Anonymous Threatens Internet With "Operation Blackout"

[Ranorak]

Hey, we're talking about the same bunch of idiots that buy those Guy Fawkes masks off of Warner Brothers, and then wear them to protest against big movie corporations.

Not to mention that Guy Fawkes wasn't really a great role-model for Freedom!

 

[Darknacht]

Not Anonymous.

Shutting down an entire form of infrastructure? Come on, they already stated they're not doing that after the NSA claimed they were going to bring down power grids. It's just an attempt to smear Anonymous, to give authorities a better excuse to hunt down the members of Anonymous (which of course is impossible considering the nature of Anonymous) and nothing else.

Or it could just be some wannabee idiot.

Someone says they're Anonymous, then they're Anonymous. Doesn't work any other way.

Yeah, he should have said not AnonOps.
This is a small group that has no chance of success, most of AnonOps has been making fun of how stupid these people are for over a month now. Nothing is going to happen.

 

[Tharwen]

I just don't see how Anonymous can DDOS the servers that do DNS lookup for the entire internet...

It would just be like on days when the internet naturally gets more traffic.

 

[klaynexas3]

does this mean i have to get my porn through IP addresses now? i don't know enough about this, but it sounds....complicated, but not impossible. it won't harm them, because they probably can communicate easily in other ways other HTTP usage, and i suppose i'll do other things during that time, like see my girl friend or play a game or watch a movie or something. if it works, sounds like a decent form of protest, i guess. who knows, might be interesting to see how things work out. might be funny to hear all the bitching when i go back to school of "omg, i couldn't even access my facebook, it was a total travesty!"

 

[JdaS]

How is this going to get them support, and hurt the "bankers" (or whatever "evil" they claim to b after)? Oh, it's to demonstrate how the world would be without the internet? I thought we did that in a nice, free, legit way just a month ago?

Implying that "nice, free, legit demonstrations" accomplish anything. Not that this stunt (assuming they pull it off) will do much more than inconvenience EVERYONE (yes even Big Business) for a moment...

 

[Daverson]

I'll believe it when I see it...

Of course, they won't actually do it. Without the internet what would they do? They'd have to go outside or something! XD

 

[Vanbael]

Yeah, im going to be at a convention so I'm not gonna give a damn about this. but are they painting themselves as the villian instead of the vigilante heros. Lawmakers can use it as leverage against them to pass bills that we don't even want. thats in it seems a little hypocritical to limit the flow of information.

 

[Harbinger_]

It's entirely possible but not probable. Hey if it happens maybe I'll get a few days off of work.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

Hey, uh, Anonymous...

I do agree with some of the stuff you've said and some of the actions you've done. It's not fair for sites to call Copyright on stuff that is protected by Fair Use, and the governments do tend to overreact a bit and it is nice to knock them down a peg or two.

HOWEVER.

Some of us have shit to do on March 31st. You know... important shit? The world has gotten to the point where we revolve around the Internet; taking it down for a day is certainly going to make an impact, but it's not going to be pretty.

And trust me, the minute the Internet comes back up, everyone's not going to shower you praise for 'enlightening' us. Rather, you're going to have the combined forces of the offline and online world wanting to lynch you.

And rest assured, if you do do this, Anonymous, I'm the guy tying the noose.

 

[Nouw]

I guess I could go outside that day or do something, gasp, productive.

 

[Bvenged]

In theory it is possible. But no one has ever actually done it, so it's unknown if it will work.

Yes, it would be difficult to pull off, but it is highly plausible. As far as I'm aware there's no real way to defend against this type of attack...

It would be vastly stupid to do it. No real message will be put across other than Anonymous is trying to assert power, and that we're all too dependant on the HTML internet. Whole businesses could fail because of it.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Lovely. Now I need to go snag the IP addresses for some sites I like to visit. Hooray.

 

[emeraldrafael]

regardless of the "message" they're sending or whether or not this is just april fools fuckery, i'll say it again, these are the guys we're supposed to point to and say they're fighters of justice. and nevermind what its actually going to do to the world if its down for a few days. Nah, its alright to instill absolute anarchy and disrupt trade and business, that wont be an issue at all.

You can say what you want, but its getting harder and harder to fight against something like SOPA when the alternative voice of the people who do is this.

 

[Farther than stars]

OK, so to punish SOPA and Wallstreet - affairs of the U.S. might I remind you - they're going to take it out on the entire world? And innocent cilivians too, including people who have an exam next week, empoverished kids in Africa who travelled miles to use the one computer at school, etc. Oh, and what about important data transfer that doesn't have to do with selfish moneygrubbing, such as medical information exchange or soldiers on the battlefield relying on satelite uplinks to detect enemy troops. There are quite a few things that could potentially go horribly wrong. So to summarize, Anonymous are now terrorists, cyber and otherwise. Fantastic... >.>

 

[Ekonk]

Okay kiddies, we can see you.
Put your arms down and go back upstairs and sit in your room.

Seriously... just, why?

All this would do is prove that Anonymous are a bunch of douches and they would lose the little support they still have.

From their point of view it would show just how much impact tampering with the internet via law would have, by making painfully obvious how dependent we have become on it.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

There's no point making clever, unique, character-driven comics if I can't post them to the Internet afterwards! Now I have to make REAL friends!

Here's to hoping that their plan to re-instate the Internet works just as well as their plan to shut it down.

 

[Kristian Fischer]

So, you snot-nosed little kids are going to "shut down the Internet" and expect us to blame somebody else? Punks.

 

[DugMachine]

But i'm supposed to be watching a 24 hour live creature stream tomorrow . WHY?!?!

 

[GeorgW]

It is technically possible, and theoretically not that hard, but I'm very much hoping there's more than enough counter-measures against these sort of stuff. Also, why protest SOPA, something we've pretty much beat, and not ACTA, which is much worse and still relevant? I like the idea of such a massive protest, but there has to be better reasons for it...
Also, remember what all those sites shut down voluntarily? That's a whole lot better. I get the feeling Anon wanted to encourage people to do that again, except nobody really cares about Anon's agenda.

 

[Awexsome]

Well I have to admit I am curious if they could actually do it. I would be pretty much unable to do any of my classwork that day and it wouldn't really help them in fighting their self-earned internet terrorist stigma by committing an act like that to get their way...

But despite all that I am curious.