Anonymous

About

Anonymous is an ad-hoc “group” of internet users who occasionally act in concert, a demonstration of the mass organizing powers of the Internet. Often known for trolling, Anonymous has no formal structure, and survives by feeding on lulz. Also, “Anon” is often used as the third person singular of Anonymous.

Origin

4chan is believed to be the primary Anonymous hangout, and Anon’s suspected place of birth. Since user registration is never required on 4chan, all users who do not identify themselves are known simply as “Anonymous.” It is important to note, however, that Anonymous is not synonymous with 4chan. 4chan is simply a favorite venue of Anonymous.

Highlights

• Project Chanology was a series of real-live, in person protests organized by Anonymous against the Church of Scientology starting in Jan 2008.

• The Great Habbo Raid was an online raid in 2006 organized by Anonymous allegedly as a raid against racist mods, eventually spawning the Pool’s Closed meme. Subsequent Habbo raids have occurred each year.

Related Memes

• Internet Hate Machine

• Exploding Van

• Party Van

• Boxxy and Tabby

• Anti-Security Operation and Lulzsec Hacks

Google+ Ban & Anonymous Social Network

On July 15th, 2011, the nameless collective’s “Your Anon News” page was banned from Google’s new social networking service Google Plus on the grounds that “some of the posted content violates the company’s Community Standards.”

Following the ban, Anonymous announced via one of its Tumblr sites that the group will build its own social network called “AnonPlus,” a presumably anonymous social networking service with “no fear of censorship, of blackout, nor of holding back.” Currently, AnonPlus.com displays the following message:

Operation Facebook

On July 16th, 2011, a video titled “Message from Anonymous: Operation Facebook, Nov 5 2011” was uploaded to YouTube that claimed Facebook would be destroyed by Anonymous on November 5th, 2011.

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.

Business Insider^[1] reported on the story on August 9th, 2011. The article was posted to Reddit^[2] the same day, and reached the front page with 2,285 up votes.

External Links

^[1] Business Insider – Hacker Group Anonymous Vows To Destroy Facebook On November 5

^[2] Reddit – Hacker Group Anonymous Vows To Destroy Facebook On November 5