Anonymous, the loose collective born on 4chan, spent 2010 attacking anti-piracy groups and then, in December, the companies that cut off WikiLeaks: PayPal, Visa and MasterCard. Thousands of volunteers pointed the Low Orbit Ion Cannon tool at targets, and the Guy Fawkes mask became a global protest symbol.
- Type
- community
- Origin
- 4chan, 2003 onwards; Project Chanology 2008
- Peak
- December 2010
Related
- WebsiteVerified
WikiLeaks
Collateral Murder, the war logs and Cablegate
WikiLeaks defined the news in 2010. It published the Collateral Murder helicopter video in April, the Afghan War Diary in July, the Iraq War Logs in October, and began releasing US diplomatic cables...
- WebsiteSupported
4chan
Anonymous, /b/, and the meme factory
4chan's anonymous image boards, especially /b/, generated much of the internet's meme vocabulary in 2010 and gave rise to Anonymous, which attacked PayPal and Visa in December in support of...
- CultureVerified
Anonymous attacks PayPal, Visa and MasterCard for WikiLeaks
In Operation Payback, Anonymous volunteers used the LOIC tool to knock the websites of companies that had cut off WikiLeaks offline for hours.
