"The Corrupt Fear Us!" Massive Anonymous "Million Mask March" as it happened (PHOTOS)

"From the NSA, to Edward Snowden, to Chelsea Manning, all over the world, people are speaking out, whistleblowers are speaking out, regular people are speaking out and saying enough is enough. We want justice and we want it now." 

In front of the White House, protesters also burned the American flag -- a sight more usually associated with countries such as Iran or Pakistan -- while outside the Federal Reserve, protesters shouted , "End the Fed" -- a slogan borrowed from the Occupy movement.

On the West Coast, crowds marched through downtown Los Angeles to show their solidarity with the movement. Many of them have links with the Occupy Wall Street movement, born two years ago.

South America also joined in the global protests. Several hundred protesters blocked off roads in Brazil's central Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo, marching against government corruption.     

"We want to change this corrupt system," Eron Morales de Melo, a veteran protester dressed as Batman told AFP. "We are paying high taxes and this doesn't get invested in education. We don't have good healthcare, public security is precarious, as is public transport."

Hundreds protested in Australia's Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.  One of the Australian rally participants told ABC News that the non-centralized nature of Anonymous made it difficult to pinpoint an exact message behind the global rally. 

"There's so much that goes on in our world, and with Anonymous, because there's so many of us, it's really hard to have an orderly or structured discussion, rally or march on one point. So it's probably best that we just incorporate all of them."

Australia itself has been targeted by Anonymous recently over reported spying on Indonesians. Hackers calling themselves Anonymous Indonesia defaced some 200 websites with the .au domain in a gesture of protest.

Indonesia, meanwhile, also had a masked protest on Guy Fawkes Day. Anonymous Philippines marched to Batasang Pambansa complex Tuesday noon to protest rampant corruption in the country. Police officers briefly blocked the march after it gathered along Quezon City Circle, but later allowed them to proceed to the vicinity of the House of Representatives.  

Several dozen demonstrators rallied at the Nelson Mandela Square, a popular shopping center in Johannesburg, South Africa, as part of the Million Mask March. According to the 2012 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, South Africa ranked 69th out of 176 countries. Organizers of the rally put corruption and tax fraud on top of their agenda.

In Japan, the Guy Fawkes-themed action had an environmental twist, as masked activists conscientiously made their contribution to cleaning the streets by picking up litter.  

The global action on November 5 is Anonymous' annual celebration of Guy Fawkes Day, a British holiday commemorating the most prominent member of the failed Gunpowder Plot, a 1605 attempt to assassinate King James I of England by blowing up the Houses of Parliament. The plotter and his facial likeness in particular have come to symbolize the fight against tyranny for the Anonymous hacking collective.