2024-05-03 16:26:10
Thousands of Georgians have been demonstrating against a controversial law for days. Now the demonstrators are getting support – from hackers.
The protests in the Georgian capital Tbilisi continue. Now the hacker collective Anonymous has also intervened in the conflict between demonstrators and the pro-Russian government. The hackers hijacked the websites of the ruling party, the pro-government television station POS TV and the Ministry of the Interior and took them offline.
In a message on Telegram, the hackers said they would hack and then publish the email accounts and personal information of all government officials if violence against the protesters did not stop.
Law based on the Russian model
The stumbling block for the protests was the passing of a law. This stipulates that organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funds from abroad must register as foreign agents.
The demonstrators accuse the government of wanting to use this law to silence critical organizations. A similar law was introduced in Russia in 2012 and was significantly tightened again in 2022. Under Russian law, not only organizations but also private individuals can be branded as foreign agents. Since the tightening, financing from abroad is no longer necessary; it is enough to be assessed as being “influenced by foreign countries”.