‘Operation SOTU’: Anonymous Vows to Hack State of the Union

Posted on Feb 12, 2013

Ben Fredericson (xjrlokix) (CC BY 2.0)

The hacktivist collective known as Anonymous says it’s planning to block all live streams of President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night. The group has also pledged to bombard the event’s hashtag with protest tweets.

“We reject the State of the Union. We reject the authority of the President to sign arbitrary orders and bring irresponsible and damaging controls to the Internet,” a statement posted to one of the websites affiliated with the group said. “There will be no State of the Union Address on the web tonight.”

The statement concludes: “For freedom, for Aaron Swartz, for the Internet, and of course, for the lulz.”

The Washington Post:

Those “damaging controls” include the failed CISPA legislation that Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) will reintroduce Wednesday, and an executive order on cybersecurity. While CISPA was designed make it easier for the government and private companies to share data about cyber threats, the bill has faced heavy scrutiny from privacy and digital rights groups.

The “communique” also references Bradley Manning, warrantless wire-tapping, drone strikes and the National Defense Authorization Act, which Anonymous calls “an act of outright tyrannical legislation.”

Read more

—Posted by Tracy Bloom.

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