U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley became the latest Twitter hacking victim of the politically charged Internet group Anonymous Monday.
The group of “decentralized individuals promoting free speech,” as their website describes them, hacked Senator Grassley in an effort to promote awareness about the pending SOPA and PIPA bills currently up for consideration in both chambers of Congress.
“Dear Iowans, vote against ACTA, SOPA, and PIPA because this man, Chuck Grassley wants YOUR Internet censored and all of that BS,” tweeted the hacker.
He then went on to give his location of Osage, Iowa and joked that he had nothing better to do than to hack the Iowa Republican because Osage has a “snow day.”
The proposed SOPA and PIPA bills have pitted two strong segments of the U.S. economy against each other, the Hollywood moguls that support it and the Internet giants such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg who staunchly oppose it.
Mr. Grassley was one of the three Senators who originally co-sponsored the Protect Intellectual Property Act bill, which focuses on targeting “rogue foreign websites” that upload and sell popular intellectual property on the Internet. The SOPA and PIPA bills caused several popular Internet websites such as Wikipedia and Google to stage online “SOPA blackouts” for 24 hours last week as a sign of protest to the bill.
Many members of Congress from both chambers came out and rescinded their support for the anti-piracy legislation in response to the online protests. Senator Grassley did not.
According to The Des Moines Register, Senator Grassley has been informed of the hacking while on a flight to Washington D.C. from Iowa.
“We’re trying to get to the bottom of it,” said Grassley spokeswoman Beth Pellett Levine on Monday.
The hackers had Mr. Grassley’s followers confused when they tweeted “I really wanted Herman Cain to get president this year.”
The Anonymous group has hacked other politicians and celebrities before in efforts to promote Internet freedom and freedom of speech. One of their members was interviewed by CNN last week wearing a mask that was popularized by the lead character of the movie “V for Vendetta.”
The hackers are apparently now trying to give Senator Grassley’s staff a way to recover control over the account, as they’ve tweeted an email address to contact them at, in an effort to change the password and give Mr. Grassley control of his tweets back to him.
