aNewDomain.net — The demonstrations in Hong Kong for democracy have created a worldwide divide. The most visible opponents? Jackie Chan and Anonymous. The anarchist hacker group decided to help the demonstrations by hacking into China’s government websites. They supplied a warning, showing that the Hong Kong students have friends who can breach the “Great Cyber Wall.” Will this outside intervention help progress in Hong Kong?
Another pressing question: Is Anonymous’ role in politics doing good?
The hacker group is a diverse movement that’s hard to pin down — it covers, for example, the split between the so-called moralfags and hatefags, two factions of Anons within the larger group who want to do good (moralfags) versus those who just wanted to wreak havoc (hatefags). There is a thin line between these hackers’ anarchic creative directions. In Hong Kong the moralfags are active …
Anonymous said it had already infiltrated more than 50 mainland government databases and leaked 50,000 user names and emails, saying it was fulfilling promises to “stand and fight alongside the citizens of Hong Kong,” SCMP said.
By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America (Jackie Chan Uploaded by maybeMaybeMaybe) [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Jackie Chan on Hong Kong
In 2012 Jackie Chan, who adores the Beijing rulers, “complained to the Chinese press that Hong Kong had become a city of protest’ and suggested that free speech be curtailed,” says the Independent.
The Independent also says:
“In a message posted on Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter, Chan parroted the rhetoric of some of the protesters’ critics in Beijing and Hong Kong, urging “rationality” while insisting the protests were causing dangerous harm to the city’s economy. An English translation of his post, provided by the website Shanghaiist, reads: “I found out through the news that Hong Kong’s economic losses reached HK$350bn [£28bn] and I’m really worried… I believe every Hong Kong resident loves Hong Kong and wishes it well! I am willing to work hard with everyone and return to rationality, to face the future, love our country, love our Hong Kong.”
Chan insisted the protests were causing dangerous harm to the city’s economy. Many of the Hong Kong tycoons agree with him.
The Anonymous Action
SCMP reports:
The Anonymous group of computer hackers followed up on its threat made on Friday to release data from mainland government websites.
It released hundreds of phone numbers and email addresses of the Ningbo Free Trade Zone in Zhejiang province and a job-search site run by the Changxing county administration, also in the coastal province. The data also included individual IP addresses and names.
By Htoo Wunna Ko Ko (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
In the meantime Hong Kong police did arrest anonymous suspects aged between 13-25 years, due to local activists hacking into local government sites. I believe these youngsters to be moralfags locally born and locally patriotic.
For aNewDomain.net, I’m David Michaelis.
Based in Australia, David Michaelis is a world-renowned international journalist and founder of Link Tv. At aNewDomain.net, he covers the global beat, focusing on politics and other international topics of note for our readers in a variety of forums. Email him at DavidMc@aNewDomain.net.
