Colombia’s branch of global hacker collective Anonymous released a video Sunday threatening to attack all websites promoting bullfighting.
The video, posted on YouTube, depicts the masked character from the movie “V for Vendetta” and a synthesized voice calling for people to “strongly reject all acts that endanger the life of or maltreat those that have no voice.”
The group threatens that “Anonymous will relentlessly pursue and punish with fury all groups that promote torture as a way of life, as work, as art or as fun.”
The message from the group of activists — who in the past have attacked Colombian government websites — directly targets “all pages on the internet that directly or indirectly promote bullfighting.”
It’s not the first time the group, who formed in Colombia in 2008, have used their internet presence to draw attention to social and political causes.
The international Anonymous movement is a collective of hackers which has launched a series of online attacks in recent years, bringing down the U.S. Justice department, Brazilian banks and Polish government websites, and eavesdropping on the FBI and Scotland Yard, among other operations.
Anonymous in Colombia’s previous campaigns have included their support of last year’s Arab Spring uprising in the Middle East, their fight against Spain’s anti-piracy Sinde Law, and highlighting the censorship of journalist Carmen Aristegui in Mexico.
Sunday’s viral threat adds to growing calls in Colombia for an end to bullfighting. Both Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro and Governor of Antioquia Sergio Fajardo refused to attend this year’s bullfighting festivals, while on Saturday, protesters in Medellin took to the streets wearing only black underwear and red body paint to spell out the word STOP in protest at the controversial sport.
