05/11/2013 09:44
Anonymous prepares for ‘Million Mask March’ protests around the world
Rallies are expected to soon occur around the globe as protesters aligned with the hacktivist movement Anonymous prepare for mass demonstrations scheduled for Tuesday in hundreds of cities from Sydney to Seattle, RT reported.
Tuesday’s happening will coincide with Guy Fawkes Day, an annual celebration that started centuries ago in Britain upon an unsuccessful attempt by the date’s namesake to blow up the British Parliament as part of the Gunpowder Treason Plot on November 5, 1605. And though there are no plans in the mix to annihilate any federal office buildings this time around, activists involved with the Anonymous movement — an international legion of likeminded individuals who’ve adopted a representation of Fawkes as an emblem of sorts — are staging a series of protests near political institutions around the world this year.
The Anonymous movement has exploded in the last several years after almost a decade of nurturing on the Web, and protests around the globe have been led by the group on Guy Fawkes Day regularly in recent memory, at times in tandem with hacks that have targeted the online presence of the same institutions.
This year, activists involved with Anonymous have scheduled rallies for Nov 5 slated to occur in over 400 cities around the globe, including highly anticipated events in metropolitan cities such as Washington, DC and London. Although largely described in the media as a loose-knit band of hackers and activists, Anonymous has coalesced into a powerful force to be reckoned with on the Web in recent years, having successfully waged operations that have garnered international attention, including anti-censorship protests against corporate and government websites, as well as orchestrating campaigns that called attentions on-and-off the Internet to allegations of corruption on all levels, from small-town law enforcement agencies to internationally-reaching spy operations.
A “Million Mask March” event in the capital of the United States is expected to get underway starting at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, and thousands of protesters on the Web said they plan to participate “To remind this world what it has forgotten, That fairness, justice and freedom are more than just words,” according to the gathering’s Facebook page.
In London, thousands are expected to rally at Trafalgar Square, where Anonymous has congregated on past Guy Fawkes Days in huge numbers. On the website for London’s OpVendetta event, an administrator wrote, “Anonymous have changed the rules by turning this morality of petition into more of a festival of ideas and new age discussion that has formed the political views of the youth of today. Anonymous understand now that we have filled the void in the protest world that others have failed Anonymous have managed to hold on to the system of having no system which allows everyone's beliefs to join the great debate.”