Fighting Anonymous is impossible by design, but it’s funny to Anonymous when someone tries
Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews rises following Question Period to raise a Point of Order in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Monday February 27, 2012. Toews admits that Parliament’s hands may be tied when it comes to dealing with videos attacking him that were posted on the Internet. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
They never forgive, they never forget. Vic Toews should expect them.
Our Public Safety Minister painted a giant digital bullseye on himself today by continuing his silly crusade against an organization that doesn’t really exist. “Anonymous,” he told a Parliamentary committee, “is a threat to us all”. You could almost hear the lulz.
One has to feel a bit sorry for Toews. Few middle-aged technology neophytes have so successfully summoned the dregs of the Internet as Toews did when he told Canadians that they either stood with his Internet snooping bill or they stood “with the child pornographers”. Quicker than you could say “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice,” Toews was dealing with a tell-all Twitter account and a threatening ultimatum video from Anonymous. In it, Toews is asked to withdraw Bill C-30 and resign, or face the consequences.
As it turned out, the @vikileaks30 Twitter account was the partisan work of a Liberal staffer, who fumbled the ball by accessing his account through a Parliamentary computer. He was traced, exposed and forced to resign. Emboldened, Toews is now pursuing a far more nebulous foe- the “group” that posted that nasty video. He doesn’t know how to proceed, but asks for the help of the police and of “experts” to help him gain satisfaction. He won’t get it, but may end up with more than he asked for.
My instinct is to mock, but instead, I will educate. Vic, if you’re reading, here’s how it works:
This could be a long one.
Jesse Brown is the host of TVO.org’s Search Engine podcast. He is on Twitter @jessebrown