14 DAY TRIAL // The Twitter account of Anders Breivik, the man who confessed to the attacks earlier this month in Norway, has been hijacked by hackers associated with the Anonymous collective.
The attackers originally impersonated Breivik, making it look as if he was using his Twitter account himself, an unlikely possibility since he is currently in arrest.
The hackers later admitted in a tweet that "This Twitter account has been seized by #NORIA. @AnonymousNorway."
They also revealed that their intention is to get people to forget Breivik, although it's unclear how hijacking his Twitter account and bringing attention to it helped achieve that goal.
"We want Anders to be forgotten. Labels like ‘monster’ or ‘maniac’ won’t do either. Media should call him pathetic; a nothing. #Forgethim," another tweet read.
The account was eventually returned to its original state, with only Breivik's original message being displayed. This is a quote from philosopher John Stuart Mill and reads: "One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100 000 who have only interests."
A week ago Anonymous launched Operation Unmanifest, an effort to create bogus copies of Breivik's 1516-page manifesto called "2083 – A European Declaration of Independence."
"Republish it everywhere and up vote releases from other peoples, declare that the faked ones are original. Let Anders become a joke, such that nobody will take him serious anymore," the activists said at the time.
Breivik, a right-wing extremist with Islamophobic views, claims he committed his atrocious crimes because he wanted to punish the Norwegian Labour Party for its policies. On 22 July 2011 he set off a bomb in downtown Oslo close to governmental buildings, and later opened fire against teenagers camped on the island of Utøya, killing a total of 77 people. The youngest victim was 14 years old.