If Anonymous won't attack Facebook Jan. 28, then who was that guy?

Protip: Always take threats from an impassioned-but-unorganized group of hacker activists with a grain of salt. A Twitter account representing the global "hacktivists", @AnonOps, has denounced a video recently released threatening to attack Facebook. "Again we must say that we will not attack #Facebook! Again the mass media lie," Anonymous tweeted. So, what's the deal here?

Unfortunately, we can't say for sure. Since Anonymous doesn't have any one particular, identifiable leader calling the shots, it's tough to say whether this truly means that Facebook will be safe from denial of service (DDoS) attacks this weekend. While Anonymous has made several attacks for relatively noble causes in the past, its major problem is its own anonymity.

While @AnonOps is generally considered the "official" Anonymous Twitter account, anyone can create a Twitter or YouTube account under the "Anonymous" moniker and threaten a company with DDoS attacks. Anonymous claims that the mass media has lied, but surely an outlet would rather be "wrong" than to let a potentially imminent attack on a company go unreported in the interest of its readers.

At any rate, it looks like the attack on Facebook will not happen this Saturday, according to the reportedly more official face of Anonymous. The video has since been taken down, but we doubt this is the last time someone either claiming to represent the group or rallying members of the group will threaten Facebook. Your digital farms are should be safe ... for now.

[Via Facebook, TIME]

[Image Credit: Digital Trends]

Are you surprised that the supposed attack on Facebook was denounced? Do you think Anonymous will ever "officially" target Facebook? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.