Cyber activists associated with Anonymous have issued an official communiqué in response to an ongoing international crackdown against the collective.
The communiqué also addresses recent statements made by deputy assistant FBI director Steve Chabinsky.
“We want to send a message that chaos on the Internet is unacceptable,” Chabinsky told NPR on July 20th.
“[Even if] hackers can be believed to have social causes, it’s entirely unacceptable to break into websites and commit unlawful acts.”
Anonymous countered Chabinsky’s statements by listing what it found unacceptable, beginning with “governments lying to their citizens and inducing fear and terror” to keep them in control by dismantling their freedom piece by piece.
The hacker group also singled out corporations “aiding and conspiring with said governments,” while simultaneously lobbying and collecting billions of funds for federal contracts they can’t fulfill.
“These governments and corporations are our enemy. And we will continue to fight them, with all methods we have at our disposal, and that certainly includes breaking into their websites and exposing their lies,” the group continued.
“We are not scared any more. Your threats to arrest us are meaningless to us [because] you cannot arrest an idea. Any attempt to do so will make your citizens more angry until they will roar in one gigantic choir. It is our mission to help these people and there is nothing – absolutely nothing – you can possibly do to make us stop.”
Anonymous also noted that the Internet has always been the Wild Wild West, with the government exercising limited control over the digital frontier.
“[Still], that does not mean that everyone behaves like an outlaw. You see, most people do not behave like bandits if they have no reason to.
“We become bandits on the Internet because you have forced our hand. The Anonymous bitchslap rings through your ears like hacktivism movements of the 90s. We’re back – and we’re not going anywhere. Expect us.”
