It’s been an incredibly tough week for the LGBT community after the horrific murder of 49 people at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando.
While the rest of the world mourned the vile attacks, ISIS celebrated.
The organisation’s homophobia is well documented – it’s outlawed, punishable by death and there are grim videos of ISIS members publicly executing LGBT people.
So in a small, moral victory for the good guys, hacktivist collective, Anonymous, has infiltrated hundreds of pro-ISIS twitter accounts and given them a wonderfully gay makeover.
This is by far my favourite. 10/10. A hacker by the name of WauchulaGhost has been responsible for the majority of the attacks.
For instance, he broke into ISIS account, @gi_h_a_d35, changed his profile picture to a gay flag and tweeted out this message:
“Hello World. It’s time I share with you a little secret…I’m Gay and I’m Proud!! #GayPride #OrlandoWillNotBeForgotten !!! #GhostOfNoNation.”
WauchulaGhost has also been tweeting out their IP addresses, phone numbers and other contact information for fellow hackers to use.
Explaining his motivation, he/she said:
I did it for the lives lost in Orlando.
Daesh [ISIS] have been spreading and praising the attack, so I thought I would defend those that were lost. The taking of innocent lives will not be tolerated.
Our actions are directed at Jihadist extremists. Many of our own [group of hackers] are Muslim and we respect all religions that do not take innocent lives.
Anonymous and ISIS have had a very bizarre and underwhelming “war” since the Charlie Hedbo attacks, kind of like when Soulja Boy and Lil Bow Wow had a “beef” – with both sides just ending up embarrassing themselves and everyone being worse for having witnessed it.
But at least for a few days, messages of unity, peace and love have replaced hate, violence and intolerance.