Melissa Lee Nilles
Arts& Reviews Editor
Illustration by Sarah Good
A prominent cyberspace group called “Anonymous” is not-so-silently wreaking both silly and consequential havoc inside of the internet world, billing their brand of cyber hacking and “trolling” as organized civil disobedience.
The group has an increasing presence in the mainstream media, having become famous for acts such as cyber-attacks on Oprah (9,000 penises, anyone?), starting meme trends such as “Rick rolling” and helping controversial WikiLeaks head Julian Assange shut down a bank website.
Recently, Anonymous announced plans via their main source of communication (the Internet, duh) for a supposed attack on the popular networking site Facebook. According to posted YouTube videos, their “Kill Facebook” attack is scheduled for Nov. 5.
Leaders of the attack have been quoted as saying they plan to “kill Facebook” because of its much debated use of users’ personal information, and selling of user data for advertising, amongst other issues.
Anonymous’s mass-disseminated YouTube video tries its best to give literal meaning to the term “anonymous” when describing the group. The group originated on the popular yet controversial forum site 4chan, which hosts regular content as well as pornographic and arguably disturbing content. Duly because of the potential incrimination that one could face from posting controversial content, and a desire to maintain a level of randomness and chaos that is characteristic of 4chan’s users, most users post in the forum with the username “anonymous.” Thus, the idea of everyone on the Internet being anonymous individuals that belong to the larger group “Anonymous” was born.
In Anonymous’s posted YouTube video, the group’s symbol, which is of a man in a tuxedo with a question mark for a face, is displayed in the center of a gray screen, with some visual distortion ripples running through the screen. To add to the video’s secrecy (some might say terror), a disembodied voice that has been heavily distorted by a computer disseminates the group’s message regarding their planned activities, and explains their motivation for choosing Facebook as their target.
“Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed,” said the disembodied voice representing the members of Anonymous in the posted YouTube video. “Facebook has been selling information to government agencies, and giving clandestine access to information security firms so they can spy on people from all around the world.”
The speaker also describes Anonymous’s collective motivation for the planned attack, voicing concerns about user privacy and raising speculation about Facebook’s unwarranted use of user information.
“Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your privacy settings, and deleting your account is impossible,” said Anonymous. “Even if you delete your account, all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at anytime. Changing the privacy settings so you’ll make your Facebook account more private is also a delusion. Facebook knows more about you than your family.”
Anonymous’s spokesperson addressed his or her targeted audience, saying, “You cannot hide from the reality in which you, the people of the Internet, live in.”
Whether or not you support the ideas behind Anonymous’s attack, it is certainly possible that Anonymous’s hacking may cause tangible real-world effects as well that affect Facebook’s more than 800 million active users, over 50 percent of which log on to Facebook on any given day. This idea of “killing” Facebook may mean that Anonymous intends to cause problems by destroying company or user data, making it impossible use Facebook for a day, or destroying Facebook for good, in some still unknown way. Whether this threat is interpreted as fallacy or foe, it is apparent that it is causing a stir in the Internet world, so be on your toes as an informed Facebook user Nov. 5 for whatever comes your way in cyberspace.
Expect us for we are legion.
We do not forgive. We do not forget.
Remember, Remember, the 5th of November
gunpowder treason and plot.
I see no reason, why the gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot
i am behind u
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I’m smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me…
Damn underachiever. They’re all alike.
Thank you, Anonymous, if your claims hold true. The fact that none of my information is truly private scares the living shit out of me, and pisses me off that it’s being sold. Facebook; Yet another bloody corporation.
I like how you have to give your personal information to right a comment on this site. Also i disagree with what Anonymous is doing. And of you who believe that your privacy is at risk than either do not sign up to such websites or do not give up personal information. Simple.
This isn’t going to happen, it’s just /b/ kiddies waving their dicks. Maybe if it was 04 – 05 /b/ but the /b/ we know today is just pathetic. Full of normalfags and script kiddies.
