Anonymous denies it plans to take down Facebook
AnonOps, a group allied with hacker group Anonymous, has denied it's involved in a plan to attack Facebook, after a YouTube video outlined a plan.
Hacktivist group Anonymous has been forced to disavow a plan to take down Facebook on 5 November -- Guy Fawkes Night. The plot was outlined in a video was posted to YouTube in June, but the group now says the video is not representative of Anonymous as a whole.
Tweeting from the AnonOps Twitter account, the group said, "OpFacebook is being organised by some Anons. This does not necessarily mean that all of Anonymous agrees with it.
"We prefer to face the real power and not to face to the same medias [sic] that we use as tools."
Before that it tweeted, "Don't be silly. Important things are happening in the world to deal with quirks like #OpFacebook. Let's keep our style and moral."
There has also been no mention of the campaign, which aimed to take down Mark Zuckerberg's social network because of privacy concerns, on the AnonOps blog.
Of course the problem with an organisation like Anonymous is that anyone can claim to be acting in its name, or denounce others as mere pretenders. It could be that there are smaller groups of hackers who call themselves Anonymous, or operate under that banner, but just because this video warning didn't originate from them doesn't mean that it's an empty threat, and that nobody will try to attack Facebook on 5 November.
Ultimately we'll have to wait and see. And if the hacker collective does take issue with Facebook, it's hard to know if it can put a dent in the operation of the social network.
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