Anonymous eyes Europe over 'censorship' measure

Hacktivist group Anonymous are now targeting European websites over a controversial measure that critics said may curtail freedom of expression.

Anonymous is setting its sights on the European Parliament and supporters of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), tech site CNET reported.

"Critics say ACTA is even worse than SOPA in that it allows for closed door negotiations and can't be repealed. The European Parliament is due to vote on ACTA in June," it said.

During the weekend, CNET reported Copyrightalliance.org was inaccessible supposedly after an attack by Anonymous for its pro-ACTA stance.

But the site (www.copyrightalliance.org) was accessible and appeared normal as of February 1.

On the other hand, CNET cited a source familiar with Anonymous' plans who said hackers were poking at the sites of the European Parliament and governments in the EU.

It said they planned to dig up information on officials that could be released publicly.

Anonymous has been involved in operations against supposed antipiracy efforts that may quash rights to freedom of expression on the Internet.

The group joined protests against Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The protests, which included blackouts by tech sites, prompted US lawmakers to suspend proceedings on the measure.

But the takedown by the US government of popular file-hosting site MegaUpload and its operators prompted Anonymous to stage distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on sites like those of the Justice Department, the FBI, Universal Music, the Motion Picture Association of America.

Following the signing by 22 European Union member states of ACTA, the European Parliament's independent monitor for ACTA, Kader Arif of France, resigned.

In Poland, members of Parliament held paper Guy Fawkes masks, the symbol used by Anonymous, in front of their faces to protest ACTA, while Polish citizens demonstrated in the street against ACTA