The hacking group Anonymous is urging its followers to launch a barrage of cyberattacks on April 1 to take down Donald Trump’s websites and expose the “appalling” GOP presidential candidate.
“We need you to shut down his websites, research and expose what he doesn’t want the public to know,” a person wearing the group’s trademark Guy Fawkes mask says in a video posted by to an Anonymous YouTube channel. “We need you to dismantle his campaign and sabotage his brand.”
{mosads}In a separate written statement, Anonymous encouraged hackers to target the business mogul’s websites, including donaldjtrump.com, trump.com and trumphotelcollection.com.
Anonymous also released Trump’s alleged personal details, such as his cellphone number and Social Security number, to help hackers harass the Republican presidential front-runner.
“Dear Donald Trump, we have been watching you for a long time, and what we see is deeply disturbing,” the video says. “You have shocked the entire planet with your appalling actions and ideals.”
“You say what your current audience wants to hear, but in reality you don’t stand for anything except your personal greed and power,” it adds.
Anonymous, an anarchist activist group, initially declared digital war on the Republican presidential front-runner last December after Trump proposed to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S.
But the declaration never made much of an impact.
In the new video posted recently, Anonymous claims that “loyalists and veterans” of the group had decided to relaunch the cyber war “on a larger scale.”
“This is a call to arms,” the video says. “This is a call to protect our future, our freedom and our very way of life.”
In the last year, Anonymous has waged a number of high-profile cyber campaigns against groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and the Ku Klux Klan.
While the group has taken credit for exposing KKK members and eradicating thousands of ISIS-related Twitter accounts, many have criticized the group for over-promising and leaking inaccurate information.
But the group insisted Operation Trump, or #OpTrump, is “important” given Trump’s “disturbing” policy positions.
“This is not a warning, this is a declaration of total war,” the video says. “Operation Trump engaged.”