OK — so this is a little outside our normal scope of pickup-related topics.

But given the recent events in Paris, it’s something we simply couldn’t ignore.

On November 13th, the capital of France suffered a series of coordinated terrorist attacks that took the lives of close to 130 people, and left many more seriously injured.

The attacks occurred across multiple “touch points” in the Saint-Denis suburb of Paris.

Suicide bombings, hostage abductions, and mass shootings were just some of the tactics used across 5 separate locations in Saint-Denis that evening.

But amidst the headlines of loss and tragedy we’ve seen over the last week, a glimmer of hope has recently emerged:

“#OpParis: Anonymous takes down 5,500 ISIS Twitter accounts”

Less than 24 hours ago, the “Hacktivist” group Anonymous announced that they had successfully shut down thousands of ISIS Twitter accounts.

On the surface, it may not exactly seem like such a big deal.

But it’s actually far more important than you might think.

Fact is this: ISIS relies heavily on social media for a variety of efforts, including recruitment, information sharing, and you guessed — planning and coordinating attacks.

Which means that taking down 5,500 Twitter accounts is not simply a way of cutting ISIS leaders off from the social world.

It’s literally the equivalent of shutting down 5,500 major ‘Caliphate’ information systems, military offenses and propaganda publications.

Oh, but there’s a catch…

Oddly enough, hackers and Hacktivist groups alike have faced serious scrutiny from political entities and international governments over the past decade.

Famous information ‘leakers’ associated with the hacking world — such as Edward Snowden (ex-CIA) and Julian Assange (WikiLeaks founder) — have angered governments for ‘threatening’ private communications and data.

Administrations have swiftly acted to stop these men, along with thousands of other “digital information threats” in order to protect political secrecy.

In fact, many governments of the western world have gone so far as to name these people and groups Cyber Terrorists…some even appearing across scores of international ‘Most Wanted’ lists.

And our friends over at Anonymous happen to be part of that so-called Cyber Terrorism hitlist.

Anonymous, a group that started as a joke on 4chan, has been patrolling the Internet since 2003.

Their motto, so to speak: we are mortals who believe and work towards an idea — which is immortal.

Critics say their efforts are reminiscent of a “cyber lynch mob.”

But after what we’ve seen from them in recent days — specifically their success in infiltrating seemingly impenetrable ISIS groups — I think you’d be hard-pressed to call their efforts anything short of heroic.

Events like the November 13th Paris attacks, Charlie Hebdo, the Madrid train attacks, London double-decker suicide bombing, and of course perhaps the most devastating of all — 9/11 — are just a few of the many reminders of the serious threat the western world faces from scattered extremist fundamental groups… who quite frankly, have given the millions of peaceful Muslims throughout the world a bad name.

And government counter-actions following these attacks have been anything but successful. Let the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as our continued drone strikes across the Middle East serve as warning that sometimes the best weapon is not war itself.

But information… and the ability to cut terrorist groups’ informational streams off.

We can only hope that larger political entities will see the benefit of attacking these groups from behind the screen, rather than on the battlefield. Not only could that save civilian and soldier casualties, it could also protect troops who would otherwise return from war with lifelong injuries or mental illnesses.

Win, win, win. Right?

Maybe our governments will start to feel the same way, and show some support for Hacktivist groups like Anonymous…who have managed to cause severe damage without sacrificing a single drop of blood.

Anyone else down to make love, and “digital” war with us…?

Reposted here with permission from simplepickup.com. Original article can be found at http://www.simplepickup.com/article/11092/take-that-terrorists.