Anonymous asks the Public to Join in the “Trolling” war Against ISIS

The hacker group Anonymous declared December 11 to be “trolling  day”and called for attacks on ISIS related websites, Instagram accounts and Twitter feeds.  You can participate (still) by posting mocking photos of ISIS and posting to the hashtags #Daesh and #Daeshbags.

“We will mock them for the idiots they are,” says Anonymous. “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.”

Last month, after the Paris attacks by ISIS, the group made headlines by announcing that they would hunt the terrorist group down and not let them go. This group declared war, and their best weapon? The internet. 

Following the attacks, the Anonymous network publicly release a large list of Twitter accounts that were pro-ISIS. Although this list was said to be inaccurate (it included Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton,) the group certainly knows how to cause quite a stir. GhostSec, a subsidiary group of Anonymous, made headlines a few weeks ago when they hacked an ISIS recruiting website and replaced it with a Viagra ad.

So what’s the next virtual move for Anonymous? Well, they just declared war again. But, this time it’s a trolling war on a larger scale. NBC News did some digging and found this post on Ghostbin from the group.

“We ask you to show your support and help against ISIS by joining us and trolling them // do not think you have to be part of Anonymous, anyone can do this and does not require special skills. We ask you to take part of this on Facebook // Twitter // Instagram // Youtube // In the ‘Real World.” No social campaign can be without a hashtag. The group has asked participants to use #Daesh and #Daeshbags when mocking ISIS with posts. 

But, why is this tactic so clever? Well, these professional trollers are not just doing this for fun (well, maybe some of them are…) they are trying to rile ISIS supporters up. Supporters are bound to reveal themselves. Not to mention, they are detouring ISIS from gaining new recruits.