Anonymous' Million Mask March: Photos from Hacktivist Group Global Protest
On Thursday, protesters around the world will march for the Million Mask March, an annual event that the international hacktivist network Anonymous has organized since 2012. According to a press release published Monday by the group, the platform for this year's Million Mask March is "building a better future through collective action."
A Google map of dropped pins in hundreds of cities shows the group's global reach. Each pin details the hours and location of local marches, according to the group. Here's a link to the interactive map, which Anonymous has dubbed "the largest global protest in world history," however such a title hasn't been independently verified.
Aside from a concrete schedule, the worldwide protest's platform seems to be intentionally ambiguous, as Anonymous' manifesto is built on the ability to achieve extreme activism as a faceless collective.
"While individual participants may have different ideas about what a better future looks like, they will be demonstrating together in support of Anonymous' methods and the continued ability for people to congregate under their banner and take actions anonymously," reads the press release from event organizers, however those same authors were quick to deny authority for the group at large. "Anonymous has no leaders or formal membership, and it is not uncommon for different factions of the collective to actively oppose one another."
The hacktivist group claims ownership for advancing justice in any number of social, economic and political issues, including supporting political uprisings in Brazil, Hong Kong, Tunisia and the Philippines, and getting in on the ground floor of the Occupy movement, per the Million Mask March press release. Most recently, on Sunday, the group took responsibility for the release of dozens of names and emails allegedly linked to active Ku Klux Klan members.
In late September, Anonymous launched a cyber attach on the Saudi government over plans to crucify Mohammed al-Nimr, a young Saudi man who was detained at the age of 17 during an anti-government rally and sentenced to death.
On Thursday, protesters from Australia to Brazil, and the U.S. were already marching in full force and flooding social media with photos of the worldwide rally. Here's a roundup of activist-generated pictures Anonymous followers published to Twitter:
