2011-08-15 Anonymous on the Rails for Justice #OpBart

First it was Scientology, then Paypal and WikiLeaks, Tunisia and Egypt, aiding the free flow of communication. The online collective Anonymous never seems to sleep. Its allegiance goes beyond any nationality or political ideology.

Their track record shows effectiveness. The recent HB Gary Federal incident is still fresh, showing they are not afraid to hack when the cause to their minds is just. Whether it is a corporation, individual or government, whoever sticks their neck into the hornets nest gets to experience the full fury of Anonymous.

This time, the Anonymous radar detected an unexpected target, the Bay Area Rapid Transit in liberal San Francisco, a city that is proudly the center of many progressive ideas.

On August 11th the BART authorities shut down cell phone services in the central part of the system to prevent a plan to protest a fatal shooting by the BART police.

This incident went unnoticed. None of the major national news media covered this unprecedented event in the US. Yet, Anonymous did not allow this to slip by unnoticed. They swiftly responded with a Press Release that declared #Opbart to condemn the censorship that the agency engaged in. The group called for a peaceful protest at Civic Center Station on August 15th at 5pm to stand up for the basic rights to free speech.

Anonymous doesn’t need mainstream media attention. The fury of Anonymous moves by way of a worldwide buzz through social media. Twitter hashtags "#muBARTek" and #opbart created a stream of news that interrupted the mundane Sunday activity.

YourAnonNews tweeted: #OpBART has started... For the next 35 hours @SFBART will feel the wrath of #Anonymous

Anonymous hacked BART’s external website, MyBART.org and defaced the page. They urged supporters on Twitter to bombard BART's email and fax machines in the name of #Opbart. Once this fire is lit, there is little one can do to stop it. Then they released user information as a way to reveal BART’s lax security of their customers information.

They are inviting people to join a ride toward freedom today to protest the Mubarrak type actions of this government bureaucracy.

The group is known to work primarily in the digital world with DDOS attacks and hacking. Today’s peaceful protest rally in downtown San Francisco will be a test for them to take online activism to a new level.

Image Credit - @exiledsurfer