The Sony hacking group Guardians of Peace has demanded the studio “immediately” pull James Franco–Seth Rogen comedy “The Interview.”
“Stop immediately showing the movie of terrorism which can break the regional peace and cause the War!” said a note published to GitHub purporting to be from the group known as Guardians of Peace.
“We have already given our clear demand to the management team of SONY, however, they have refused to accept,” said the note. “It seems that you think everything will be well, if you find out the attacker, while no reacting to our demand. We are sending you our warning again.”
The hack left current employees and those who stopped working at Sony as far back as 2000 with their personal information — including salaries and home addresses — being leaked to various news outlets and over BitTorrent.
Famous victims of the hacking include Sylvester Stallone, director Judd Apatow and Rebel Wilson.
After playing coy in the face of rumors that North Korea is behind the hacking as retaliation for “The Interview” — which revolves around an assassination attempt on Kim Jung-un — the country reportedly denied involvement, calling the accusations “another fabrication targeting the country.”
The new message demanding the pulling of the movie seems to contradict that there is no North Korea connection, as does other evidence linking the hackers to Korea-related machines and time zones. Earlier reports indicated findings from Sony, the FBI and private security firms turned up evidence that the malware was allegedly created on a machine with Korean language settings, was created during Korea-based hours and shares similarities to previous attacks attributed to North Korea.
The newest note posted denies involvement in the threatening e-mail sent to Sony staffers last week. “We know nothing about the threatening email received by Sony staffers, but you should wisely judge by yourself why such things are happening and who is responsible for it,” said the new note.
“The destiny of SONY is totally up to the wise reaction & measure of SONY,” it concluded.