Why we on @AnonNewsSwe do not support #OpCharlieHebdo.
Early this morning (Saturday) one of us on @AnonNewsSwe woke up to a message from another activist within Anonymous. The message told that SVT (Sveriges Television, the Swedish national public TV broadcaster; translator’s note) had published an article* on its front page stating that Anonymous declared war against the Islamic State. A war as an act of revenge for those killed by alleged terrorists in Paris the recent days. This made us on @AnonNewsSwe initially very confused and after a little research also quite dubious about this operation as a whole. We quickly wrote on twitter that we do not support the operation* and since this raised a lot of questions we now release these following paragraphs to explain why we have chosen this approach.
► TL;DR:
1. There is already an ongoing, well established and militant cyber-operation against IS
2. The OP-video threatens IS and Al-Qaeda with physical violence
3. The OP’s followers are acting naive
4. The operation is riding on a wave of xenophobia
► Longer description related to the points listed above:
1. We have been in a constant war with IS for a long time, but not for the revenge of cartoonist, but for all people’s freedom and to help those fleeing the Islamic state of terror in the region of the Levant. Similar operations with good organizers and with clear objectives have tried to help the Kurds’ struggle against the IS.
2. In the OP-video that SVT enclose in their article, the people behind the operation threaten to locate the terrorists and kill them. This is both an absurd and crazy assertion that contradicts how Anonymous works. There is a large consensus within Anonymous on the method of nonviolence, and this is something we can’t stress enough. If you have to use violence to convince other people about how good your opinions are, Anonymous is most likely the wrong platform for your activism. We at AnonNewsSwe is outraged that the video has received so much media attention and are surprised that not more activists have distanced themselves from this video solely because of the death threats.
3. The creators of the OP-video in question is neither realistic or credible in their assertions and goals. On one hand they say they want to defend the absolute freedom of expression and therefore avenge those who were silenced, but on the other hand they say they want to persecute and kill other people and shut down all their information channels. The rhetorics used here is alarmingly similar to what the alleged terrorists themselves use.
4. The OP-video and a large part of its sympathizers seem to choose to immensely generalize and simplify the world. It is not yet clear whether it is a terrorist group that is behind the deeds, and in such cases what group. Yet, the OP-video for #OpCharlieHebdo is pointing out the IS and Al Qaeda as responsible for the crimes. This unwarranted assertion without foundation is made contemporaneously while the hashtag #KillAllMuslims flares up on twitter, all while we in our own country can see how mosques are attacked with firebombs. (Happening late December and early January in Sweden*; translator’s note), It is important to remember that the IS and Al-Qaeda are competitors since the day Al-Qaeda threw out IS because they were too radical. The fact that the people behind the OP-video does not seem to understand this, but instead blames both groups for the terrorist attack and ought to kill both groups shows great lack of knowledge. There are plenty of examples when Anonymous acted improperly internally making operations unsuccessful, and when that happens it’s important the other parts of this collective stands up and shows its criticism. This operation has already been abused by racists in the form of hacked Muslim websites and we are afraid that a continuing of this operation could add to the already growing Islamophobia even more.
The attack in Paris is a terrible act of violence and an affront to open society. The intention to fight IS and Al-Qaeda is great, but the approaches and motivations presented in this operation-video seems to be highly questionable.
Signed, @AnonNewsSwe, one of the voices and news channels from Anonymous.
https://www.cyberguerrilla.org/paste/?0a72a0271f676e54…
ONE TRU ANONYMOUS WILL STAND SIDE BY SIDE WHIT THEM IN CHARLIE SCAM BY CIA + MOSSAD?
