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Wednesday, Feb 13, 2013 1:50 PM UTC

Anonymous’ SOTU threat comes to nothing

The online feeds of the president's address proceeded without interruption

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Topics: Anonymous, sotu, cispa, Cybersecurity, State of the Union, Barack Obama, #opsotu, ,

Anonymous' SOTU threat comes to nothing (Credit: Pedro Rufo / Shutterstock)

As Salon noted Tuesday, in a communiqué decrying the President Obama’s civil liberties record, Anonymous had threatened to disrupt the online feeds broadcasting the State of the Union address. However, the White House livestreams worked without a hitch for the entirety of Obama’s Tuesday night speech.

No statements have been issued as of yet about the failed #OpSOTU, but a number of comments on Twitter asked whether Anons who would have otherwise contributed to the operation were distracted watching live footage of ex-LAPD cop Christopher Dorner’s last stand in Big Bear while the president delivered his address.

Anonymous had vowed to block the webcast in protest of Obama’s signing of the NDAA, his drone program, the proliferation of government warrantless wiretapping, the treatment of Bradley Manning and the introduction of cyber-security legislation in the House, which the hacker collective said would turn “private companies into government informants.”

During his State of the Union address, Obama announced an executive order on cybersecurity, which may reduce pressure in Congress to push forward with the controversial CISPA bill. According to CNet, the executive order doesn’t appear to include CISPA’s most contentious aspects, namely it doesn’t “rewrite privacy laws by allowing companies to share confidential information with intelligence agencies without oversight.” However, the president has also given support to Congress to reintroduce CISPA on Wednesday.

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com. More Natasha Lennard.

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