Anonymous hack Ugandan government site

The self-described “collective super conscious” called Anonymous, a hacktivist collective that brings government and corporate internet sites to their knees to attract worldwide media attention to particular issues, has hacked into websites of Ugandan government officials to protest that country’s anti-LGBT policies.

Anonymous claimed to have total control of the president’s website, and posted statements in support of gay rights and an apology to LGBTI people on the prime minister's site.

Anonymous has been criticised for using an image of a Ugandan activist in its fake presidential posts, with a Ugandan activist claiming it could put the person’s life at risk.

An excerpt from one of the messages posted by Anonymous reads:

“Anonymous has hacked and defaced several Ugandan government websites in support of LGBT pride and in retaliation for draconian and inhumane anti-gay government policies.

Ugandan Pride!

You have been warned, repeatedly to expect us.

Your violations of the rights of LGBT people have disgusted us. ALL people have the right to live in dignity free from the repression of someone else’s political and religious beliefs.

You should be PROUD of your LGBT citizens, because they clearly have more balls than you will ever have.Real Ugandan Pride is demonstrated in standing up to oppression despite fearing the abuse, torture and murder inflicted on LGBT at the hands of the corrupt government.”

Melanie Nathan, an LGBTI equality and human rights advocate based in San Francisco, wrote on her blog earlier this week that the Ugandan legislature has long been evaluating an anti-homosexuality bill, "that seeks to impose the death sentence for so-called aggravated homosexual behaviour and also seeks to imprison those guilty of the so-called 'promotion of homosexuality'."

At the start of August, a small group of Ugandans held a gay pride event.

"The importance of this Pride event cannot be understated," Nathan wrote in The Advocate. "The fact that these brave activists could pull this off in this milieu of persecution is a great victory for the community."