TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Decentralized international hacktivist group "Anonymous" hacked into a Chinese government website and created pages that support Taiwan to protest Google's inactive account policy, Wikipedia, Myanmar fraud dens, and atrocities committed by both sides in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war.
An "Anonymous" representative who goes by the Reddit handle "HaileeSteinfeldFan" informed Taiwan News the collective had hacked into the website of the Yanjin County government in Yunan Province's prefecture-level city of Zhaotong on Monday (Oct. 16). The defacements include three pages titled Page, Google, National anthems, which were archived (1, 2, 3) before being scrubbed by the website's administrator.
The first page first posts the message "This website has been hacked by 'Anonymous'," before launching a new black window that displays the slogan "Taiwan Numbah Wan," the Taiwan flag, and the Taiwan emblem. Below that is an embedded music video for "Fragile," a Mandopop song sung by Malaysian rapper Namewee (黄明志) and Taiwan-based Australian singer Kimberley Chen (陳芳語).
Black window that opens on first page. (Anonymous screenshot)
This is followed by a video that plays a Mandarin rap song by Tuojiang Yegou (脫韁野狗, Runaway Wild Dog) titled "F*** CCP." The hacktivists then stated that the defacement had been carried out to support Taiwan, express opposition to Google's "harsh inactive account deletion policy," expose "Wikipedia scandals," call for action against fraud dens in Myanmar, and urge a halt to the "unnecessary bloodshed because of the Israel Palestine war."
What followed was a video of the famous "Tank Man" in action at Tiananmen Square and photos of famous leaders from Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). The group then accused Wikipedia of posting "antisemitic Holocaust distortions" and alleged instances of administrator abuse."
Page criticizing Google. (Anonymous screenshot)
The collective called for "viable solutions to end the Israel-Palestine conflict once and for all," while also condemning "war crimes and atrocities such as rape of children and disruption of water supplies as collective punishment no matter which side is doing it." The hacktivists urged a "reimagining of solutions for the Israel/Palestinian conflict - out of the box thinking that would lead to peace."
The first page closed by including photos of both Israeli and Palestinian children who have died since the war broke out.
Page displaying national anthems of victims of Hamas attacks. (Anonymous screenshot)
The second page continued the group's criticism of Google including a statement that read, "Google is evil if they keep doubling down on their harsh inactive account policy." The third page posted the national anthems of some of the countries where victims of the Hamas attacks on southern Israel had come from, such as Ireland, Thailand, Germany, Nepal, Peru, the Philippines, Argentina, Paraguay, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, and Italy.