The activist group of hackers known as Anonymous has taken credit for disabling the Formula 1 website ahead of the league’s race in Bahrain April 20-22.
The group, in a press release posted online April 19, expressed “growing alarm” at the Bahrain government’s crackdown on protests in the Gulf state.
Promotional image for the race reads "Unified - One Nation in Celebration." |
“As of tomorrow, Friday - April 20, 2012 the entire global Anonymous will begin to take up the cause of the Bahrain Revolution,” said the statement. “The King of Bahrain be warned, we are about to unleash the worst sh*****rm you have ever seen - and your time as dictator is over. We will help your people remove you from power, and we will see you tried in the Hague for your many crimes against humanity.”
The site was restored April 20.
The auto news site Jalopnik said the group used a distributed denial of service attack to bring down the Formula 1 site. The group posted a statement on the racing site calling the campaign #OpBahrain.
The Bahrain Grand Prix begins April 21. Human Rights Watch and other groups lobbied Formula 1 to move the event.
“Formula One is being taken as a PR [event] for the ruling elite,” Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, said in a press conference April 18.
Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa told reporters today, “Cancelling the race just powers extremists. Having it allows us to build bridges and celebrate our nation as an idea that's positive.” A promotional website for the race uses the tagline "Unified - One Nation in Celebration."
The Bahraini uprising started last February but gained momentum last month when more than 100,000 people took part in a protest march in the country, sparking a violent crackdown by police and government officials.
Bell Pottinger and Qorvis Communications are among firms working PR for the Bahraini government since the uprising last year.
Earlier this month, the website of Bahraini airline Gulf Air, a key sponsor of the grand prix race, was hacked with the photo of an anti-government activist replacing the carrier’s logo.