Illegal Immigration Fighting Organization Silenced by Google & YouTube Attack
Illegal Immigration Fighting Organization Silenced by Google & YouTube Attack
For National Release
January 26, 2012
Contact: Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC)
(866) 703-0864 / Press@alipac.us
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Google Inc. gave an illegal immigration supporting activist access to the popular YouTube account of the national organization Americans For Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) at 1:15pm Eastern Time on Sunday January 15, 2012. Within one hour, the attacker had changed the password to the account, defaced the account, and deleted the over 100 videos that ALIPAC had uploaded since 2007 which had been viewed over 4.3 million times.
ALIPAC is issuing a public notice to supporters and the national media about this attack and is calling on Google Inc. to restore the YouTube account ALIPAC1. We are also calling on the FBI to launch an investigation into this attack on our civil rights and to pursue the person or persons responsible for violating the civil rights of our political organization's supporters. This 'black hat' attack comes at a time when the American public has growing concerns about free speech restricting legislation such as PIPA and SOPA!
Since the attack, ALIPAC has contacted Google Inc. five times using their "Hijacked Account" form online, with ten faxes to Google offices around the country, two certified letters, and several useless calls to Google offices requesting the account be restored. Online information indicates that Google has the ability to restore hijacked and defaced accounts. The account ALIPAC1 was listed as being in good standing with YouTube's policies at the time of the attack, yet Google Inc. has failed to restore the account or respond to ALIPAC's numerous requests in the past eleven days since the attack.
"A major component of our voice online has been silenced by an attacker who was successful due to assistance by Google Inc. policies or a Google Inc. employee," said William Gheen, President of ALIPAC. "We want Google to do the right thing by restoring our account, and we want federal law enforcement to protect our civil rights by using the online information available to them to apprehend those responsible for this successful attempt to silence us on YouTube."
What remains of ALIPAC's YouTube account can be viewed at ALIPAC1's Channel - YouTube . All videos are removed and the thousands of viewers each day trying to access the videos are erroneously told "Sorry Video Removed by User."
This account contained videos of all of ALIPAC's national and local TV news appearances and statements, speeches at rallies and public events, several important talk radio interviews, and other newscasts including the most viewed copy of Congressman Joe Wilson shouting "You Lie!" to President Obama. The account also included exclusive content such as the video documentation of illegal immigration supporters attacking an event featuring Congressman Tom Tancredo at UNC Chapel Hill. ALIPAC's footage of this event ran on every major network in America. ALIPAC's main website at www.ALIPAC.us regularly received a lot of web traffic and support coming in from citizens who viewed the contents of ALIPAC1.
On the day of the attack, ALIPAC received an email from Google Inc. stating, "We've received a request to change the email address associated with your
Google Account from: WilliamG@alipac.us to BillyXTC@hushmail.com If you initiated this request, you don't need to take any further action. If
you didn't request an email change and you think someone may be using your account, please visit the Google Accounts Help Center."
"We have no idea why Google would allow a 3rd party to change our email and password controls without our permission, especially when the email for our account is the same one that has been on file with them for over 4 years and is an email directly associated with our primary domain," said William Gheen. "We were never asked to authorize this change, nor did we authorize this change, and God help everyone with a YouTube account if Google is going to make a policy of allowing email changes to be conducted by 3rd parties without authorization."
ALIPAC has taken back control of the account via the Google help menu, but to protect from further exploits Google Inc. required ALIPAC to enter a cell phone number to associate with the account from this point forward to prevent further attacks.
ALIPAC is issuing the following letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation today asking for assistance with this matter, and will launch an effort next week to lobby congressional offices for assistance dealing with Google Inc. and the FBI on this matter.
All members of the media and activist supporters are asked to report and distribute this information which will serve as a warning to others and to aid in the effort to seek both restoration of ALIPAC1 on YouTube and justification for those who have been silenced by this 'hacktivist' attack on the civil rights of Americans speaking out peacefully against illegal immigration and Amnesty via www.ALIPAC.us
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Wow- I didn't expect that!
Hello,
I don't have a lot of time to spend online, but the post was disturbing enough to write to Google to inquire politely about the issue. I was first surprised, then shocked at the responses I received and wrote quite the scholarly reprimand. What the heck is going on at Google? I love their products but will use other venues if my last request doesn't receive a civil response. Pasted to this message are the posts:
1. seo101 has posted an answer to the question "Response about Americans for Illegal Immigration Problem":
Google haven't blocked their site:
Google?q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.alipac.us%2F
Google does not provide technical assistance to websites
2. thericker has posted an answer to the question "Response about Americans for Illegal Immigration Problem":
Meredit - how would Google "permit" another entity to change login data? The account was pretty clearly hacked with no assistance from Google. It's nice and convenient to blame a big well known entity since an unknown hacker doesn't make a very good target for blame or sound as glamorous.
It is the responsibility of the account holder to provide enough security for their own account to prevent hacking including changing passwords frequently, created complicated passwords, etc.
If Google was unscrupulous to get involved in local politics like this, I think they would select bigger fish to pick on such as terrorist promoting sites etc.
I lived in LA for many years and while I "only" have a MA in American History, I am quite qualified to dismiss the allegation.
3. seo101 has posted an answer to the question "Response about Americans for Illegal Immigration Problem":
" It was Google that permitted another entity to change the ALIPAC organization's e-mail address":
I don't believe you.
That was when I lost my temper and shot off the following:
I'm just curious to learn how true the report is. It's not me, it's ALIPAC's report. A copy of the e-mail message follows. By the way, your tone leaves something to be desired. Google's a good company and accusations such as, "I don't believe you." don't provide a positive company image. What happened to enlightened discussion? Open discourse is the hallmark of higher education and enables one to become educated about an issue. That's what I'm attempting to do- educate myself. I repeat- is this credible or not? Act like an intelligent person, for goodness sake.
Now I'll get back to work, but this is disturbing.
Meredith
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