Hacktivists “Anonymous” has claimed that it hacked and defaced the personal website of Union communications and information technology minister Kapil Sibal in protest against Information Technology Act.
The attack was carried out by Anonymous on Thursday and photos and contents of the website are said to have been changed to show the minister in a poor light. “kapil-sibalmp.com #Defaced Emptied IT Act #66A #opindia,” said Twitter account of Anonymous India (@opindia_revenge).
The group has even called for protests in Hyderabad and Bengaluru on Sunday and in Chennai on Tuesday against Section 66 (A) of the IT Act. “The true intention of the law was not to stop individual FB (Facebook) posts and tweets. It was to curb the blogs and online media. And they will silently keep trying to control them. Unless you stand now. And act now,” said Anonymous, while calling the people to come out in protest against the IT Act.
The attack has come at a time when there is a growing campaign against Section 66 (A) of the Information Technology Act that governs online comments. Even the Supreme Court is hearing a PIL on the scraping of the controversial section. On Thursday, a committee under Mr Sibal had decided to issue new guidelines which will make it difficult to arrest people under Section 66 (A).
Section 66 (A) provides for a jail term of up to three years and makes it an offence to send, by means of a computer resource or communication device, any information which is grossly offensive, menacing, causes annoyance or hatred.
There has been a lot of protests against this section from the civil society after two teenaged girls who had objected to a bandh-like situation were arrested under it.