Anonymous hints at payback for pro-ACTA MEPs

The battle against ACTA may be over in Europe, but it looks as though elements of Anonymous may still have their sights set on the paltry few MEPs who voted in favour of the copyright enforcement treaty.

On Wednesday the European Parliament overwhelmingly rejected the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement by 478 votes to 39, with 165 abstentions that mostly comprised members of the EPP, the only major bloc in the Parliament to support ACTA. However, later in the day, one of the more-followed Anonymous Twitter accounts seemed to suggest some reprisal against the 39 that voted for the agreement.

"OHAI. Expect us," a tweet from the AnonyOps account read, before reproducing a link to a list of the 39. The only British name on that list was that of Bill Newton Dunn, a Liberal Democrat MEP.

Hackers associating themselves with Anonymous have in the past launched attacks in protest at the now-dead treaty.

The most notable of those attacks took place early this year, just after the European Commission and 21 member states signed ACTA. One prong of that attack targeted the website of Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, who subsequently turned against ACTA — but more likely in response to massive protests hitting Polish streets than the Anonymous attack.

However, the main attack targeted the European Parliament: a spectacularly misguided move, since the Parliament had nothing to do with signing ACTA and, indeed, went on to reject ratification of the treaty on behalf of the entire union.