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Danish Anonymous splits from parent group over 'greed'

The Local Denmark
The Local Denmark - [email protected]
Danish Anonymous splits from parent group over 'greed'
File photo: Thomas Samson/Scanpix

A Danish branch of the Anonymous hacker collective has announced it is cutting ties with mother group AnonHQ.

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The move was announced on Tuesday in a Facebook post by Anonymous DK, which accused AnonHQ of "displaying behaviour and decision making that is miles away from what is expected of Anons worldwide" and "[using] our common identity for interests that in no way follow our principles".

Anonymous is a loosely associated international network of hackers and activists. The organisation’s power structure is thought to be decentralised and its members and followers are known as ‘Anons’.

In the Facebook post, Anonymous Denmark says that attempts were made to inform AnonHQ of its concerns, but to no avail. The Danish hacker group says that it now considers AnonHQ as ‘fallen’ and ‘illegitimate.’

Screenshot of the Anonymous DK Facebook post.

One issue raised by Anonymous Denmark is AnonHQ’s apparent support for Bernie Sanders in the race for the US Democratic presidential nomination through articles published on its anonhq.com site. Anonymous Denmark says that AnonHQ’s repeated expressions of support for Sanders make it "seem as though AnonHQ has been bought and paid for".

Anonymous DK also accuses its now-former parent group of secrecy over the use of income from sale of merchandise such as t-shirts as well as from click-bait and advertisements on its website.

In both cases, Anonymous DK says that proceeds taken by AnonHQ are kept undisclosed.

“Total transparency is our cornerstone, and AnonHQ has chosen to ignore it completely,” writes the Danish group, which also criticised the nature of the click-bait ads as being in direct opposition to what the group stands for.

“Greed has quite simply cast a veil over our now former brothers and sisters at AnonHQ, and it is precisely greed that is the enemy of all Anons,” reads the Facebook post.

Anonymous DK has broken off all contact with AnonHQ and will continue as an "independent and unofficial" Anonymous site.

No response to the Danish spilt has been published by AnonHQ but additional Facebook posts by separate Danish Anonymous groups stressed that AnonHQ should not be considered as a representative of the movement as a whole, just as the Danish group that announced the split is not representative of all of the different groups within Denmark. 

"Anonymous DK is NOT the official mouthpiece for all Anons in Denmark but rather just one of many groups that work on different [operations] from the same philosophy. AnonHQ is NOT the official mouthpiece for Anons in the entire world and has single-handedly chosen a path that is not in line with the collective line of thinking on openness and transparency," the later post read. 

"Anonymous is not a (hacker) organization or an organization at all. Everyone can call themselves Anonymous, but that doesn't mean that everyone is Anonymous. Anonymous is a thought, an idea in a collective consciousness that goes far beyond the individual and is best described as the 'Hive Mind'," it added. 

 

 

 

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