Hacker's group " Anonymous " all set for peaceful protests in top Indian cities

[Chief]

In retaliation to a John Doe order taken by Copyright Labs, Chennai, from the Madras High Court, for preventing the piracy of a couple of Tamil films, hackers group Anonymous had started its ‘operation India’ in real earnest – bringing down the official websites of the Supreme Court, the ruling Congress Party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Department of Telecommunications and Reliance Big Entertainment.

This was followed by the group hacking into Reliance servers and redirecting users to a page featuring its demands when they tried to access popular sites like Facebook and Twitter. Only last week, the group hacked and defaced even more government sites including the sites of All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC), the Mizoram government (Mizoram Food and Allied Industries Corporation, Mizoram Police website, etc.) and the Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) Directorate, which is an attached office of the Department of Information Technology (DIT). However, all these sites are now up and functioning.

The group is now planning peaceful ‘occupy’ protests (similar to the ‘occupy Wall Street’ protest by the group in the US), to be held on June 9 in 11 cities – namely, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Kanpur, Kozhikode and Kochi. Venues and other details are mentioned on the group’s official blog and Indian citizens are asked to join the protest. Protesters have been advised to wear Guy Fawkes masks (the group’s logo) and also told what kind of banners they should carry.

The Anonymous group has also released a video, stating its intentions and the reasons behind these activities. The video says, “Hello citizens of India and the world, we are Anonymous. The department of Telecom has ordered all Internet Service Providers (ISP) in India to block access to all viral-sharing websites, legal or illegal. We cannot let any censorship happen; this is just like what the high court in the UK has done. They are going to block all access to The Pirate Bay; we will not let this go. We are Anonymous; expect us – operation India engaged.”

Initially, Reliance Communications blocked the Pirate Bay and Vimeo, a torrent and a video-sharing site, respectively, and also blocked Torrentz.com, among others. Later, Airtel and other ISPs also blocked these sites. When users tried to open the sites, they were greeted with a message that read: This website/URL has been blocked until further notice either pursuant to Court orders or on the Directions issued by the Department of Telecommunications.

 

[Chief]

350 to join ‘Anonymous’ protest against internet censorship


Many netizens sign up through social networking websites to offer support for the protest
About 350 students and professionals from the city will join a protest called by the ‘Anonymous’, a group that reportedly hacked websites of several political parties, government and private institutions like the Supreme Court of India, All India Congress Committee, Trinamool Congress, Reliance Big Entertainment to bat for internet freedom and prevent internet censorship.

The protest against the department of telecom decision to block file-sharing websites under ‘Opindia’ (‘Occupy India’) will be held on Saturday, June 9.
As they claim on their blog, ‘Anonymous is a decentralized network of individuals focused on promoting access to information, free speech, and transparency’ with no central point of contact.

“We do not have a country, name or face. Our cause is our only identity,” said a member. Anybody can identify with Anonymous and participate in its activities, spread awareness, Tweet or share on Facebook.

The objective of OpIndia is to repeal the ban on entire websites, where only a section of the content infringes on copyrights, and to contest the ‘intermediary guideline rules that have been effect since April 2011, besides annulment of section 69 of the amended Information Technology Act, 2008.

In Pune, Virendra Rajput of Cusrow Wadia Institute of Technology who has listed ‘Occupy Pune’ on Facebook stated that the protest will be held in Shivajinagar area at 4pm Saturday.
According to the protest guidelines set by Anonymous, it will be a non-violent protest and no vehicles will be used. Protesters will carry placards or banners supporting Internet freedom.
Protesters may also wear the Anonymous Mask or the Guy Fawkes Mask. Around 350 people, mostly students are expected to attend the protest. Many more netizens are supporting the cause and signing up for the protest through social networking websites.

The protest has also been planned in Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Indore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Cochin, Calicut, Ahmedabad and Kundapur and tentatively in some cities of Uttar Pradesh, Nagpur, Chennai, Jaipur, Mysore and Thiruvananthapuram.

“We will keep retaliating with new targets and attacking other websites till the censorship on Internet is removed,” the official Anonymous blog states.


http://www.indianexpress.com/news/350-to-join-anonymous-protest-against-internet-censorship/958326/0

 

[Chief]

Internet is created by us: Hacktivist group Anonymous


"Speak. "This curt message from @OpIndia_Revenge was all that popped up in response to an earlier request for an internet chat with Anonymous, the hacktivists behind the recent large-scale takedowns of many ISP and government websites, among others. It had been only a few hours since the launch of the group's 'Operation India'. Soon, TOI-Crest would be in a chatroom on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) with two members of the world's most famous hacker group. Launched in mid-May, Operation India (or OpIndia) was launched by Anonymous in protest against internet censorship after filesharing websites like The Pirate Bay, Vimeo, Daily Motion and many others were blocked here. Anonymous attacked the online portals of several government and private organisations, including the Department of Telecommunications, the Supreme Court of India, Reliance Big Entertainment (RBE) and more. TOI-Crest chatted with different members of the clan over the course of a few days. And whenever they were asked how they would like to be addressed, the answer was always the same: "as a group, always. There are no individuals, there is no head. "Excerpts from the chats. . .
What exactly is the DDoS form of attack that you use?

