Conspiracy messages broadcast onto Brussels digital billboards

Conspiracy messages broadcast onto Brussels digital billboards
Credit: Belga

Several digital billboards in Brussels were hacked on Wednesday to display conspiracy messages instead of the regular advertising.

Initially, Het Nieuwsblad reported on Thursday on two billboards being hacked - one on Boulevard Emile Bockstael in Laeken and one on Rue Dansaert in Brussels.

In the meantime, the hacking was confirmed by Brussels Capital - Ixelles police spokesperson Olivier Slosse, who added that three additional billboards in Laeken had been hacked.

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The messages included “1984 = 2020,” referring to George Orwell’s novel, 1984, which describes a society under surveillance of a totalitarian regime. Other messages were “Time will bring to light whatever is hidden”, “You are not watching the screen, is vice versa” and “There is no Covid, just other's computers.”

Clear Channel, the maker of the billboards, said that they “are enursing that the necessary resources are mobilised to resolve this incident as quickly as possible and to identify its source.”

The local police spokesperson said that a report was written for hacking, though no arrests have been made so far.

Meanwhile, police in Leuven are looking for a hacker of a different nature, as porn was broadcast onto the provincial government building twice this week.

Jason Spinks

The Brussels Times


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