# Operation Darknet
Operation Darknet was a 2011 Anonymous hacktivist campaign that used DDoS attacks and database leaks to take down child sexual abuse material hosted on Tor's hidden services. The operation crashed Freedom Hosting, exposed 1,589 usernames from a site called Lolita City, and set a template that Anonymous returned to in the 2017 Freedom Hosting II breach.
## Origin
The operation began in early October 2011 when Anonymous members noticed links to images of child sexual abuse on the Hidden Wiki, a Tor-based index of hidden services[2]. Members stripped the links, watched them get re-posted, and knocked the wiki offline with a denial-of-service attack while tracing where the linked material actually lived[2]. Nearly all of it shared a hosting fingerprint pointing to Freedom Hosting, at the time one of the biggest hosts of Tor-based sites[1].
At 9 p.m. CST on October 14, 2011, the group issued Freedom Hosting an ultimatum to pull the material[5]. Freedom Hosting refused. Two and a half hours later, Anonymous knocked its services offline with a DDoS flood that included dropping a 1GB SQL payload and 100,000 ASCII Guy Fawkes masks onto the host every five minutes[5].
- **Platform:** Tor hidden services (source) / PasteBin and YouTube (public spread)
- **Creator:** Anonymous (collective)
- **Date:** 2011
## Overview
Rather than a single hack, Operation Darknet ran as a chained series of named sub-attacks executed between October 14 and November 5, 2011, each one announced through PasteBin dumps and IRC channels[5]. The group combined denial-of-service floods against Freedom Hosting with database intrusions that pulled site membership lists, then dropped those lists as evidence[2]. Every phase carried a codename, including 'Chris Hanson' (spamming To Catch a Predator clips onto the compromised host) and 'Paw Printing' (a 24-hour honeypot phase)[5].
The campaign's signature technical trick was a modified TorButton for Firefox called 'The Honey Pawt,' pushed only through the Hard Candy wiki, which logged the IP addresses of anyone who installed it to visit Lolita City[5]. Anonymous framed the whole effort in a video manifesto uploaded by the YouTube channel BecomeAnonymous on October 17, 2011, stating the target was CSAM hosting specifically, not Tor or the darknet as a concept[8]. That distinction mattered in early coverage, where security researchers warned the DDoS approach could taint evidence trails in ongoing police cases[2].
Specific fan-made remixes of the operation are not archived in available sources; the campaign's primary artifacts are the group's own manifesto video[8], the PasteBin communiques[5], and the leaked Lolita City username list dropped on October 18, 2011[1].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Operation Darknet?
Operation Darknet was a 2011 Anonymous hacktivist campaign of DDoS attacks and doxxing aimed at child sexual abuse material hosted on Tor's hidden services, most notably targeting Freedom Hosting and Lolita City[1].
### Where did Operation Darknet come from?
It started in early October 2011 after Anonymous members found CSAM links on the Hidden Wiki, traced the content to Freedom Hosting, and moved to attack the host directly[2].
### What does Operation Darknet mean?
The name refers to Anonymous's attack on the 'darknet,' meaning parts of the internet not indexed by search engines and reachable only through tools like Tor[7].
### How do you use Operation Darknet?
Operation Darknet is an event, not a template, so it is not 'used' like a meme format; people cite it when discussing Anonymous, Tor takedowns, or dark-web policing[5].
### Is Operation Darknet still popular?
The 2011 campaign is treated as a classic Anonymous operation; the same playbook returned in the February 2017 Freedom Hosting II breach and is still referenced in Tor and hacktivism coverage[3].
### Who was targeted in Operation Darknet?
The main target was Freedom Hosting, a Tor hidden-service host Anonymous accused of running the largest chunk of CSAM sites on Tor, including Lolita City[1].
### What was Lolita City?
Lolita City was a Tor-based CSAM site that Ars Technica reported held over 100GB of illegal content; Anonymous leaked the usernames of 1,589 of its members on October 18, 2011[1].
### What was 'The Honey Pawt'?
'The Honey Pawt' was a modified Firefox TorButton revealed in the November 2, 2011 #OpDarknet PasteBin, which logged user information when installed to access the Hard Candy wiki or Lolita City[5].
### How many usernames did Anonymous leak?
Anonymous leaked 1,589 usernames from Lolita City via PasteBin on October 18, 2011, including upload volume and account age but not passwords or email addresses[7].
### Did Operation Darknet continue after 2011?
The original operation closed on November 5, 2011, but an Anonymous-affiliated hacker revived the approach on February 3, 2017 by wiping Freedom Hosting II and defacing roughly 10,613 hidden-service sites[3].
## References
1. [https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2011/10/anonymous-takes-down-darknet-child-porn-site-on-tor-network/]()
2. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15428203]()
3. [https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/3/14497992/freedom-hosting-ii-hacked-anonymous-dark-web-tor]()
4. [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anonymous-hacks-lolita-city_n_1026327]()
5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/operation-darknet]()
6. [https://www.themarysue.com/anonymous-child-porn-takedown/]()
7. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120720060131/https://www.informationweek.com/news/security/attacks/231901499]()
8. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFuJp_zPIlU]()
9. [https://www.torproject.org/]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/operation-darknet
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