Anonymous hacks Westboro Baptist Church website during live confrontation

From The David Pakman Show: "A source from Anonymous confronts Shirley Phelps-Roper from the Westboro Baptist Church, calling the supposed letter sent to Westboro by Anonymous a hoax." While he is talking on the show, the Westboro Baptist Church website and other affiliated sites were hacked and replaced with Anonymous notices.

Anonymous defaces Westboro site during live interview

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Anonymous

Timothy 2:11-12
A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.
sum.zero

are we sure that wbc didn’t do this to their own site?
- Mantissa128
  
  I don’t know who’s trolling who anymore…
kpkpkp

It would have been more impressive if her video feed were snipped mid sentence.
Anonymous

God of Love? The westboro babtist is not a “church”, it is a hate group. They are in it for the money and the press. Most of the members of this “church” are attorneys, so they get away with this. Any one can say they are a “church”, that is not going to make you a Church! This is not about freedom, it is about being human. There hate is a way for them to make money, by bringing a Lawsuit against people THEY have provoked. They are running a â€œchurchâ€ scam. But, add a bit of crazy on the side just for show.
- SamSam
  
  Sure it’s a church. And it’s views are not too different from the Catholic Church in the 15th century, or the Mormon church less than 50 years ago, or Pat Robertson, or certain orthodox Jewish sects, or Islamic fundamentalists….
  
  It’s only recently that everyone decided that if it’s not preaching love-thy-neighbor then it’s not a “true” church or it’s not “true” Christianity.
  
  If, not too long ago, you asked any of the Christian/Semitic religious leaders whether “God hates fags,” the vast majority of them would answer yes wholeheartedly (after you explained to them what the sin in question was).
  
  You can disagree with them, but don’t pretend that this is a historically normal part of religions in general and Christianity in particular.
  - SamSam
    
    Woops, my comment should read “don’t pretend that this _isn’t_ a historically normal part of religions…”
Anonymous

She’s great at overtalking, and thinks this is all so funny.
What an ass clown.
Anonymous

It’s over 9000!
Anonymous

WOw, that lady is so annoying… so much sarcasm and even more annoying-ness… I think she actually knows why it’s down, but she’s using her sarcasm to put the blame to anonymous.

I’m agnostic and don’t care shit about religion, but she’s just so annoying… I’m not taking sides here, but if she’s a real religious person with her religious values in place, she won’t be talking that way. It’s just plain wrong and annoying.
Anonymous

I wonder since she’s acting as the spokesperson for WBC, and she told Anon to “Bring it on”. Is all hacking against WBC now legal since permission was issued?
quail

My hope had been that someone hacked her PC during the webcam interview and caused her Logic webcam/skype software/what have you to add silliness to her image. You know, like birthday hats. Or Sesame Street characters to be sitting beside her… That would have been grand.

Ditto on the loving of The Batman battling a great white shark with a light saber as being awesome.

But still, those crazies do have a right to free speech.
SamSam

WBC sites are all still down, five days later: westborobaptistchurch, godhatesfags and godhatesamerica.
xxuviolkd

That screen shot is SO FREAKING sexy! I may just have to go lie down for awhile. Give it to them, Anon; and suck it WBC.

Such asses.

And yes, Anon took the bait, and yes WBC benefits a bit, but it still feels really good.

And I’m not even spiteful, usually.
Jonathan

Sometimes the lulz really do justify the means.
Anonymous

Any set of rules or laws are a guideline for behavior. Personally, I think we’ve mutated a lot of precious privileges into “Rights.” NO ONE should have the “Right” to show such disgusting disrespect at the funerals of those who died to protect these “Rights.” The actions of this “Church” and its participants in such a despicable and revolting act are beyond reprehensible, plain and simple.
GIFtheory

YHBT. YHL. HAND.
ethancoop

I had to laugh at the ‘over 9000 sins’ bit.

The most powerful defense against WBC is to use the very same scripture they distort, I mean believe in against them. In this case their over-confident windbag quotes Luke 6:45:

‘Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks’

The words flowing from her pie hole indicate that what’s in her heart is anger, pride & provocation.
disneycpalumni

Anyone else catch the over 9,000 sins joke? What over 9000?!!
Was that an intentional DBZ pun?