Say there was a restaurant with a seating capacity of 100 and we have 200 people going there, the sudden load will hamper its operation. Similarly, every server has a fixed capacity for the number of incoming connections. So we direct hundreds of machines, from all over the world to a website to bring it down. That's a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. But there are always rules that are set. For example, we won't deface a website. That is actually hacking and putting something else. We don't harm the websites or delete content. That's terrorism. We don't want to be labelled terrorists.

How do you choose whom to attack?

The targets were those mainly responsible for what's happening to the internet in India. For example, everyone in our group started saying Reliance Entertainment needs to go down because of the John Doe order they issued during Don 2 and Singham releases (Reliance's move allowed for potential pirate websites to be blocked as a preemptive measure against copyright violation). And any other private companies trying to make use of people's ignorance will be brought out into the light.

How do you ascertain that things have gone wrong?

It's more of a decision by the whole - everyone who's a part of Anonymous, including the people tweeting back to us. We don't care if someone says let's take down 'xyz. com' because they are blocking 'abc'. It's for everyone to decide if 'xyz' really needs to be taken down. Many people asked us via Twitter to take down IRCTC and CBSE. But that's not what we want. We too understand what it is to book a tatkal ticket on the IRCTC website. There are many people who are dependent on those.

It's not an 'Indians of Anonymous'discussion then?

Anonymous is independent of citizenship /nationality. We are one;unlabelled.

How do you stop the Anonymous name being misused?

We have our channels that are established. If some hacker who isn't part of the group tries to claim an attack under our name, we decline it through official accounts on Twitter, such as @Anon_Central, which is the collective voice.

You guys are seen as the Robin Hood of the internet. Do you see your actions as a necessary measure to fix the law as it is today?

Laws! Who defines these laws? To correct them, one has to go beyond the limits. Instead of Robin Hood, it's more like Batman ! He doesn't give a dime about laws. He does what is good and what needs to be done for the betterment of all.

Censorship should be a personal choice, not enforced?

Yes. We have parental controls on computers. Every firewall has them. Use filters at your end to block categories of sites like violence, gore, drugs, etc. But no other authority can tell us what we can see and cannot see.

What differentiates the rules for the internet from the rules for the real world?

The internet is created by us. A few people cannot tell us what to do. The difference between the real world and the internet is that on the web, if you don't want your kid to see something, you can make it so. Besides, on the internet, every website that has graphic content intended for adults always carries a warning and an agreement.

What about protecting 'public sentiment', which real-world laws allow for?

Ideas are for everyone. Some may think that it's good;some may think it's bad. Sharing information is not a crime, whatever that information may be. Information cannot be marked as good or bad, ever. The intentions of people using that are beyond the internet.

But an internet without any restrictions would leave it open to questions of 'what is right, what is wrong', wouldn't it?

All we are trying to say is that fight the wars in real life, not on the internet. Take your fight to whoever is serving the 'bad website' and make them shut down. Don't ruin this area - the internet. Few people cannot decide what's good or what's bad. They cannot have power over the most powerful medium in the world.

So in the end someone is still deciding right and wrong. Who has the right to decide? The government is a publicly elected entity. You and I aren't.

What gives the government the right to call us criminals when they themselves have criminals in our Parliament ? If you are hosting pirated content on your server, other countries like the US and Sweden have laws to take it down, or send a request for the same. So do that. Now, what if Pakistan blocks Christian church websites? The sites may be against the sentiments of a majority of the population, but then, is it morally right?

Who decides "morally right" here - publicly elected officials or someone else?

Morals are defined by the people in society as a general. We are the users of the internet. We are the people that created this society. Blocking is not a common conscience;no one except Reliance officials and government want this.

Are you saying that what politicians do is not in accordance with what people want, even if the politicians are elected by the same people

? Our democracy, or so-called democracy, is so f*** ed up that the views of people have changed, but the views of the government haven't. What does the common man do about such things? Does he have the power? If we leak information about corrupt officials tomorrow, via legal or illegal means, would that be considered morally good?

In the context of a country like India, with non-violent reformers like Mahatma Gandhi and, more recently, Anna Hazare perhaps, do you see a mass awakening with your line of action, considering there isn't one identifiable figure that the public can look to for guidance?

What we are doing is not safe if everyone starts doing it. We cover our trails. Still, there are possibilities.

But you aren't hoping to be leaders of a movement like Gandhi or Hazare?

No. We are not leaders. We want to remain Anonymous. If people want to remember something, remember Anonymous. We just want to correct what's wrong, and then we will vanish. Violence isn't what we want, but again, it's not that we won't do (sic).

You aren't opposed to a more severe attack under graver circumstances?

If things do get so wrong that to save the internet something radical needs to be done, we will do it. It's not by choice, but by compulsion.

