Video Claims Anonymous Will Attack Facebook, Anonymous Denies Claim
A number of news outlets including CNET and Mashable reported yesterday that Anonymous had announced a plan to attack Facebook. The video claims "An online war has begun between Anonymous, the people and the government of the United States", and goes on to invite web users to download a denial of service attack tool called Low Orbit Ion Canon (LOIC), and offers instructions on how to download and run the program. The announced date for the attack is January 28 at noon.
But reporters seemed skeptical, picking up on inconsistencies. Mashable reporter Zoe Fox says "at least that’s what a video uploaded to YouTube Monday is claiming in the name of the hacker network" and "No time zone, however, is distinguished." CNET reporter Emil Protalinski wrote "What makes me skeptical (again) about this claim is that no reason for attacking Facebook is given other than ‘to show them indeed that we are not, playing.”
Anonymous has announced that the video is fake, using the @Anonops Twitter account:
Anonymous has claimed responsibility for a number of sites over the last few days including the Department of Justice, the RIAA, and the MPAA, attributing these actions to the takedown of MegaUpload. This false video is evidence of how difficult it must be to maintain a consistent message when you are a decentralized, loosely affiliated, anonymous group of hackers. Anyone can call for an attack on their behalf, and how are we to know when the call is actually comes from Anonymous?
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