I almost had to shut it off half way, I couldn’t stand her voice.
boingboingdave

regarding feeding trolls, the seemingly fake release WBC is touting and the fallout resulted in significantly increasing Anon ad revenue. Downed WBC sites do cost WBC money in the loss of any ad revenue on their end, plus the labor of bringing the sites back up when. so they seemed to have given the master a lesson at monetizing trolling
Anonymous

Why,,, on Earth,, does anyone give this grinning ghoul any attention? Thats what this broken nutter wants.
Anonymous

Saw a Programme on the BBC last night about this church. They are just crazy idiots with about as much brains as a cell in pile of flea dump. Total tools ! The views they hold are just bizarre, you wonder whether they really believe this crap, or are they just a bunch of fame hungry whores, looking for attention ! I just laughed at them because they were so stupid. I feel sorry for the families they persecute with the pickets. If they did this at a funeral I was attending, I could not stand back, they would finish the day with a few black eyes & that’s the minimum.
Digilante

Wow… whatever drug this girl is on, I want to get me some.
Anonymous

This just goes to show how nuts WBC people are. She looks like the preacher from Poltergeist 2.
Reverend Loki

WBC has often taken aim at the military before, protesting at soldier’s funerals, etc. However, Fred Phelps is a lawyer, and made his name initially as a civil rights lawyer. Did a lot of good once fighting Jim Crow laws and bringing civil suits combating segregation and racism.

Interesting note, his law firm sued Ronald Reagan when he appointed an ambassador to the Vatican, citing a violation of the “Separation of Church and State”.

/Doesn’t mean his clan isn’t a bunch of scumbags for their current practices.
//Yes, I did get that all from Wikipedia
///Being in the nearest major metro to Topeka, all too familiar with their shenanigans
- AirPillo
  
  Was a lawyer. He got disbarred when beating his kids wasn’t enough fun anymore and he started threatening to fuck up his opponents in the courtroom.
turn_self_off

even odds that it was staged.
Anonymous

I do not condone or encourage illegal activities…

But the conviction rate for arson in the United States is damn low.
Danny haszard

Harassment by religious extremist

Jehovah’s Witnesses instigated court decisions in 1942 which involved cursing a police officer calling him a fascist and to get in your face at the door steps,….this same JW 1942 court decision upheld infamous Phelps hate church in 2011
—-
Danny Haszard, more on this group
http://www.dannyhaszard.com
cstatman

i wonder how God can love WBC, and hate me? viva Anon
Thorzdad

Soooo…Anonymous finally went for the bait? I mean, that notice talk all about how Anonymous ignored the bait. But, now they bit.
Anonymous

I speak on behalf of all Christendom when saying this woman and her church are not preaching the love and forgiveness of Christ. They’re an embarrassment to those who Love God and an embarrassment to the Body of Christ.
yosemite

This just gets better and better.
RustyTrawler

I guess it’s funny, but it’s all the more attention for those publicity whores at Westboro. They’re not really a church, they are a well-oiled scamming machine, and publicity is their fuel. I doubt they mind being hacked all that much.
- mdh
  
  What’s funny is seeing the WBC thinking anyone is actually in charge over at Anonymous.
- TooGoodToCheck
  
  Yeah. It’s hard to learn not to feed the trolls.
Anonymous

Is it a splinter group? I have always been under the impression that Anonymous is, oddly enough, rather cohesive. am I wrong
- enkiv2
  
  Anonymous consists entirely of splinters. Whenever anons are grouped together, it is therefore a splinter group!
Lobster

Anyone ever see that Japanese gameshow, where they’d goad a spider into fighting with a centipede or something?

I feel like that’s what we’re watching here. The winner isn’t going to get a hug, is what I’m saying.
Anonymous

“over 9000 sins”

“Oh, you keep track?”

Woooooosh.
Anonymous

Dan: Well, he pulled it on Rorschach, and Rorschach dropped him down an elevator shaft.
…(Momentary pause)
Laurie: PHAAA HA HA HA! Oh, God, I’m sorry, that isn’t funny, Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!

Sort of like that.
SamSam

WBC website is down.

