The group says that such systems were created under the auspices of counter-terrorism, but their real purpose is to spy on citizens and encroach on freedoms.
“We call you to act now against overall surveillance systems,” the group posted. “Worldwide governments are about to demolish privacy with Systems like TrapWire and Indect. Those network surveillance technologies sniff the CCTV cameras, government databases and the Internet to identify people and make a profile of citizens, their families and their socializing.
“They pretend to design those systems to secure us against terrorism, but the truth is they have been working on surveillance systems way before the first terrorist attacks happened.”
Anonymous said that one of the planned actions includes Smash a Cam Saturday, urging participants to “target any camera with IP/internet connectivity.”
“We are asking everyone to sabotage at least one CCTV per week on what we are calling Smash A Cam Saturday,” it said.
Meanwhile, a series of three video messages have been posted on we-are-legion.com in English, French and German. “We call all activists over the world, from South and North America, from Asia, from Africa, from Australia and Oceania, from the Arab spring and from the European Union, to be a part of the protest, against surveillance systems,” the transcript (posted on Pastebin) reads.
The call to action goes on to become rather fervent: “Act now and spread the word in your mother tongue, enter your countries and cities, in the pad linked on the description of this video,” it said. “It’s time to act, it’s time to show the governments of the world, who we are, it’s time to show humanity stands as united, it is time to show what freedom means to us…Governments are supposed to defend the interest of their peoples. They are not here to cheat the citizens. It’s our Freedom and our privacy.”