Hackers group Anonymous may target BJP site next in protest of internet censorship

Hackers group Anonymous brought down the websites of the Department of Telecommunications and Reliance Big Entertainment after taking down websites of the country apex judiciary the Supreme Court and the ruling political party Congress. The sites are back up now but they were down during the day.

These attacks were in response to the John Doe order taken from the Madras High Court by Copyright Labs for preventing the piracy of a couple of Tamil films. Initially, Reliance Communications blocked The Pirate Bay and Vimeo, a torrent and a video sharing site, among others. Later, Airtel also blocked these sites and when users tried to open the sites, they were greeted with a message that read 'Access to this site has been blocked as per Court Orders'.

The Anonymous group also released a video stating their intentions and the reasons behind them, they said, "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 UK have 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."

According to reports, the group's next target could be Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) official website.

This is not the first time the group has reacted against a government. Earlier, in response to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the hackers group took down/disabled a number of websites like that of the Justice Department (USA), the FBI, Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Universal Music Group, among others.