But that shouldn’t prevent you from trying to reach westborobaptistchurch.com and maybe setting an autorefresh for every five seconds. You know, just in case it comes back up.
Anonymous

I hope they stole and published compromising information instead of just defacing the website.
Jake0748

Ugh…
WBC is smarmy in addition to being evil.
Anonymous

Not very clever, considering what they (probably another group of people) managed with the HBGary hack, i.e. to quietly monitor the communications after entering their network. Putting up a big “you got hacked!” message just notifies the people that, well, they got hacked, and will lead them to close and secure their systems. Whereas staying quiet for a few weeks, months or years would lead to perhaps more rewarding results…
Soliloquy

“Apparently, however, Anonymous was not pleased with [...] a spokeswoman’s reported remarks that the group exists because its members’ parents didn’t spank them as children.”

Oo, okay. I’ll take that spanking now if you want to give it to me, WBC.
macho

OVER 9000 SINS
- Anonymous
  
  this was awesome because she didn’t get it at all.
Anonymous

IF they did do this, it’s the best thing they’ve ever done.

Phil’s Stock World is live on Facebook! Check it out and “like.”
Project_kappa

I thoroughly enjoy living in an era where the man represented by Batman fighting a shark is the rational party in an argument.
- erissian
  
  I haven’t used a .sig in years, but that’s about to change.
- Lucifer
  
  thanks for clearing that up. I could not make out what the heck that image was…
Lucifer

The WBC is the prototypical trolling entity. The simple principle that feeding a troll only makes it bigger applies here. The bigger the voice that engages the WBC, the more power the WBC gains. Here, Anonymous sort of plays into that hand and falls prey to it. Anonymous may have taken down a website but this somehow amplifies the WBC’s profile thanks to this exchange. Can you imagine if Obama or some other high profile public figures started using up a lot of mainstream media bandwidth? the WBC would become more and more notorious, famous, and would own the limelight and will achieve its viral goal of infecting us all by ruining everyone’s mood by making us into hateful people once and for all. Hatred for the WBC does not translate into the peaceful serenity of embracing principles of tolerance and acceptance.
- Anonymous
  
  i don’t agree with that, i think the more they’re heard, the more likely authorities will be under pressure to limit their scope outside of the church itself. Just like the koran burning preacher. if they gain critical mass, they will be unceremoniously sat upon by the powers that be.
  - AirPillo
    
    It’s probably a lot healthier for us as a society of citizens to be the cure to a problem, when possible, instead of waiting for our governments to have to step in and handle it for us.
    
    We don’t want to start viewing our government as the parent who steps in and fixes the problems when us private citizen kids can’t.
- Church
  
  Here, Anonymous sort of plays into that hand and falls prey to it.
  
  Not necessarily. The WBC model is to incite people to violate their civil rights and then sue them over it. That gets a little trickier once Anon gets involved. It seems like an oversight for WBC to pick this fight.
  - Brainspore
    
    WBC thrives off of free publicity as much as lawsuits.
    - Church
      
      WBC thrives off of free publicity as much as lawsuits.
      
      No, they really don’t. Nobody (or close enough to make no difference) gives them money willingly. They rely on lawsuits to bring in the bacon. The Klan has distanced themselves from the WBC, for perspective.
      - Brainspore
        
        I didn’t say they make their money from free publicity, I said they thrive off it. Why do you think they agreed to call off their protest at the funeral of that 9-year-old shooting victim in exchange for radio airtime?
      - Church
        
        I didn’t say they make their money from free publicity, I said they thrive off it.
        
        Oh, to be sure they don’t follow their business model optimally. I’m just pointing out how they actually make their money.
        
        Soooo…Anonymous finally went for the bait? I mean, that notice talk all about how Anonymous ignored the bait. But, now they bit.
        
        Yes, and no. Anon isn’t a singular entity (despite how both they and the media want to portray it.) So, I could have done this call-in and you’d end up with similar results (and I’ve never partaken in an Anon project until now.) That said, I think he/they pulled it off fairly well there.
      - Brainspore
        
        Oh, to be sure they don’t follow their business model optimally. I’m just pointing out how they actually make their money.
        
