Online ‘Hacktavist’ group who call themselves Anonymous have declared war on terrorist group Islamic State, or ISIS. This emerged just 24 hours after a huge terrorist attack on Paris on Friday the 12^th of November, which claimed the lives of 129 people. The group began action against Isis following the Charlie Hebo attacks in January of this year.

Anonymous are a 12-year old virtual community that have been linked to hacks on everything from the government of Zimbabwe ad Bay Area Rapid Transit, to Visa, Mastercard and the Federal Reserve. They have proven to be plenty capable of following through with their threats. They have also dismantled 149 Islamic State websites so far this year.

In the video above Anonymous threatens Isis with “massive cyberattacks”, uniting humanity using hacking to weaken the terrorist group in an operation named “Operation Isis.”

" We will launch the biggest operation ever against you.

Expect massive cyberattacks"

"War is declared. Get prepared"

"The French people are stronger than you and will come out of this atrocity even stronger"

The online disruption caused by Anonymous attacks could serve to not only embarrass Isis by publishing evidence of hypocrisy amongst its leaders, but destroy their attempts at recruiting all over the world. Isis pitches its radical Islamist messages through email, web chat, Skype calls and YouTube videos, and more recently it promoted a mobile messaging app called Telegram.

The attacks began with Anonymous leaking the twitter profiles and personal information of suspected extremists, resulting in over 5,500 twitter accounts being taken down just 24 hours after the attack was launched. This number has almost doubled with a total of 10,000 twitter accounts being taken down since the launch.

However, this ‘war’ has not gone without criticisms, as some say this may actually cause Isis to become more tech savvy, increasing their understanding of the online world in order to develop their online security, making the authorities to combat this growing issue.

Griffin, A (2015)’Paris attack: Anonymous launches ‘biggest operation ever’ against Isis’. The Independent. November 16. Available: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/paris-attacks-anonymous-launches-its-biggest-operation-ever-against-isis-promises-to-hunt-down-a6735811.html

Mann, T (2015) ‘Who are Anonymous? All you need to know about the ‘hacktavist’ group that declared war on Isis over Paris attacks.’ Metro Online. November 17. Available: http://metro.co.uk/2015/11/17/who-are-anonymous-all-you-need-to-know-about-hacktivist-group-that-declared-war-on-isis-over-paris-attacks-5507438/

Syrmopolos, J (2015) Anonymous takes down 5,500 ISIS accounts – 24 hours after ISIS called them “idiots”. The Free Thoughts Project. Available: http://thefreethoughtproject.com/opparis-anonymous-takes-5500-isis-twitter-accounts-24-hours/