Anonymous has vowed to "destroy" Facebook on Nov. 5. Or more accurately, somebody has set up a Twitter account and YouTube channel to announce a plan dubbed "Operation Facebook."
With the loosely affiliated hacktivist collective, it's always tough to know what's real, what's a feint, and what's a solo effort by some ambitious Anon to marshal the troops.
If Operation Facebook is real, it could mark a new phase for Anonymous, which in recent weeks has joined forces with the remnants of the more tightly knit hacker group LulzSec to target law enforcement agencies in an ongoing operation called Antisec.
The "press release" announcing Operation Facebook does tie it in with Antisec, however.
"Facebook is the opposite of the Antisec cause," reads the release, a full copy of which plus a video version is published below. Facebook, which "knows more about you than your family," according to the press release, "has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from all around the world."
The author exhorts others to "join the cause and kill [F]acebook for the sake of your own privacy." The press release also includes links to an article about ACLU objections to Facebook's privacy settings and another complaining about the social networking site's use of smartphone data.
The Nov. 5 date is significant—that's the date commemorating Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators' failed plot to blow up England's House of Lords in 1605. Though Guy Fawkes Day has historically been celebrated in England for the unraveling of that plot, Alan Moore's graphic novel V for Vendetta and a later film of the same name helped make Fawkes a sort of anarchist anti-hero in popular culture.
Anonymous has a particular attachment to Guy Fawkes Day, with members donning V for Vendetta-inspired Guy Fawkes masks for some of the collective's earliest known public actions, such as a project to discredit Scientology in 2008.
Here's the Anonymous press release and accompanying video message:
Operation Facebook
DATE: November 5, 2011.
TARGET: https://facebook.com
Press:
Twitter : https://twitter.com/OP_Facebook
http://piratepad.net/YCPcpwrl09
Irc.Anonops.Li #OpFaceBook
Message:
Attention citizens of the world,
We wish to get your attention, hoping you heed the warnings as follows:
Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed. If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill facebook for the sake of your own privacy.
Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from all around the world. Some of these so-called whitehat infosec firms are working for authoritarian governments, such as those of Egypt and Syria.
Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your "privacy" settings, and deleting your account is impossible, even if you "delete" your account, all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time. Changing the privacy settings to make your Facebook account more "private" is also a delusion. Facebook knows more about you than your family.
http://www.physorg.com/news170614271.html
http://itgrunts.com/2010/10/07/facebook-steals-numbers-and-data-from-your-iphone/
You cannot hide from the reality in which you, the people of the internet, live in. Facebook is the opposite of the Antisec cause. You are not safe from them nor from any government. One day you will look back on this and realise what we have done here is right, you will thank the rulers of the internet, we are not harming you but saving you.
The riots are underway. It is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It is a battle for choice and informed consent. It's unfolding because people are being raped, tickled, molested, and confused into doing things where they don't understand the consequences. Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is completely false. It gives users the illusion of and hides the details away from them "for their own good" while they then make millions off of you. When a service is "free," it really means they're making money off of you and your information.
Think for a while and prepare for a day that will go down in history. November 5 2011, #opfacebook . Engaged.
This is our world now. We exist without nationality, without religious bias. We have the right to not be surveilled, not be stalked, and not be used for profit. We have the right to not live as slaves.
We are anonymous
We are legion
We do not forgive
We do not forget
Expect us