        It all goes to the same end. The more free publicity the church gets the more people get pissed off enough to do something that WBC can sue them over.
  - TooGoodToCheck
    
    I think the theorized WBC play is to invite a DDOS, then send lawsuits to every IP address involved. That kind of makes sense. However, one tends to assume that your more 1337 flavor of hacker will have countermeasures to prevent that.
    
    However, I’m not sure that this is actually a mistake on the part of the WBC. Having their site hacked costs them basically nothing, and gets them a lot of free publicity. And if some kids make the mistake of trying to DDOS them from non-proxied machines, within the US, then WBC will have someone to sue.
    
    WBC doesn’t have to take down Anonymous. If what they want is attention and some fodder for lawsuits, then WBC still looks to be coming out ahead on this one.
    
    There’s a lot of freedom to be had in having nothing to lose, and WBC doesn’t seem to have any skin in the game. they’ve got no respect to lose. There are basically no potential converts to be soured by this. Public confrontation is win-win for the WBC.
    - toxonix
      
      Since the DDOS comes from botnets controlled by Anonymous, the actual IP addresses of the attackers would belong to clueless morons like the members of the WBC itself.
  - yosemite
    
    I agree. I also love that your comment reads “Church in reply to Lucifer.” Amen, sister. Amen.
    - mdh
      
      similarly, “yosemite in reply to church”.
- Mark Frauenfelder
  
  You have a really good point. It’s awfully hard not to feed trolls; I do it all the time.
Anonymous

I LOVE ANONYMOUS! Keep it up guys! You rock! This was hilarious.
Anonymous

She calls ANONYMOUS “criminals and thugs” and THEY are the same–the things they do are thuggish and borderline criminal.
Anonymous

I thought that dumb b**** said they couldn’t be silenced? Their websites have been down for 3 days.
Ha.
Team Anonymous!
delt664

Crazy granny godtard trying to interweb?

Hilarious!
- MrWednesday
  
  Granny? WTF
Anonymous

I would just like to add that I would like to commit a sin with the guy behind the anonymous voice on this video. Lust is a sin, right?
Anonymous

geez, even twitter was talking about it? who talks to him anymore?
rrh

Note that he mentions someone going by the pseudonym “Jester” and she refers to him as “the military guy” and then goes on to sarcastically disparage the military.

So, she recognizes the name, and she will take the slightest opportunity to insult entire categories of people.

I think all opportunities should be taken to ask if God hates lawyers. I mean, lawyers are a commonly disparaged category of people, and members of the WBC like to disparage entire categories of people, so it would be interesting to hear one of them talk about lawyers.
nate_freewheel

She’s checking to see if godhateshackers.com is taken.
Oskar

Reading that notice that they put up on the website, Anonymous is acting shockingly mature here (well, except for the illegal hacking, obviously), certainly more so than WBC. They clearly state that they have no interest in engaging with the WBC and they support their right to free speech. They only did this because they had been slandered and needed to defend themselves, and now they’re done. Hell, by exposing their entire network on the notice, they may even have made the church regret their trolling, something that probably has never happened before.

I’m no fan of Anonymous generally, but I gotta give them a little cred for this. A teensy bit, anyway.
- SamSam
  
  Reading that notice that they put up on the website, Anonymous is acting shockingly mature here (well, except for the illegal hacking, obviously), certainly more so than WBC. They clearly state…
  
  The letter was almost certainly the work of one individual, and individuals can be as mature as they want. Also, I think that the most respected and close-knit group of hackers are indeed generally older and more mature than the typical anonymous member. If that letter had been group-written by /b/, there would have been a lot more pedobear and racist jokes.
Anonymous

And he does it like it ain’t no thang.
Anonymous

That woman reminds me of the sort of trashtalking douchebag kids in online games – you know, the sort who have two or three lines they repeat at whoever they’re angry with, and then declare victory.
incubeth

I, for one, welcome our new Anonymous overlords.
- delt664
  
  I second that sentiment.
  
  I herd you liek mudkips?
  - falnfenix
    
    lol mudkipz.
Anonymous

I’ve always dreamed that Anons would somehow find a way to pit Scientology against WBC. Sort of a cult death match for all to see. That would be truly epic.
- Anonymous
  
  oh yeah! quick, someone make godhatesxenu.com! WBC copypasta with known scientology lawsuit-bait! It’s too perfect!