Gay Nigger Association of America
Encyclopedia
The Gay Nigger Association of America (often referred to as the GNAA) is an anti-blogging Internet trolling organization that takes their name from the 1992 Danish movie Gayniggers from Outer Space
. They have trolled several prominent websites and Internet commentators, including members of the blogosphere
, Slashdot
, Wikipedia
, and CNN
. They have also released software products and leaked information about operating systems. In addition, they maintain a wiki-based site dedicated to Internet commentary in a style parodying Slashdot posts and offer a Subversion-based software repository containing various GNAA coding projects.
Members of the GNAA also founded Goatse Security
, a grey hat
information security group. Members of Goatse Security released information in June 2010 about a vulnerability located on AT&T
's website that notably affected the privacy of people who pre-ordered the iPad
. After the information was released, the then-president of the GNAA, weev
, and GNAA member "JacksonBrown" were arrested.
has claimed that it is unclear whether there was initially a clearly defined group of GNAA members, or if founding members of the GNAA were online troublemakers united under the name in order to disrupt websites.
The group's name has been controversial, having been described as causing "immediate alarm in anyone with a semblance of good taste", and as being "spectacularly offensive." However, the group claims that it promotes neither racism nor homophobia. GNAA members deny allegations of actual racism, implying that these statements are made only to elicit angry responses and to subvert or otherwise challenge long-standing social norms
, and note that the name of the organization came from the 1992 Danish satirical blaxploitation
film Gayniggers from Outer Space.
. One such site, "Last Measure", contained malware that opened up pop-up windows containing shocking pictures. On Wikipedia, members of the group created a page about themselves, while adhering to every rule of Wikipedia in order to use the system against itself.
They have also attacked several Internet Relay Chat
channels using IRC flooding. GNAA used an old but obscure method to force users of the Freenode
network to execute disruptive commands after visiting websites containing malware. They also have used bugs in Firefox to crapflood IRC channels. They have also performed proof of concept
demonstrations. These actions have occasionally interrupted the normal operation of popular websites such as Slashdot, even forcing some websites (such as 4chan
) to shut down temporarily.
In July 2004
, two GNAA members submitted leaked screenshot
s of the forthcoming operating system
Mac OS X v10.4
to the popular Apple
Macintosh news website MacRumors
, which read "With WWDC
just days away, the first Tiger information and screenshots appears to have been leaked. According to sources, Apple will reportedly provide developers with a Mac OS X 10.4 preview copy at WWDC on Monday. The screenshots provided reportedly come from this upcoming developer preview." Later, when accusations were raised that the images were fabricated, the GNAA released a press release which claimed that the screenshots were genuine and stated that they had "trolled" the Apple community.
In June 2005
, the GNAA claimed to have created a Mac OS X
Tiger release for Intel x86 processors which caught media attention from various sources. The next day, the supposed leak and was mentioned on the G4 show Attack of the Show
. The DVD image released via BitTorrent merely booted an image of hello.jpg instead of the leaked operating system as many were led to believe.
On February 3, 2007, the GNAA successfully convinced CNN reporter Paula Zahn that "one in three Americans" believe the September 11, 2001 terror attacks were carried out by Israeli agents. CNN subsequently ran a story, erroneously reporting this, including screenshots of the GNAA-owned website "jewsdidwtc.com." The story involved a round-table discussion regarding antisemitism and an interview with the father of a Jewish 9/11 victim. The GNAA-owned website included claims that "over 4,000" Jews were absent from work at the World Trade Center on 9/11.
In June 2010, Goatse Security attracted mainstream media attention for their disclosure of 114,000 email addresses registered to Apple iPad devices for early adopters of Apple's 3G iPad service. The data was aggregated from AT&T's own servers by feeding a publicly available script with HTTP requests containing randomly generated ICC-IDs, which would then return the associated email address. The FBI soon investigated the incident. This investigation led to the arrest of then-GNAA President, Andrew 'weev' Auernheimer, on unrelated drug charges
resulting from an FBI search of his house.
