Anonymous Planning Operation Global Blackout? Not Likely.

A message found on Pastebin has the internet in full uproar as it appears that Anonymous is threatening to “shut the Internet down”.  The Pastebin message has the typical tag lines of Anonymous at the end of the posting, however, certain things aren’t adding up, and we’re left to wonder if this might be someone’s idea of a practical joke, or another attempt to make Anonymous look bad.

First off, Anonymous has always attacked companies, organizations, or people that they feel have done wrong by the general public, or the internet hive mind itself.  In previous operations, the intention has never been to do any harm to the consumers themselves, as it would anger the customers and put them in opposition with the group.  Attacking the internet DNS servers on a Saturday would do no direct harm to a company or organization, however, taking away people’s abilities to surf the net on a Saturday of all days would cause backlash from the very people that they claim to fight for.  So an attack of this type wouldn’t make any sense.

Second, online Twitter accounts linked to the web group have either been silent, or have indicated that the operation is not an actual planned operation.  Anonnews.org has also not posted anything at this time in regards to what’s being called #OperationGlobalBlackout.  This site is normally one of the places that you can find the latest, up-to-date information on Anonymous operations.

Third, looking at the date, March 31st, you have to wonder if this isn’t some elaborate practical joke that someone is trying to get in for April Fools Day.

No doubt that Anonymous has a very long list of people who would love to give the group a black-eye in the public spotlight including Sony, who still blames the group for the massive breach of security that occurred last year.  The National Security Agency has no love for the organization either.  In all likelihood, this is either a black flag operation, or somebody just felt like getting the internet riled up for no good reason.  I guess we’ll find out on Saturday.