Road signs are a crucial part of traffic. They tell you everything you need to know about the road ahead of you—where to go, how to do about doing so, etc.
There are also more dynamic and elaborate means of informing the driver of things happening on the road, like an LED-based sign that provides all of the necessary information on the specifics of upcoming road closures and whatnot… as well as of the fact that certain individuals have tiny genitalia… I’m sorry, what?
So, someone got their hands on Denver's LED road signs and changed the messages a bit
Image credits: guttedghosty
So, turns out, someone hacked one of these LED-based traffic signs that were originally there to inform people of roadworks and other relevant information. Instead of providing that particular info, it now said more profane things about anything but traffic.
Pictures and video started popping up of this one particular road sign in Denver, Colorado that, instead of the usual road info, said things like “All cops have small peepees,” “F@#$ the feds,” and “Don’t be a c@#$, Karen.”
Instead of road work information, these new signs proclaimed profane anti-law enforcement messages
Image credits: guttedghosty
It is still unknown whether someone actually got unauthorized access to the sign and hacked it, or whether it was possibly the work of rogue road workers or traffic regulators themselves, but it sent quite a statement in multiple directions.
People do, however, speculate that this is the work of hacktivists who are responding to the recent developments in the Breonna Taylor case whereby the police officers responsible for her death received no punishment.
People speculate that this is likely the work of hacktivists as it has happened several times before
Image credits: Maxxy_Waxxy
These speculations stem from the fact that this isn’t the first time it has happened. Back in 2016, unknown hackers attacked some Texas Department Of Transportation signs and changed roadworks messages into ones in support of Bernie Sanders and Barrett Brown, while other messages were against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. For context and a reminder, 2016 was election year.
A digital community for anarchist, anti-fascist, autonomous anti-capitalist, and anti-colonial movements called It’s Going Down has taken the blame for another such attack—one that made a traffic sign say “F@#$ the police,” also in Denver.
Besides the anti-police messages, there was also one aimed at 'Karens'
Image credits: Maxxy_Waxxy
Yet other attacks against said signs seem to be done just for a laugh, saying things like “Work is canceled, go back home” and “Gorilla deserved it,” which is a reference to the shooting of Harambe, also in 2016. The Karen one is self-explanatory.
Pictures and even a video popped up on Twitter, drawing the internet’s attention. The tweet in question managed to get nearly 60,000 retweets as of the moment of this article, with over 350,000 likes.
The internet’s reactions were varied. Many took it as a joke and enjoyed a good laugh. Some were cheering such behavior on, while others were trying to draw everyone’s attention that not all police officers are bad people and such abuse of the police is wrong. Yet others shared their stories of seeing hacked signs.
A driver-by also shared a video of this on TikTok (warning: profanity)
What are your thoughts on this? What phrases would you want your local road signs to say? Let us know in the comment section below.
Here's how people online reacted to this
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