Syrian Electronic Army
Syrian Electronic Army http://syrian-es.com/2011-05-2

A pro-Assad group which calls itself the Syrian Electronic Army has hacked the al-Jazeera website in protest at what it calls anti-government bias.

The group targeted al-Jazeera's Syria Live Blog and replaced coverage of the protests with pro-Assad pictures.

The Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) criticised al-Jazeera for broadcasting "false and fabricated news [to] ignite sedition" among Syrians and help Washington and Tel Aviv.

In September the group hacked Harvard University's website.

The relationship between the Electronic Syrian Army and the Syrian government is not clear. According to arstechnica.com: "The group's domain was registered in May 2011 in Tartous, Syria, and its site is hosted on servers maintained by the Syrian Computer Society - a group Assad was the head of before assuming Syria's presidency, and introduced the internet to Syria in 2000."

Members of the SEA accuse the media of providing an unbalanced view of the conflict which they call an armed insurrection, in line with the government's explanation of the current situation.