Anonymous Targets New Zealand’s GCSB in #OpKiwiFreedom

Anonymous are continuing their campaign against the New Zealand government. The new campaign #OpKiwiFreedom is fighting against the recently passed GCSB bill which essentially authorises the government to spy on its citizens, more so than it had done previously. As part of this campaign Anonymous have targeted the New Zealand’s GCSB with DDoS attacks and have successfully managed to take site down on numerous occassions leading to what the GCSB called temporary service interruptions, according to the New Zealand Herald.

The message from the campaign is pretty clear and isn’t that different to what civil activists are lobbying for in the USA right now. That is; they want the mass surveillance to stop, they want transparency and they want the New Zealand government to be accountable to the people and to be controlled by the people – not the other way round. The New Zealand government has refused to comment if it is involved with the NSA’s PRISM and Xkeyscore programs. Despite their denial there has been sufficient evidence from the Snowden leaks to implicate the New Zealand government at the heart of the Xkeyscore program.

The Anonymous campaign was finished with the traditional message;

Operation Kiwi Freedom initiated.

WE ARE ANONYMOUS.
WE ARE LEGION.
WE DO NOT FORGIVE.
WE DO NOT FORGET.
NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT.
YOU SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED US.

Image courtesy of New Zealand Government Communications Security Bureau