14 DAY TRIAL // Anonymous hackers accuse the Church of Scientology of abusing Craigslist to recruit new members. The hacktivists say they’ve tried to put an end to it, but they claim Craigslist favors the Church.
Anonymous and the controversial Church of Scientology have never gotten along. The hackers initiated a campaign against the organization, dubbed Operation Chanology, back in 2008. Since then, Scientology has been the target of several attacks.
Now, the hackers have told Business Insider that the Church is violating Craigslist’s terms of service by posting a large number of ads all across the US and Canada in an effort to recruit new members.
Anonymous hackers claim that they have repeatedly notified Craigslist and have even tried to post ads of their own to warn those who think of joining Scientology.
“TO RID YOUR BODY of the hundreds of invisible dead alien spirits that are clinging to it, you need to take the initiative. Success requires personal motivation. So why are we covered in clingy dead alien spirits? And why are they always invisible?” reads one of the ads posted by Anonymous.
It continues, “Why do we occasionally have bad things happen, which are actually the fault of these clingy, invisible, dead, alien spirits? The How to Rid Your Body of Invisible Dead Alien Spirits Course answers these questions.”
However, the hacktivists say that their ads are flagged almost immediately. They suspect that the Church of Scientology is either using special flagging software, which customers are banned from using, or Craigslist simply ignores the ads of the Church while taking down the ones of Anonymous members.
“We are outraged that this continues to happen under the supervision of Craigslist, and they have seemingly chosen to do nothing,” one of the hackers has told Business Insider.
We’ve reached out to Craigslist to see if they can comment on these allegations. We’ll update the post if they respond to our inquiry.