ANONYMOUS Africa, a so-called hacktivist group, briefly shut
down about 50 websites on Wednesday, including the Independent Newspapers’
Independent Online (IOL).
The
group claimed they did it because of the media group’s support of Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe.
The IOL website was "ignoring the genocide against the
Ndebele people" and "supporting a dictator". The group pointed
to an opinion piece on the Sunday Independent website claiming that Mugabe was
a heroic African leader.
The hack led to the company's internet and e-mail systems
going down at 11AM. According to IOL editor Alastair Otter, the system crashed
because of a denial of server (DOS) attack, where the servers were flooded by a
huge volume of requests.
Just before the attack, a group calling themselves Anonymous
Africa, with the Twitter handle @Zim4thewin, sent out this tweet: “Please note
everyone. Today #IOL will be attacked for ignoring the genocide against the
Ndebele people and for supporting a dictator.”
Minutes
later, they wrote: “@IOL Tick tock 3 minutes left until the African spring
tidal wave hits your corrupt mouthpiece.”
The
tweets then counted down to 11AM, when they wrote: “@iol You are now tango
down! for crimes against humanity!”
Then came the taunt: “IOL bad boys bad boys what you ganna
do, what you ganna do when they come for you,” quoting the Inner Circle song.
Anton Harber, Caxton professor of journalism at Wits
University, said this was "an attack on the rights to free
expression" of those who support Mugabe.
"Freedom of speech means tolerating even — or
especially — opinions one dislikes. They can disagree, even protest, but
vandalising a newspaper site and preventing the expression of different
opinions is a thuggish attack on freedom of expression."
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