• Home
  • News
  • Fortune 500
  • Tech
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
Techanonymous

Anonymous Celebrates ISIS Trolling Day

By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
December 11, 2015, 1:03 PM ET
Person wears a Guy Fawkes mask which today is a trademark and symbol for the online hacktivist group Anonymous. 2012.
Person wears a Guy Fawkes mask which today is a trademark and symbol for the online hacktivist group Anonymous. 2012. (Photo by: PYMCA/UIG via Getty Images)Photograph by PYMCA/UIG via Getty Images

If you’ve been looking for your chance to make fun of ISIS, now’s the time.

Social media sites are abuzz on Friday with users targeting the Islamic State, better known as ISIS or ISIL. Web users around the globe are posting images and videos poking fun at ISIS. A surprisingly large number of people have edited images of the militant group’s members, replacing their faces with ducks. The hashtags #ISISTrollingDay, #trollingday, and #Daeshbags have also gone viral. The #Daeshbags hashtag is a reference to the term “Daesh,” another name for ISIS that the militant group reportedly views as derogatory.

The social media posts are part of what hacking collective Anonymous calls ISIS Trolling Day. Earlier this week, Anonymous, which has claimed to have taken down hundreds of social media accounts attributed to ISIS as part of its cyber war against the militant group, called on all Internet users to join its members in ISIS Trolling Day.

“We ask you to show your support and help against ISIS by joining us and trolling them,” the hacking collective wrote on file-sharing website Ghostbin. “Do not think you have to be part of Anonymous, anyone can do this and does not require special skills.”

Anonymous added that it wanted users to take to Facebook (FB), Twitter (TWTR), Instagram, YouTube, and anywhere else in the “real world” to troll ISIS.

Trolling is an Internet term used to define abusive or sometimes-threatening comments. Trolls, as they’re called, often use inflammatory language on forums and comment areas, but have in recent years set up shop on social media.

MORE: Let’s Talk About Anonymous Vs. ISIS

While it’s unlikely that ISIS Trolling Day will do much to disrupt the militant group’s plans, it represents an important show of solidarity against ISIS.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for two tragic attacks in Paris and San Bernardino in the last two months. Anonymous declared cyber war against ISIS after the Paris attacks. Meanwhile, ISIS, which called Anonymous “idiots,” has used social media to celebrate the attacks.

Indeed, ISIS has an extremely sophisticated digital apparatus it uses to recruit new members and share propaganda. ISIS uses social media, as well video-sharing sites like YouTube, to spread its content. While those companies have worked to remove those accounts and scrub ISIS from their services, the militant group is still active online. The militant group has its own smartphone app and uses encrypted messaging service Telegram to communicate.

Lawmakers, including President Obama, as well as major technology executives, like Eric Schmidt, say that more work needs to be done to fight terrorist activity online. Schmidt said in an op-ed in The New York Times earlier this week that the best way forward would be for governments, tech companies, and Internet users to come together and find ways to safeguard the web against hate and harassment.

For now, no solutions have been presented. Still, ISIS Trolling Day aims at getting more people invested in combating ISIS online. And at least so far, it seems to be working.

For more on ISIS and its use of technology, check out the following Fortune video:

Sign up for Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter about the business of technology.

About the Author
By Don Reisinger
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

satellite
AIData centers
Google’s plan to put data centers in the sky faces thousands of (little) problems: space junk
By Mojtaba Akhavan-TaftiDecember 3, 2025
4 hours ago
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., during the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024.
AIMeta
Inside Silicon Valley’s ‘soup wars’: Why Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI are hand-delivering soup to poach talent
By Eva RoytburgDecember 3, 2025
4 hours ago
Greg Abbott and Sundar Pichai sit next to each other at a red table.
AITech Bubble
Bank of America predicts an ‘air pocket,’ not an AI bubble, fueled by mountains of debt piling up from the data center rush
By Sasha RogelbergDecember 3, 2025
5 hours ago
Alex Karp smiles on stage
Big TechPalantir Technologies
Alex Karp credits his dyslexia for Palantir’s $415 billion success: ‘There is no playbook a dyslexic can master … therefore we learn to think freely’
By Lily Mae LazarusDecember 3, 2025
5 hours ago
Isaacman
PoliticsNASA
Billionaire spacewalker pleads his case to lead NASA, again, in Senate hearing
By Marcia Dunn and The Associated PressDecember 3, 2025
5 hours ago
Kris Mayes
LawArizona
Arizona becomes latest state to sue Temu over claims that its stealing customer data
By Sejal Govindarao and The Associated PressDecember 3, 2025
5 hours ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
North America
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos commit $102.5 million to organizations combating homelessness across the U.S.: ‘This is just the beginning’
By Sydney LakeDecember 2, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
Ford workers told their CEO 'none of the young people want to work here.' So Jim Farley took a page out of the founder's playbook
By Sasha RogelbergNovember 28, 2025
5 days ago
placeholder alt text
North America
Anonymous $50 million donation helps cover the next 50 years of tuition for medical lab science students at University of Washington
By The Associated PressDecember 2, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
C-Suite
MacKenzie Scott's $19 billion donations have turned philanthropy on its head—why her style of giving actually works
By Sydney LakeDecember 2, 2025
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Law
Netflix gave him $11 million to make his dream show. Instead, prosecutors say he spent it on Rolls-Royces, a Ferrari, and wildly expensive mattresses
By Dave SmithDecember 2, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Innovation
Google CEO Sundar Pichai says we’re just a decade away from a new normal of extraterrestrial data centers
By Sasha RogelbergDecember 1, 2025
2 days ago
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.