Hacktivist group called 'Anonymous' which earned notoriety for hack-attacks on the Pentagon, News Corp, etc. has vowed to destroy the social networking giant on November 5th, which is barely three months from today. In a YouTube video, the hacking group warned, "Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed." The news is sending chills down the spines of the people who are in love with Facebook.
The reasons cited by the group for this are a) the lack of choice in privacy for Facebook users and b) the considerable difficulty involved in deleting a Facebook account.
The infamous hacker collective said in its message that "Operation Facebook" would be begin on November 5. It claimed that Facebook provides information to "government agencies" so they can "spy on people." The speaker in the YouTube video, purportedly representing Anonymous, used a voice modulator to disguise his/her voice and invited viewers to "join the cause and kill Facebook for the sake of their own privacy."
"Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your privacy settings, and deleting your account is impossible," the speaker says. "Even if you delete your account, all your information stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time."
According to CNN, Facebook has denied to comment on this news.
Now the thing to note here is that the announced day for the “destruction of Facebook” is Novermber 5 which happens to be the Guy Fawkes Day, a commemoration of the Gunpowder Plot (a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby) in which Fawkes and others placed explosives under the British House of Lords in 1605.
This isn't the first instance when the group has expressed its hatred for social networks. In the past few years, Anonymous has taken credit for disrupting a number of prominent websites, including those of PayPal, Master Card, Visa and the Church of Scientology. After Google removed the group's Google+ and Gmail accounts, it pledged to roll out its own social network called AnonPlus.
However, the group has also said in a tweet that while some of its members are organizing the upcoming attack against Facebook, the hacker organization as a whole does not necessarily agree with the attack.
“FYI - #OpFacebook is being organised by some Anons. This does not necessarily mean that all of #Anonymous agrees with it,” Anonymous (@GroupAnon) tweeted on Tuesday night (Indian Time).
The announcement is ringing the alarm bells among many users who dread the thought of losing Facebook. Let's see, how Zuckerberg and Co. stand guard.
Listen to YouTube announcement here:
And here's the text of the announcement:
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.
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
And here's the text of the announcement:
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.
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
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