Indian supporters of the infamous Internet hacktivist Anonymous have taken to the streets nationwide to protest against online censorship even as the group shut down Web sites of several governmental agencies.

Anonymous is staging protests in 16 cities of India wearing the popular ‘Guy Fawkes’ masks. This protest was arranged after a court order in Chennai in March 29 directed 15 Indian Internet providers to block access to file-sharing websites. Popular sites like Dailymotion, Vimeo, Pastebin and Piratebay were blocked by Indian ISPs last month after the court order. The protest gained more attention in cities like New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai than others. People wearing ‘Guy Fawkes’ masks carried placards and raised slogans like "Raise your voice, save your voice."

The protests were quite peaceful in the streets. However, Anonymous also launched a virtual warfare by shutting down temporarily two big government websites, www.cert-in.org.in and www.india.gov.in. State-run telecom server provider MTNL  was also hacked and Anonymous posted their logo on its homepage.

Anonymous India has also called upon volunteers using Twitter accounts to launch DDoS attacks. Their accounts were disabled later but Anonymous opened two new accounts to continue the attack against “Great Indian Firewall.”

The hacking group says this protest is not for supporting piracy as most of the blocked file-sharing sites are used in a legitimate way like sharing photos or software code. "File sharing is the lifeline of the Internet, that's why it came into being," said a member of Anonymous. But the government stands by its decision and believes it’s a good way to prevent the posting of offensive and blasphemous content. Anonymous said they won’t give up until the censorship is lifted.

"The government can't stop piracy in a country by just banning sites. This is a country where you have people selling pirated CDs on trains in streets... it is actually too much to expect," Anon3x3Kalki, a member of Anonymous said.