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In a very unexpected move, while SOPA support dithered in US Congress, FBI continued it’s operations against file-sharing sites. The first to be hit was Megaupload.com which was taken down by FBI on charges of copyright infringement. But that is just the beginning of the story. As soon as FBI took down Megaupload, the famous hacktivist group Anonymous launched a massive cyber-war against US government, content production agencies supporting SOPA and other anti-piracy organizations and takes down DoJ, RIAA, MPAA, Universal Music.

As soon as FBI took down Megaupload, it was literally a cyberwar online. Anonymous activated it’s hacktivists within minutes and in a bid to retaliate the Megaupload-pull down, they started attacking different websites responsible for SOPA.

The first one to go down was the website of US Department of Justice, which had effectively passed a verdict against Megaupload. Next target was Universal Music Group and Motion Picture Association websites. Both of these organizations have been active proponents of SOPA since, according to them, their content shared on file-sharing sites cost them a huge fortune.

The next target was the website of Recording Industry Association of America. As the name suggests, it’s a conglomeration of some of the major US content producers and has been actively supporting SOPA. Anonymous also claimed taking down copyright.gov.

Currently, Anonymous has launched an attack on whitehouse.gov and fbi.gov and are attacking both these websites through DDoS attacks. The live chat of anonymous hacktivists can be viewed on Twitter under the hashtag #OpPayBack. The hash tag stands for Operation Pay Back, which is Anonymous’ response to the MegaUpload pull-down.

Right now, Twitter has pulled the plug on #OpPayBack so that the hashtag is no longer trending. But by clicking on the link above, you can follow the hashtag manually.

Image courtesy liryon.

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