Words by

Andie Sophia Fontaine

Photo by

Anonymous

Anonymous stepped up operations in their #OpWhales campaign, shutting down almost every Icelandic government website for 13 hours in protest against the country’s whaling practices.

Late last night, hacktivist group Anonymous launched another DDOS attack in their #OpWhales campaign. The group effectively shut down every ministry’s website, with the exception of the Ministry of Welfare. RÚV reports these sites were offline for about 13 hours.

Although the sites are back online, Anonymous posted a video, which you can see below, promising that this latest attack is only the beginning.

The #OpWhales tag on Twitter also backs this up, as their official count vows to continue operations until whaling is ceased:

#OpWhales #Anonymous #TeamRektIt 3/5 Iceland Government #TangoDown! The tango will not stop until the killing ends! pic.twitter.com/jiEmkMy8et

— Anonymous (@TeamRektIT) November 27, 2015

In addition to government websites, Anonymous also hit HB Grandi, the company which conducts fin whale hunting in Iceland:

#Anonymous #OpWhales https://t.co/EarHCCt42A is #TangoDown Big key in the killing of fin whales on #Iceland!! pic.twitter.com/9DqyKiGSFO

— Anonymous (@_RektFaggot_) November 8, 2015

Anonymous is also apparently reaching out to individual members of parliament, as Social Democrat MP Katrín Júlíusdóttir – who opposes whale hunting – took to Twitter to express her frustration, saying, “Getting endless spam-tweets against whaling. Tiresome. I have only one thing to say: You are preaching to the choir, people!”:

Fæ endalaus spam – tweet gegn hvalveiðum. Þreytandi. Hef eitt að segja: You are preaching to the choir people! #OpWhales #endangeredspecies

— Katrín Júlíusdóttir (@katrinjul) November 28, 2015

While the campaign targets the hunting of any whales, Anonymous objects in particular to the hunting of fin whales. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified fin whales as endangered, with a moratorium put in place on the breed by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1986.