[The Library] Anonymous Operations: Front Line of the War Against White Supremacy

Anonymous Operations: Front Line of the War Against White Supremacy

The Southern Poverty Law Center cites an FBI report that in 2015, crimes against Muslim minorities rose by 60 percent. The same article cites that while outright racist symbolism, ie swastikas and other Neo-Nazi symbolism and salutes, saw a drop of 32 percent since the year before, there was a rise in what the author called "intelligent" racism. This kind of racism is instiutionalized, rebranded, and runs through a neat PR cycle before being introduced to the various propaganda mechanisms of the new, upstart movement of the "Alt-Right". 

The Alt-Right's propaganda machine can be seen in many facets of society, and has an upsetting level of support throughout corporate America. The SPLC used ACT for America as an example, an anti-Muslim, anti-Immigration lobbyist group that greets users with an interactive, colorful front page with clear signs of PsyOps pasted all over it. The only links the user can see on the front page are generally agreeable causes like supporting veterans, and their motto is "We are the NRA of National Security", a clear propaganda message used to gain support from 2nd Amendment supporters and cover up their anti-immigration agenda with the cause of "National Security".

Keep in mind, ACT for America is the organization that disgraced National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was an acting board member of. While outright Nazism has seen a decline, it's because the bigots have donned suits and titles, and are trading skin-head bonfires for corporate board meetings. Lynch mobs of the 1900s have been traded for lobbyist firms in the 21st Century. The Klan didn't have any power outside of the backwoods Alabama suburbs they cleaned their white hoods in years ago, but now they have an international voice to spread hateful rhetoric under the guise of National Security and public safety.

Combatting Hateful Rhetoric Online: Operation Resistance 

Enter Uriel. Uriel is an online fighter of this hateful rhetoric, using undercover tactics and social media Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) to combat the hateful rhetoric he sees online. Uriel, along with a devoted team of active propagandists, is fighting back using the bigots own tools. Much like Operation Pedo in my last post, Operation Resistance relies on a team of overt and covert social media presence to comb the web for those spreading hateful rhetoric online. When he finds pages, they go through a stringent vetting process to be sure they don't target innocent pages and disturb online freedom of speech.

Freedom of speech is a huge concern for Uriel and the rest of Operation Resistance. I brought up the matter in our interview, and he had some fascinating insight into the matter. He says that while they have the right to spread hateful rhetoric online and in the streets, he and the members of Operation Resistance have the right to shut it down using their own propaganda mechanisms. Twitter, he says, is a private medium. They reserve the right to suspend accounts for acting against their set policies.

This is where the reporting side comes in. Uriel and others find profiles that spread outright hate online, vet them to be sure they are indeed spreading Nazist or otherwise racist propaganda, and mass report them to Twitter or Facebook. This is an overt tactic that is used by many Anonymous operations, an overt attempt to quell the presence of racist propaganda online.

The Covert Side: Anonymous Spies Against Online Racism

Uriel hinted at the presence of a covert operation as well as the overt, reporting based social media ops. Covert operations are quiet and undercover, a tactic that is more effective in many ways in taking Nazi propagandists offline. He said he has members infiltrating the groups to get an idea of their infrastructure, after which he uses publicly available tools to take their propaganda sites offline. 

This is an important part of the information war that they're fighting. Disturbing the information pipeline with DDoS attacks or other forms of takedowns ruins the mission that these "alt-right" soldiers are trying to fight. If the propaganda cannot reach an audience, it's ineffective. There is an intense psychological side to these kinds of operations as well: if Alt-Right and White Nationalists cannot trust the members of their group online and can't trust their infrastructure, it makes organizing and operating much more difficult.

Alt-Right Fighting Back

Uriel says that the Alt-Right is fighting back in the same way they're getting hit. Many of the Alt-Right are using bot accounts to mass report Anonymous OpResistance members. A says that in one instance, himself and several of my other contacts were labeled by an Alt-Right undercover propagandist as "Russian Bots", bots used in the Russian campaign of disinformation to flood Twitter with propaganda. This lead to the "Shadow Ban", or silencing of Twitter users without an outright ban, of several Operation Resistance members, resulting in significant time and effort being spent to lift the bans.

Alt-Right propagandists are experts of their trade. Their crusade marches under the banners of free speech, National Security, and anti-PC culture movements. They have a thick veil set between them and outright racism, allowing mainstream and almost mainstream media outlets to gain a certain kind of legitimacy. They put the words non-profit, political think tank, and charity in front of their cause to tug the heartstrings much like the Clinton Foundation's depictions of their political heads "helping" third world countries and legitimize their propaganda as media.

Anonymous Operations in the Political Sphere

Anonymous has been labeled a leftist movement since their ties with Occupy Wallstreet began. It's a tough label to lose, especially when dealing with rightist propagandists. They make sure to play the part, using propaganda labels like Marxist, snowflake PC culture. They may not be far from the mark, but the truth of the matter is, the propaganda behind the label is a dangerous tactic.

Anonymous members with Operation Resistance face an uphill battle against neo-right propagandists. Their covert and overt operations face a wide variety of challenges, one of the biggest being the legitimization of Neo-Nazism in the Alt-Right. They're the front line of the propaganda information warfare between the far right and those in search of the truth.

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This is the second episode of a series documenting the multitude  of Operations that Anonymous is currently or has formerly been engaged  in. Because of the nature of some of their Operations, I have worked  with members of Anonymous to decide how they would like to be  identified. The safety of my sources is paramount. 
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