Gayniggers from Outer Space
Gayniggers from Outer Space is a 1992 short film, directed by Danish filmmaker Morten Lindberg. The film is a satire of the blaxploitation and science fiction genre...
. They have trolled several prominent websites and Internet commentators, including members of the blogosphere
Blogosphere
The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions...
, Slashdot
Slashdot
Slashdot is a technology-related news website owned by Geeknet, Inc. The site, which bills itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters", features user-submitted and ‑evaluated current affairs news stories about science- and technology-related topics. Each story has a comments section...
, Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
, and CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
. They have also released software products and leaked information about operating systems. In addition, they maintain a wiki-based site dedicated to Internet commentary in a style parodying Slashdot posts and offer a Subversion-based software repository containing various GNAA coding projects.
Members of the GNAA also founded Goatse Security
Goatse Security
Goatse Security is a loose-knit, nine-person grey hat hacker group that specializes in uncovering security flaws. It is a division of the anti-blogging Internet trolling organization known as the Gay Nigger Association of America . The group derives its name from the Goatse.cx shock site, and it...
, a grey hat
Grey hat
A grey hat, in the hacking community, refers to a skilled hacker whose activities fall somewhere between white and black hat hackers on a variety of spectra. It may relate to whether they sometimes arguably act illegally, though in good will, or to show how they disclose vulnerabilities...
information security group. Members of Goatse Security released information in June 2010 about a vulnerability located on AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
's website that notably affected the privacy of people who pre-ordered the iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
. After the information was released, the then-president of the GNAA, weev
Weev
Andrew Alan Escher Auernheimer 1 September 1985), also known by his pseudonym weev, is an American grey hat hacker and self-described Internet troll who has been linked to several attacks on Internet sites...
, and GNAA member "JacksonBrown" were arrested.
Origins and purpose
The group claims to have been founded in 2002. Little is known about the group's structure. New media researcher Andrew LihAndrew Lih
Andrew Lih is a new media researcher, consultant and writer, as well as a noted authority on both Wikipedia and internet censorship in the People's Republic of China. He is currently a visiting professor at the University of Southern California....
has claimed that it is unclear whether there was initially a clearly defined group of GNAA members, or if founding members of the GNAA were online troublemakers united under the name in order to disrupt websites.
The group's name has been controversial, having been described as causing "immediate alarm in anyone with a semblance of good taste", and as being "spectacularly offensive." However, the group claims that it promotes neither racism nor homophobia. GNAA members deny allegations of actual racism, implying that these statements are made only to elicit angry responses and to subvert or otherwise challenge long-standing social norms
Norm (sociology)
Social norms are the accepted behaviors within a society or group. This sociological and social psychological term has been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. These rules may be explicit or implicit...
, and note that the name of the organization came from the 1992 Danish satirical blaxploitation
Blaxploitation
Blaxploitation or blacksploitation is a film genre which emerged in the United States circa 1970. It is considered an ethnic sub-genre of the general category of exploitation films. Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, although the genre's audience...
film Gayniggers from Outer Space.
Trolling
The GNAA uses several methods of trolling. One method involves flooding weblogs with a massive amount of repeated words and phrases, referred to as "crapflooding". They have also produced shock sites containing malwareMalware
Malware, short for malicious software, consists of programming that is designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, or gain unauthorized access to system resources, or that otherwise exhibits abusive behavior...
. One such site, "Last Measure", contained malware that opened up pop-up windows containing shocking pictures. On Wikipedia, members of the group created a page about themselves, while adhering to every rule of Wikipedia in order to use the system against itself.
They have also attacked several Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file...
channels using IRC flooding. GNAA used an old but obscure method to force users of the Freenode
Freenode
freenode, formerly known as Open Projects Network, is an IRC network used to discuss peer-directed projects. Their servers are all accessible from the domain name [irc://chat.freenode.net chat.freenode.net], which load balances connections by using the actual servers in rotation...
network to execute disruptive commands after visiting websites containing malware. They also have used bugs in Firefox to crapflood IRC channels. They have also performed proof of concept
Proof of concept
A proof of concept or a proof of principle is a realization of a certain method or idea to demonstrate its feasibility, or a demonstration in principle, whose purpose is to verify that some concept or theory that has the potential of being used...
demonstrations. These actions have occasionally interrupted the normal operation of popular websites such as Slashdot, even forcing some websites (such as 4chan
4chan
4chan is an English-language imageboard website. Launched on October 1, 2003, its boards were originally used for the posting of pictures and discussion of manga and anime...
