government agents is deeply stupid. The former will contribute to legitimize the spread of internet censorship and will lead to the increased censorship for everyone, including Anonymous. Dealing with government agents et al will not only result in many more informers in Anonymous bu twill also damage its reputation as it will lead to a view that Anonymous is too close to US intelligence interests.
The same intelligence industry that runs their own NSA hacker operations against ISIS uses the same counter-terrorism justification to spy on everyday civilians with no regards for rights to privacy, encryption, or anonymity. They have always targeted Anonymous and other dissident groups as terrorists, and when they aren’t trying to discredit or imprison us, they are attempting to co-opt us – sometimes openly by attending conferences like DEFCON, seducing us with promises of money or calls for patriotic duty, other times covertly lurking around IRC channels attempting to steer us unwittingly into supporting their agenda.
We would like to strongly advise – while we cannot speak for the whole of Anonymous – to always release information to the public, as we want to operate in its interest. Any attempts to act in secrecy, supporting political or governmental organizations, will be discouraged by us or completely ignored to safeguard our allies and supporters fighting for openness and transparency within governments, dictatorships and organizations around the globe that control various aspects of our lives.
We are on the side of the oppressed, not the oppressors. We support the victims of war, not the war-makers.
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