While fascinated by hacktivism and Anonymous operations, they confuse me horribly. Some of the missions are certainly easier for me to grapple with than others. One operation that I can definitely understand, at least at the surface, is Op Trump. Back in March of 2016, Anonymous “leaked” otherwise accessible information (basically attainable via a simple Google search) pertaining to Donald Trump in order to expose what they believe the new “Great” America will look like. Following the “leak” of this unclassified information, the FBI and Secret Service pursued an investigation to arrest the individuals responsible for such a leak. In its latest video at the time:
Anonymous goes on to mockingly thank Trump, the FBI, and the Secret Service for participating in their misleading initiative by saying: “Thank you Trump and Trump campaign. Thank you police, FBI, and the Secret Service for being a part of our little experiment on how we should expect the so-called New America will be.”
This ultimately evolved into what was deemed Op Trump or Op White Rose, an operation in response to “fascist leanings by Trump and his supporters.” Anonymous, at the time, warned that starting 1 April, it planned to go all out in its fight against the US presidential candidate and his campaign. But where did that get us? Because last I checked I just wasted an hour and a half of my life watching Donald Trump on live television debating as the Republican presidential nominee.
In fact, Anonymous all but ruptured at the seams when it came to Op Trump. It appears that Trump is polarizing enough to split Anonymous into factions that render it useless. The plan was to coordinate DDOS attacks against Trump’s campaign websites and to shame Trump supporters via social media.
What is it about this election, about this candidate, that makes Anonymous’ “war” on Trump such a failure? What makes for the success of other Anonymous endeavors?
Check these out:
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/anonymous-hacker-group-dupes-trump-secret-service-fbi-latest-leak-1550942
http://www.techinsider.io/anonymous-war-donald-trump-fail-2016-4