What are you hoping to achieve with the protests on June 9? It's not an ultimatum to the government or anyone else then?

More awareness. More support for Anonymous. People will come to know about this issue, especially the ignorant fools. June 9 is the deadline for the government to unblock the sites - all of them. If they will not do it, then they will be badly hit by us. A lot of defacement of government websites will happen. Many physical protests will take place.

Internet is created by us: Hacktivist group Anonymous | Cover Story | Times Crest

 

[Chief]

Anonymous India’s June 9th Protests In 18 Cities: What Happened Where


For the past few weeks, the online hacker group Anonymous has been quite active in India, taking down several government websites and a few corporate websites in protest against the recent incidents of Internet censorship in India. About a fortnight ago, the hacker group had stated its plans in an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) based press conference, to conduct a nationwide on-ground protest on June 9, 2012 across several cities like Mumbai and Chennai among others, asking citizens to protest these blocks by wearing a mask and offering materials like banners and flyers for the protest.

On Saturday (June 9, 2012), these protests took place in 16 Indian cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Indore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Calicut, Nagpur, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Manipal among others. Here’s a roundup of what happened in each city:
- Mumbai: About 120 people showed up. The police was calm, but the protestors were not allowed to march from the place of protest. Most were students from the University of Mumbai and other colleges. Some were from other cities as well like Chennai, who were actually holidaying in Mumbai and decided to attend. More in this piece in DNA.

- Chandigarh: The protest was held for 90 minutes, with protesters displayed banners with anti-government slogans. The protest took place at sector 17. Watch: Video

- Indore: Venue was changed to Treasure Island from Regal Square as police denied permission stating that the said location is too close to the High Court. Anonymous (Indore) members requested all on Facebook to meet at Treasure Island, a mall in Indore with an intention that police could not remove them from a public location, but no one turned up. Very few people came to the initial venue but on noticing the poor turnout, apparently walked away. More in the Times of India.

- Kolkata: Protesters were refused permission from three different police stations. 950 members of Kolkata Facebook page had said they would attend, but apparently less than hundred turned out at South City handing out information on internet laws. The police also told them that they could protest for only 20 mins and that they had to make two smaller groups. Read: A note from an attendee.

- Hyderabad- First there was some confusion on Facebook about the location, between Park Plaza and Necklace Road. Secondly, the police did not let them protest, even ordered the protestors to take off their masks and go away or they said they would call the police force, and threatened to confiscate all protest material like t-shirts and fliers. Eventually after speaking to a higher official the protestors were taken to Indra park with a police patrol team, where they
continued the protest peacefully for some time. Read: an article in The Hindu.

- Bangalore: The turnout was not large however people managed to cover various locations starting from Brigade road they moved to MG road metro and then Anil Kumble circle. The police did create some problems at MG Road near the Mahatma Gandhi Statue according to an Occupy Bangalore member.

- Calicut: Approximately 50 people turned up. They visited some of the major landmarks starting from the beach. They distributed fliers and talked to people on the way. The police was courteous and obliged to their requests of protesting in the city. Read: in The Hindu

- Nagpur-According to Occupy Nagpur only two people turned up.

- Chennai: The protest took place at Besant Nagar beach. According to The Times Of India the turnout was low, but a readers comments on the same article says that they did speak with many people, to create awareness, and the local constable who first tried to stop them was not informed by the police however they had taken prior permission. Around 30 people gathered. More in The Times of India.

- Ahmedabad: About 170 facebook members of anonymous Ahmedabad said they would turn up but there was a crowd of approx 15 out of which many left after realising that the turn out will not be big. The protest lasted only 15 minutes.

- Jaipur: About ten people turned out for the event. At first only 5 or 6 assembled and got their posters ready on venue then later 4 or so joined. According to the occupy Jaipur page it took them about 2 days to get permission from police. They were handing out leaflets to everybody including some police officials. The cops were calm since the protest was not that big. Some photos: Handing out leaflets to police and getting charts ready

- Manipal: Students could be seen protesting at tiger circle and the entrance of Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT). The protest seemed pretty smooth with no hindrance from the police. A video of the protest: here.

- Coimbatore: The occupy Coimbatore page on Facebook says it was cancelled. The Times of India also confirms the same stating it was cancelled last minute.

- Delhi: We went for OccupyDelhi. There was some confusion initially, since the protests were planned for India Gate, but were then shifted to Jantar Mantar. There were several policemen at the entrance to Jantar Mantar, but they kept their distance. Those attending were joined from people from India Against Corruption, and those who protested against Internet Censorship – Save Your Voice. There were around 30-40 people, and almost as many mediapersons. Those from SaveYourVoice asked the attendees to join the fight against Internet Censorship, and said that these protests from Anonymous have brought new people into the fold.

















Note: If you have additional info to share, please do. Also, we haven’t been able to find any info on protests in Pune, Cochin, Thiruvananthapuram and Mysore


Anonymous India’s June 9th Protests In 18 Cities: What Happened Where - MediaNama