Activism · Politics

Panic Sets In As The Date For The Unmasking Of KKK Members Draws Near

November 3, 2015 by Samuel Warde No Comments

Anon-Panic-KKK

Panic seems to be spreading as day of reckoning for several politicians in the Ku Klux Klan draws nigh.

Monday’s news cycle was ablaze with conflicting reports regarding a list of politicians purportedly released by Anonymous allegedly linking them to the infamous Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

Early in the morning an individual claiming to be a member of Anonymous published a video and list claiming four United States Senators and four mayors were members of the KKK.

However, questions quickly began emerging regarding the authenticity of the list.

At 3:24pm EST, the Twitter account for Anonymous posted a reminder that: “Anyone can provide fake information when signing up to a website, reporters should be aware of this.”

At 4:40pm EST the Twitter account for Operation KKK posted that they would only vouch for information released from that specific account on November 5, 2015, coinciding with the Million Mask March on Thursday.

Then at pm EST the same Twitter posted a denial of any involvement with the earlier “release of information that incorrectly outed several politicians.”

As VOX reported later in the day, “The people who posted them seem to believe that anyone whose contact information is in a KKK database must be a KKK member,” adding: “Of course, this is ridiculous. For example, one person on the list suspects that her name was added by a man who had an ax to grind against her. The man has also been accused of submitting other enemies’ names to Klan mailing lists.”

So it seems abundantly clear that the so-called list published Monday was a hoax. The question that remains is exactly why someone would do such a thing.

Is it for attention? Possibly, but it is likely something more.

Given the gravity of the situation, it seems more likely that it was an attempt on the part of a person or persons to discredit Anonymous and their list of KKK members ahead of the release of those names – presumably this Thursday.

And quite frankly, there is cause for concern considering Anonymous’ record.

We normally don’t quote Wikipedia, but in this instance the provide an excellent overview of the hacktivists’ background:

Beginning with 2008’s Project Chanology—a series of protests, pranks, and hacks targeting the Church of Scientology—the Anonymous collective became increasingly associated with collaborative hacktivism on a number of issues internationally. Individuals claiming to align themselves with Anonymous undertook protests and other actions (including direct action) in retaliation against anti-digital piracy campaigns by motion picture and recording industry trade associations.

Later targets of Anonymous hacktivism included government agencies of the US, Israel, Tunisia, Uganda, and others; child pornography sites; copyright protection agencies; the Westboro Baptist Church; and corporations such as PayPal, MasterCard, Visa, and Sony. Anons have publicly supported WikiLeaks and the Occupy movement. Related groups LulzSec and Operation AntiSec carried out cyberattacks on US government agencies, media, video game companies, military contractors, military personnel, and police officers, resulting in the attention of law enforcement to the groups’ activities. Some actions by the group have been described as being anti-Zionist. It has threatened to erase Israel from the Internet and engaged in the “#OpIsrael” cyber-attacks of Israeli websites on Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) in 2013.

To be clear, we do not know the who or why behind yesterday’s hoax, but rest assured – things are going to get interesting later this week if/when Anonymous releases evidence of the involvement of several politicians in the Ku Klux Klan, as part of what the group is calling “OpKKK” or “OpHoodsOff.”

Samuel Warde
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