A week after declaring war on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, another video purportedly from the hacker group Anonymous attempts to renew its cyberbattle against ISIS in response to Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in Brussels. The group previously took a stand against the Islamic State after last year’s attack in Paris.
The video does more than declare hostile intent toward ISIS, however. It also suggests taking a “win hearts and minds” campaign to prevent ISIS recruiting efforts around the world.
“You don’t have to hack them. If you stand up against discrimination in your country, you harm them much more than by hacking their websites,”said a statement on the video. “The Islamic State cannot recruit Muslims in Europe if they are accepted and included in the society. So we want all of you to stand together against discrimination.”
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks in Brussels that killed 31 people on Tuesday. It’s been reported that European law enforcement believes the local network responsible for the attack was that same one that orchestrated the coordinated sequence of attacks in Paris in which 130 people were killed in November.
That month, Anonymous, which is a sort of formless online organization made up of hackers and other computer specialists, declared its intent to take the fight to ISIS in the digital realm. Anonymous claims to have made a number of cyberattacks against the militant group, including the deletion of thousands of ISIS-related Twitter accounts. The new video asserts more of that is coming.
“We will not rest as long as terrorists continue their actions around the world. We will strike back against them. We will keep hacking their websites, shutting down their Twitter accounts and stealing their bitcoins. We defend the rights of freedom and tolerance,” the video said.
Last week, another video claiming to come from the group declared opposition to Donald Trump’s bid for U.S. president, and linked to some of Trump’s personal info, including what it said was his social security number.