Justice

Hackers Troll ISIS In Day of Online Activism

December 11th 2015

Online activists are taking Friday to counter terrorism and fear with crude absurdity by lobbing insults and memes toward members of the so-called Islamic State and their online supporters.

The occasion, referred to on social media with the hashtag #ISISTrollingDay, was organized earlier in the week by users associating themselves with the online hacker-activist collective Anonymous.

Related: Anonymous Is Inviting You to International ISIS Trolling Day

Twitter accounts associated with the decentralized group announced plans to mock the Islamic State online earlier in the week, encouraging anyone to take part by posting offensive, doctored imagery of IS militants. Common riffs include photoshopping pictures of rubber ducks onto the heads of militants and replacing their weapons with toilet bowl cleaners.

Others joked around with terminology and rote phrases repeated in discussions surrounding the group.

Related: Anonymous Just Declared War on Donald Trump

Still, others ranged from light-hearted to crude to adolescent.

Related: Here Are Donald Trump's Properties in Muslim Countries

Hackers going on the offensive against the group have done so under the banner of Anonymous in recent weeks. Following the Paris attacks in November, users targeted thousands of social media accounts allegedly operated by IS members and sympathizers, either reporting them or shutting them down.

Hackers operating as Anonymous also targeted another source of what they see as hatred and divisiveness: 2016 presidential candidate Donald J Trump. In response to the candidate's proposed across-the-board ban on Muslims entering the U.S., hackers took down one of Trump's websites using a distributed denial of service attack. The offensive was referred to as "OpTrump" in a video posted on Anonymous Twitter accounts.

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