14 DAY TRIAL // The Syrian Electronic Army has set its sights on Matthew VanDyke, the American documentary filmmaker who has recently released a short film on Syria called “Not Anymore: A Story of Revolution.”
The hacktivists are unhappy with the way the 14-minute film – released for free on YouTube – portrays the situation in Syria.
In the video’s description on the video sharing website, VanDyke notes, “Now is the time to mobilize and tell your country's leaders that you want intervention in Syria to stop the bloodshed and bring freedom to 20 million people.”
Because of this, the Syrian Electronic Army has targeted the filmmaker’s Facebook and email account. On their website, the hackers have published what appears to be VanDyke’s private Facebook conversations and emails.
In a live interview they had with Matthew Keys on Wednesday, the hackers claimed that the man was a “criminal.”
“He is a self-admitted criminal and a mercenary and the contents of his private conversations were released in full to prevent him from claiming they were tampered with. The volume is just too great and there are too many confirmations by ex-friends who want to wash their hands of him,” SEA member Th3Pr0 said.
In response to the numerous accusations brought against him by the Syrian Electronic Army and others, VanDyke posted the following statement on Facebook:
“If one more person on the revolution side posts those ridiculous lies about me, I quit. What's wrong with people. And I'm not really even talking about the hilarious stuff the Syrian Electronic Army made up, I'm talking about the incredibly offensive lies being told by some on our own side about my speech in Canada.”
He added, “You are the type that are causing us to lose this war. You're so treacherous and self-destructive that the shabiha are probably reading your posts and cheering you on.”