Anonymous gears up for June 9 nationwide protests

Tomorrow, the 9th of June, 2012 may be the weekend for some, but for others it is a date marked on their calendar under - Anonymous Protests. Throughout the nation, the popular hacktivist group will conduct a series of protests, voicing their opinions that are strongly against Internet censorship - a wave that has been trending in our country, since a while now. A press release, on the group’s blog further mentions that the protests will take place, as planned by 4PM IST, tomorrow. On the group’s official blog page, details about the protest have been listed down. 

Gearing up for June 9

For one, the group has specified that it wants the protest to be a peaceful one and to this end it has listed down the following directives - 

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• The protest is a Non-Violent one.
• Protesters may not use vehicles to protest as this may cause accidents, please keep vehicles out of the protest crowd.
• One shall not keep any harmful items like weapons, stones etc with oneself.
• Those who can wear the Guy Fawkes Mask. Printable version is available on the web. 
• Please bring placards, banners etc that you can prepare so for the cause.
• For whom it is possible bring cameras and record events. Use your smart phone to stream it online using ustream. This will give us proof if something bad is attempted at the protest.
• IF POLICE BLOCKS THE WAY, STAY 50Mts MIN AWAY. DO NOT CONFRONT THEM.
• Fire or burning at all of any figures or material is to NOT be done.
• Please hand over anyone who causes violence to the police.
• Protest well, our future may depend on it.

Interestingly, the Guy Fawkes Mask written about in the directive is up for sale across eBay and Amazon. Tomorrow, as aforementioned, across different cities in the country, the group will hold their now widely publicized peace protests. here’s a list of the cities and loactions where the protests will be held - 

• Occupy Mumbai -  Azad Maidan, Mumbai. Volunteers Needed Join Now 
• Occupy Delhi - India Gate
• Occupy Chandigarh -  The Plaza, Sector 17, Chandigarh.
• Occupy Indore -  Regal Square.
• Occupy Kolkata - South City Mall.
• Occupy Hyderabad -  Necklace Road.
• Occupy Bangalore - M.G. Road.
• Occupy Cochin - Marine Drive.
• Occupy Calicut -  Calicut Beach Opposite To  Beach Hotel.  
• Occupy Nagpur - *tentative*
• Occupy Pune - Shivaji Nagar.
• Occupy Chennai  - *tentative*
• Occupy Ahmedabad - Vastrapur.
• Occupy Jaipur - *tentative*
• Occupy Thiruvananthapuram - *tentative*
• Occupy Mysore - *tentative*
• Occupy Manipal - Manipal.
• Occupy Coimbatore  

As the above list shows, while most protest locations have been confirmed, those in some cities are yet to be finalized. Those planning to join in the protests or wish to simply stay updated with the proceedings of the day can do so by visiting the group’s official page, here.

Regarding their upcoming June 9th protests, as the group’s official press release states - “On June 9th we will be organizing massive protests in multiple locations all over the country and we are calling every one who can be there to be there. We remind the Indian public that trusting a corrupt government to solve corruption and other problems is like expecting a serial killer to catch himself. The movements will assigned within the title of Occupy India that will be kicked off this June 9th. The Cities that are getting ready to take part are Bangalore Delhi Mumbai Culcutta Chennai Kochi Mumbai Hydrabad and many more. Any one who feels they need this movement needs to be in their city can start a FB page for the Occupy City movement and let us know about it. We call on the people to help spread this message and get your friends and family to join this noble cause.”

Web censorship has been a topic of debate in recent times. The gravity of the issue came to light only recently when incidents of hacking in retaliation to web censorship became a frequent occurrence. With the government on one side taking an increasingly active stance in tightening the reins on the way we access content on the web, groups like Anonymous are on the other hand citing free speech. OpIndia is against the banning of entire websites, if only a part of the website infringes copyrights. 

Recently, Reliance acquired John Doe orders to safeguard copyrights of its films. Then, Chennai-based Copyright Labs also acquired the same for movies like Dhammu and 3. This led to the complete blocking of websites, like The Pirate Bay and Vimeo. All this hasn’t gone well with Anonymous, which stands by online freedom. Hence, the protest.