[skip navigation]
A few weeks ago, Internet search engine Lycos pulled its financial support of animal rights web provider |Envirolink.Org| after a story about some of the extremist sites on Envirolink, such as the Animal Liberation Front Information Site, circulated on the web. Since then animal rights activists have been screaming up and down that this is censorship, even though what happened was no different than the results of animal rights activists' own boycott activities -- Lycos decided to stop supporting speech it that its customers disagreed with.
This week the Animal Liberation Front revealed just how committed it is to freedom of speech when it announced the creation of an "Internet Division." In a Sept. 21, 1998 release, ALF announced it would begin hacking web sites, sending mail bombs, launching viruses, initiating denial of service attacks and other unsavory methods to bring down the web sites and Internet access of those with whom it disagrees.
In its release, ALF said,
In this day and age when most large animal abuse establishments have a presence on the Internet they see the world wide web for selling their blood products and for pushing their warped ideals to the masses. As other warriors free animals from concentration camp [sic] around the world, we will take the war to the Internet.
What's next for these people, public book burnings of medical textbooks?
Source:
"Animal Liberation Front Announces New Strategy: Internet Division," North American Animal Liberation Front Press Office, Sept. 21, 1998.