Anonymous: MegaUpload Take Down Could Be Trap

Did Anonymous play into the government’s hands?

That’s the suggestion of Molly Wood at CNET who claims that the government planned the MegaUpload take down to happen right after the SOPA/PIPA protests on Wednesday.

She claims that her sources told her that the timing of the MegaUpload arrests was intentional. The federal government was wanting to start a fight with Anonymous after the beating SOPA and PIPA received on Wednesday. Her sources claim that the government instigated a fight with Anonymous to display the Internet not as a peaceful resistance force, but as a violent, destructive mob.

As we mentioned yesterday with the original MegaUpload take down story, the timing was all too convenient. Does that mean the government did it on purpose? There’s no way to really tell.

What we do know is that an effective way to ruin the Internet’s good image after the peaceful protest on Wednesday is to represent them as being part of the same force that Anonymous belongs to. While it is true that Anonymous did support the blackout, the two sides (internet culture at large and Anonymous) couldn’t be more different.

If this does prove to be true though, expect the government to use OpMegaUpload as proof that the Internet needs to be regulated. It will be used to label legitimate companies like Wikipedia and Google as cyber-terrorists because they supported the black out which was obviously organized by Anonymous as a form of terrorism.

Do you believe that the federal government timed the MegaUpload arrests on purpose? Is Anonymous playing right into their hands? Let us know in the comments.

There are 4 Comments. Add Yours.

Bil Bahooka
January 20, 2012 at 12:40 pm

Of course it was timed to make a statement. What bothers me is there are good uses for Megaupload and Rapidshare too. I have trained some of my clients to upload huge files (100+ megs)for me to work on their promotional projects – keeps from clogging up the emails.

The government is not for the people…..
Aura
January 21, 2012 at 10:19 am

Big, huge, outrageous BS.
Internet has three sides, the good, the bad and the neutral, as EVERYTHING else.

The good side uses words, social media and blackouts to express themselves.
The bad side, I believe, is made of users who tried using words and were not sucessful, uses destructive means to express and protest.
The neutral side is everyone else just wanting to read their news and life their life without trying to make any kind of change in the world.

That should be obvious to everyone, but media and manipulative governments will, of course, twist reality to put people in their favor.
Anon
January 21, 2012 at 10:46 pm

But even if it is a trap a controlled DNS system is much easier for anon to target, its how they do most of their attacks
AffectedByChill
January 26, 2012 at 7:01 pm

I think the move was hurried, since MegaUpload actually has, in my experience, does do take-downs.

I think they will be able to make an offer-of-proof that should quash this assault, or at least stand up in court, should it get that far.

There may be less scrupulous services, though not as large a target as MegaUpload. I think they are targeted for their size, and the history of Kim Dotcom….non of which has any meaning in an actual trial.

So Yes, long term this yields no convictions, if Dotcom and company keep their nerve.

Ergo, it must have been done for some other reason.