Anonymous Begins Spamming Verified ISIS Hashtags With Rickrolls

By John Vibes

This week, Anonymous is continuing their war on ISIS with a plan to spam their online hashtags with “rickroll” videos, the music video from Rick Astley 1987 hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up.” The “rickroll” meme was started on 4chan in 2007 and has been a favorite of the Internet ever since.

Following the terrorist attacks in Paris earlier this month, Anonymous declared war on ISIS and began taking down their Twitter accounts. As we reported last week, the group took down over 5,500 Twitter accounts that were associated with ISIS.

The new operation will undoubtedly cause disruptions in ISIS communications and their ability to spread information to their supporters. When keeping up with new Anonymous operations it is important to make sure that the information you are looking at is from one of their primary Twitter accounts. There have been multiple false Anonymous accounts that have been used to spread disinformation. Just this week a story about a fake ISIS threat came from a false account, and was later renounced by representatives of Anonymous.

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Anonymous has also seen a rival group of hackers come on the scene this week. A group calling itself “Ghost Security Group” has broke off from Anonymous and is saying that they will also be fighting against ISIS.

The group said in a statement to the BBC this week that “They [Anonymous] don’t have any counterterrorism experience whatsoever. We felt that not enough was being done and the Charlie Hebdo attack made it clear that ISIS was not confined to the Middle East.”

Anonymous has become a strong force of social change as they have grown in recent years and learned to focus their many skills and resources towards efforts of peace and empowerment. Affiliation with Anonymous is extremely risky as a result, as we have seen hacktivists like Jeremy Hammond and journalists like Barrett Brown receive steep prison sentences due to their involvement with the group.

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John Vibes is an author and researcher who organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference. He also has a publishing company where he offers a censorship free platform for both fiction and non-fiction writers. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his Facebook page. You can purchase his books, or get your own book published at his website www.JohnVibes.com.