Anonymous Hacks Pro-ISIS Twitter Accounts, Infusing Them With Gay Pride, Porn
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- The hacker-activist group known as Anonymous has hacked into dozens of pro-Islamic State Twitter accounts and infused them with gay pride and gay pornography following the Orlando mass shooting.
While San Francisco-based Twitter did not admit that the accounts were hacked, images of the hacked accounts and the Twitter account responsible for the hacking suggest otherwise.
A Twitter spokesperson told CBS San Francisco on Wednesday:
"We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service. Since the middle of 2015 alone, we've suspended over 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, primarily related to ISIS."
Anonymous hacker @WauchulaGhost has been hacking pro-Islamic State accounts since at least March 2016, but possibly earlier. Around June 7th the @WauchulaGhost account was posting pornography-related images and slogans such as "I love porn" and Anonymous to pro-ISIS accounts.
The Anonymous hacker, or group of hackers, claimed on June 10th to have hacked into about 1,500 pro-ISIS, or Daesh, Twitter accounts and posted pornographic material. Anonymous also frequently tweets the pro-ISIS accounts' IP addresses, which included users in Turkey, the United Kingdom, Iraq, Jordan, Oman and elsewhere.
On June 12th, the hacker account @WauchulaGhost said that Twitter had deleted the accounts after they were hacked into and altered by Anonymous.
Following the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida over the weekend -- which law enforcement are investigating as potentially ISIS-linked -- the Anonymous hacker started to infiltrate pro-ISIS accounts and then post images of rainbow flags, non-graphic gay pornography and slogans such as "I'm gay and I'm proud."
Omar Mateen, the suspect in the Orlando attack which left 49 dead and another 53 people injured, called police prior to the deadly shooting rampage and pledged allegiance to ISIS.
The pro-ISIS accounts that were hacked were all renamed "Jacked by a Ghost" and most linked to CIA.gov. While some of the hacked accounts have been suspended, some still exist.
At 4:24 p.m. PST on Wednesday, the Anonymous hacker Twitter account appeared to still be at it, tweeting its successful takeover of the Twitter account @islamsunna111, with an IP address in Oman, and peppering that account with slogans such as "Make love, not war" and "#MoreSex #LessDeath #ISIS #ISIL #IslamicState."
By Hannah Albarazi - Follow her on Twitter: @hannahalbarazi.