OMG IT’S STARTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
U can totally bs the information to put a comment on this site. They don’t care…I do it all the time.
I usually agree with all things Anonymous does, just thought I’d point out that “You cannot hide from the reality in which you, the people of the Internet, live in.” is funny, coming from a group that does their best to remain “anonymous” on the internet…
OpFacebook has initiated. Expect us…
You f*cking stupid anonymous members (who I will henceforth refer to as ‘you little f*ckers’, and avoid all pronouns), leave one billion people alone. We signed up for Facebook, we agreed to everything that they do when we signed up. Don’t you little f*ckers realize that? Even If we didn’t, why are you little f*ckers complaining that they sell information (which is debatable in the first place)? DO YOU LITTLE F*CKERS HONESTLY THINK THE GOVERNMENT DOESN’T KNOW EVERYTHING ANYWAY? We are on the Internet. You little f*ckers think they can’t track all your keystrokes or websites visited? Heck they could break a deal with all Internet providers, make it real simple. If you little f*ckers did take down Facebook, which would be impossible because facebook has the info stored many times and can restore the website, you little f*ckers would be criminals. Not as if you little f*ckers already weren’t because of all the other things you little f*ckers have done.
Why do any of the people involved in anonymous complain about information security or people selling info? They obviously supported it with Assange and Wikileaks. Its the same concept. The only difference is that the information they supported stealing can cost thousands of people their lives.
Um who cares if they sell our email address and stuff, Every company that has access to your personal details sells it, phone companys do it, internet providers do it and your making such a big deal over facebook doing it? oh boo hoo so i get a couple of extra bits of spam in my junk box. Oh dear, your making out its some F*ckin big deal when its nothing.
DO IT!
I love that picture, Sarah Good. Props.
So its Nov7 and its still online….
Hello Sir,
I am New to this Field. I want to Know how to begin the Hacking. and is there any Training Tutorial is available. Please Forward me Those Link to My mail ID sir.
I want to Learn Hacking for Educational Purpose.
I want to Learn to Pretend those Hacker from Hacking.
Please Help Me out.
I guess i Won’t Dis pointed .
If you want to do ddos hacks you will need a ion canon!
you can search google,
enter in ip address number a attempts you are also gonna need thor!
and 3 -6 ip masking programs and a hacked wep or wpa encrypted internet connection to stay off the radar.
Never attack a site that was attacked within six months prior to your attack they leave a port open to catch your ip and use it against you
If anonymous is posting pics of dead dogs, porn, and aborted babies all over facebook.. c’mon. Is that necessary?
oo familen ma ki mshel fbn ka me ta mshel fbn
November 16 and still online… Nice work Anon.
Being a “netizen” means having discretion over the personal information that you post on the net. It will not even be stored in the Facebook site only if people do not provide it. If we do not want ourselves exploited, we must first be the ones to filter what we share. Accordingly, we have laws that regulate different aspects of internet use.
Wonderful work! That is the kind of info that should be shared across the internet. Disgrace on Google for not positioning this publish higher! Come on over and discuss with my web site . Thanks =)
How Did The Hack go
Seems like their “Operation Facebook” failed and the facebook stands still. I wonder what happened, did they postponed their plan for hacking facebook to any upcoming date or what? I am waiting for an update about this from the “Anonymous”..
well, I did get a notification from FB that someone logged in under my account from an unusual place; changed my password
Actions like this are silly and totally immature.
To those who support them and oppose FB: guys, if you don’t want your information to become public – don’t post it on social network boards. Easy. If, though, you want to share your views, FB still is a place, not perfect, but adequate.
anonymous,
well done. you have clearly shown everone that you cannot hack facebook…..
i was waiting.
i expected.
looks like you forgive………………………or just forgot.
The only thing anonymous can do is put a pair of crap sunglasses on their avatar.
Oh! So Scared! This is horrible!
Your just a bunch of freaks.
thanks for sharing this!!Im gonna bookmark your site!
Good Bye
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I dont have facebook myself, just does not appeal.
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