This year, 5 November may take on new meaning, as hacktivist group Anonymous has cited the date as the day it will “kill Facebook”.
In a video posted on YouTube last month, titled “Message from Anonymous: Operation Facebook, Nov 5 2011”, the group accuses Facebook of selling user information to government agencies and information security firms.
Anonymous states: “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.”
Anonymous has been responsible for cyber attacks this year targeting Visa, Paypal, The Bank of America, and various law enforcement and government Web sites around the world.
“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,” says the Anonymous message.
“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 online rumour-mill caused panic for some of the more gullible Facebookers earlier this year, after a satirical story posted on World Weekly News took on a life of its own and prompted the creation of several online petitions to stop the social network from supposedly shutting down.
Facebook is yet to show any indication of taking the Anonymous threat seriously, and has not released any formal response.
Anonymous has recently been kicked off Google's new social platform, Google+. The group subsequently pledged to create its own social network, AnonPlus.
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