April 21, 2010: The Facebook logo is displayed on a computer screen in Brussels. (REUTERS/Thierry Roge)
PALO ALTO, Calif. – The Anonymous Internet hacking group is planning to "kill" Facebook and has announced the date it will attempt do so, in a statement gaining prominence Tuesday. But the group is clearly not unified against the social network.
In a YouTube video, the hacking group warns, "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."
Whether that's a single angry hacker or the will of the entire collective was unclear, however. "#OpFacebook is just another fake!" read a Twitter feed associated with the Anonymous group early Wednesday morning. "We don't 'kill' the messenger. That's not our style."
Hours later, the group appeared to have changed its tune: "#OpFacebook is being organized by some Anons. This does not necessarily mean that all of #Anonymous agrees with it," the Twitter feed read just two hours later.
The group said in its message that "Operation Facebook" would be begin November 5. It claimed the social network, based in Palo Alto, Calif., provides information to "government agencies" so they can "spy on people."
While not necessarily a single entity, Anonymous links hackers across the word with the goal of committing acts of civil disobedience online.
Most recently, the "AntiSec" hacking group -- linked to Anonymous -- claimed last weekend that it had "defaced and destroyed" the websites of scores of US police agencies in retaliation for the arrests of cyber attack suspects.
NewsCore contributed to this report.
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