Anonymous takes a shot at Trump, knocks Trump Tower offline

Anonymous had promised to go after Trump following his disparaging comments about Muslims

Don't piss off Anonymous. Whether you're a terrorist group, or just a bloviating jerk, they will come after you. 

Earlier on Friday, the website for Trump Tower, the 68-story building that the Republican presidential nominee owns, went down, according to various media sources. It is now back up, and it is unclear how long it was down, but that's not the story here. What's actually important is what caused the site to go down.

Hacker group Anonymous took credit for the disruption on Twitter.

Trump Towers NY site taken down as statement against racism and hatred. https://t.co/n5ftLrOs1P (what you see is cloudflare offline backup)

— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) December 11, 2015

Trump probably should have been prepared for this, since Anonymous did warn him a couple of days ago, in a video put up on YouTube, that they would be coming after him over his proposal for a “total and complete” ban on Muslims entering the United States, following the attack in San Bernardino last week. (Btw, this something that even Dick Cheney found to be morally repugnant, and you know you're on the wrong side when that happens)

In the video, the group accused Trump of playing into the hands of ISIS by targeting Muslims who may not have been radicalized, thereby isolating them and making them more likely to turn to a group like ISIS.

"Donald Trump, it has come to our attention that you want to ban all Muslims to enter the United States. This policy is going to have a huge impact. This is what ISIS wants. The more Muslims feel sad, the more ISIS feels they can recruit them," a disguised voice says in the video.

"The more United States appears to be targeting Muslims, not just radical Muslims, you can be sure that ISIS will be putting that on their social media campaign. Donald Trump, think twice before you speak anything. You have been warned, Mr. Donald Trump."

This is the second time that Anonymous has made headlines recently. Last week the group declared it to be "ISIS Trolling Day," using memes and hashtags to mock the group online, especially on Twitter.

Anonymous is also not the only tech-affiliated group to go after Donald Trump for his comments, though through words, not action.

Earlier this week Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote a blog post repudiating Trump, though without saying his name, declaring that Facebook will remain a safe space for Muslims,

"If you're a Muslim in this community, as the leader of Facebook I want you to know that you are always welcome here and that we will fight to protect your rights and create a peaceful and safe environment for you," he said.

Shutting down the website for Trump Tower is not a bold step. In fact it's pretty small scale, and seems like more of a warning than anything else that, yes, Anonymous can, and will, mess you up if they don't like you.

If I were Donald Trump and his Presidential campaign (and I can't believe I'd ever be giving them any kind of advice), I would beef up security and I would do it quick. Because there's no way Anonymous is done with them.

VatorNews has reached out to Trump Tower, as well as to the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, for comment. We will update this story if we learn more. 

(Image source: washingtonpost.com)