) to shut down temporarily.
In July 2004
July 2004
July 2004: January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December-Events:July 2004: January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December-Events:...
, two GNAA members submitted leaked screenshot
Screenshot
A screenshot , screen capture , screen dump, screengrab , or print screen is an image taken by a computer to record the visible items displayed on the monitor, television, or another visual output device...
s of the forthcoming operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
Mac OS X v10.4
Mac OS X v10.4
Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger is the fifth major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Tiger was released to the public on 29 April 2005 for US$129.95 as the successor to Mac OS X Panther , which had been released 18 months earlier...
to the popular Apple
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
Macintosh news website MacRumors
MacRumors
MacRumors.com is a website that aggregates Mac and Apple related news, rumors, and reports. The site was launched in 2000, and is owned by Arnold Kim.By consolidating reports and cross-referencing claims, MacRumors attempts to keep track of the rumor community...
, which read "With WWDC
Worldwide Developers Conference
The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, commonly abbreviated WWDC, is a conference held annually in California by Apple Inc. The conference is primarily used by Apple to showcase its new software and technologies for developers, as well as offering hands-on labs and feedback sessions...
just days away, the first Tiger information and screenshots appears to have been leaked. According to sources, Apple will reportedly provide developers with a Mac OS X 10.4 preview copy at WWDC on Monday. The screenshots provided reportedly come from this upcoming developer preview." Later, when accusations were raised that the images were fabricated, the GNAA released a press release which claimed that the screenshots were genuine and stated that they had "trolled" the Apple community.
In June 2005
June 2005
2005: January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December – →-News collections and sources:...
, the GNAA claimed to have created a Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
Tiger release for Intel x86 processors which caught media attention from various sources. The next day, the supposed leak and was mentioned on the G4 show Attack of the Show
Attack of the Show!
Attack of the Show! is an American live television program shown weeknights on G4, G4 Canada and Fuel TV in Australia. The program is hosted by Kevin Pereira and Candace Bailey...
. The DVD image released via BitTorrent merely booted an image of hello.jpg instead of the leaked operating system as many were led to believe.
On February 3, 2007, the GNAA successfully convinced CNN reporter Paula Zahn that "one in three Americans" believe the September 11, 2001 terror attacks were carried out by Israeli agents. CNN subsequently ran a story, erroneously reporting this, including screenshots of the GNAA-owned website "jewsdidwtc.com." The story involved a round-table discussion regarding antisemitism and an interview with the father of a Jewish 9/11 victim. The GNAA-owned website included claims that "over 4,000" Jews were absent from work at the World Trade Center on 9/11.
Goatse Security
Several members of the GNAA with expertise in grey-hat security research began releasing information about security vulnerabilities under the name "Goatse Security." They chose a new name to publish their work under because they were worried that their work would not get noticed if published by the "Gay Nigger Association of America."In June 2010, Goatse Security attracted mainstream media attention for their disclosure of 114,000 email addresses registered to Apple iPad devices for early adopters of Apple's 3G iPad service. The data was aggregated from AT&T's own servers by feeding a publicly available script with HTTP requests containing randomly generated ICC-IDs, which would then return the associated email address. The FBI soon investigated the incident. This investigation led to the arrest of then-GNAA President, Andrew 'weev' Auernheimer, on unrelated drug charges
Drug possession
Drug possession is the crime of having one or more illegal drugs in one's possession, either for personal use, distribution, sale or otherwise. Illegal drugs fall into different categories and sentences vary depending on the amount, type of drug, circumstances, and jurisdiction.A person has...
resulting from an FBI search of his house.