Anonymous has denied that it is organizing or supporting an official attack on Facebook, but acknowledged that hackers associated with the group are pursuing the endeavor."To press ... #OpFacebook is just another fake! We don't 'kill' the messenger. That's not our style," the @anonops Twitter feed tweeted early this morning. About two hours later, however, the group followed up by saying that "#OpFacebook is being organised by some Anons. This does not necessarily mean that all of #Anonymous agrees with it."
Those mixed messages, of course, highlight the inherent difficulties in trying to track the activities of Anonymous. Given that the group is a loose collective of hackers with no central authority, anyone who says they are a part of Anonymous is a part of Anonymous. As a result, if a few people get together in the name of Anonymous and decide to hack Facebook on November 5, Anonymous is behind the planned Facebook hack.
Those running the @anonops Twitter feed, however, insisted that there are more important things to tackle than Facebook. The group said it prefers to "face the real power" instead of "medias that we use as tools," before pointing to a June column from PCMag's John Dvorak that suggested recent hack attacks might be "false flag events to help the government regulate the Internet."
The #OpFacebook effort, meanwhile, got started when someone set up a Twitter account and YouTube channel that said Facebook is the "opposite of the AntiSec cause," a joint effort by Anonymous and the on-again, off-again LulzSec to go after governments with which they disagree.
Facebook "knows more about you than your family," the group said, and "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 #OpFacebook effort selected November 5 because it is Guy Fawkes Day, which commemorates a failed plot to blow up England's House of Lords in 1605. Though that has traditionally been a day of celebration in England, Alan Moore's graphic novel, V for Vendetta, painted Fawkes as an anarchist anti-hero and Anonymous has adopted a Fawkes mask as its symbol.
But is the effort worth Anonymous' time? As Sophos security analyst Paul Ducklin pointed out, "Facebook only 'knows' what you choose to tell it. If you want to tell Facebook more than you tell your parents, or your spouse, or your third cousin twice removed, then that should be your choice. And it should be your right. At least, your choice and right in any jurisdiction in which there is at least some personal freedom."
"You can disagree with Facebook's approach, and its underlying attitudes—as Naked Security sometimes pointedly does—but to aim to kill it off entirely to suit your own agenda is arrogant self-righteouness at best," Ducklin wrote in a blog post.
Furthermore, Ducklin suggested that the "We do not forget" part of the Anonymous tagline "seems chillingly close to one of the criticisms levelled against Facebook in the call-to-arms video, namely that Facebook doesn't 'forget,' since it's impossible—according to the video—to delete your information from Facebook."
"Apparently, then, it's morally wrong for Facebook to be 'unforgetting,' whilst for Anonymous, it is a badge of honour," he wrote.
For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.
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