Anonymous Declares December 11 ‘ISIS Trolling Day’—and They Want Your Help

Image via (cc) flickr user Brian Klug

Ever wanted to join up with a nebulous confederation of nameless, faceless hackers, and contribute to an ongoing cyber war against a violent religious extremist network, but never had quite enough motivation to actually do your part?

You’re in luck!

Anarchic hacktivist collective Anonymous has declared Friday, December 11 “Trolling Day” against ISIS and are asking for the public’s help in making the internet as unfriendly a place as possible for members of the terrorist group, no expert computer knowledge necessary. In fact, all a person needs to do in order to take part in the group’s latest operation is to simply get online and act like a complete jerk.

Dubbing the effort “#TrollingDay,” Anonymous has put out a call to anyone interested in taking the wind out of ISIS’s sails online, writing in a ghostbin post: “We ask you to show your support and help against ISIS by joining us and trolling them // Do not think you have to be apart [sic] of Anonymous, anyone can do this and does not require any special skills.”

To that end, the group asks that any and everyone take to their social media platform(s) of choice, and spend the day doing things like posting pictures that mock the terrorist group, referring to ISIS using the contested “Daesh” moniker (specifically, with the “#Daeshbags” hashtag), reporting any suspected ISIS-affiliated accounts, and generally being a total troll, all in a grassroots effort to “mock [ISIS] for the idiots they are.”

The group writes:

You may be wondering why we are "trolling" Isis and planning all these demonstrations against Isis. But to understand that you must first see how Isis works. They thrive off of fear they hope that by their actions they can silence all of us and get us to just lay low and hide in fear. But what many forget and even they do is that there are many more people in the world against them than for them. And that is the goal of this mass uprising, on December 11th we will show them that we are not afraid,we will not just hide in our fear, we are the majority and with our strength in numbers we can make a real difference. We will mock them for the idiots they are. We will show them what they really are they do not stand for a religion, they do not stand for a god, they are brainwashers teaching from the young to the old their propaganda against the "west" when in reality they are just increasing the distance between countries by giving many a bad name. But we see behind their persona, we see them for who they really are. And we hope to see you all brothers and sisters on December 11th.

The effort comes as part of—or, at least, running alongside—Anonymous’s ongoing #OpParis, which has already seen the group target, and take down, a number of ISIS-associated social media accounts and websites. Similarly, it seems to be taking a page out of the 4Chan-led initiative to mock ISIS with pictures of rubber bath ducks. Unlike those cyber crusades, however, this latest action includes a number of off-line outlets for ISIS trolling, with in-person demonstrations planned for cities across North and Central America, as well as Europe.

“As we join together and show who we are,what we are and what we stand for,” explain the anonymous Anonymous organizers behind the event, “I will not see you on December 11th for I am not a person, but an idea of love and peace and we will show them that we will prevail after all their horrors for they do not have any control on us. Please show others and support us on the 11th..... It will be a day they never forget.”

[via digitaltrends]