Anonymous hacks ISIS Twitter, posts gay images

by Sarah Boone
Journalism Intern

The well-known hacker group, Anonymous, has done it again! This time, one of the members, who goes by WachulaGhost, has hacked into multiple ISIS supporters’ Twitter accounts and replaced ISIS-themed propaganda with images of gay men. They claim that they have hacked into at least 200 accounts, but the majority of them have been removed by Twitter.

“I did it for the lives lost in Orlando,” the hacker tells Newsweek. “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.”

The headers and profile pictures have been replaced with pictures of the LGBT flag or two men being affectionate towards each other.

Along with the picture changes, tweets were made stating “I’m gay and proud”, “Out and proud” and links to gay porn websites. The hacker made sure to exclude any entirely sexual photos from the Twitter accounts, however.

“One thing I do want to say is we aren’t using graphic porn and our purpose is not to offend Muslims,” WachulaGhost says. “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.”

The main hacker was inspired to breach ISIS Twitter accounts because of the events in Orlando. On June 13 is when WachulaGhost began exploiting Jihadist extremists.

According to Newsweek, “WauchulaGhost plans to continue the campaign with two other hackers who go by the name Ebony and Yeti. ISIS has used social media platforms like Twitter as a tool for recruitment and to spread propaganda. Twitter claims to have shut down more than 125 thousand accounts promoting extremism since 2015.”

The Gayly  - 6/16/2016 @ 2:07 p.m. CDT