Anonymous: #OpGlobalBlackout Targets Banks, Facebook

Anonymous is back with their grandest threat yet.

This past week, an innocuous YouTube video was posted titled, “Anonymous Message to Congress.” The video was made in response to the shutting down of MegaUpload on Thursday by the federal government. This, as we reported, led to Anonymous’ largest coordinated attack in their history with over 5,000 people taking down over 10 federal and industry Web sites.

What is your opinion about what Anonymous are doing? Share your thoughts here.

The video, which you can watch in its entirety below, is phase one of #OpGlobalBlackout.
They do recognize that MegaUpload contained copyrighted content, but say that the take down was not about copyrighted materials. Anonymous demands that MegaUpload be reinstated within 72 hours.

Anonymous claims that they have gained access to the servers for the United Nations, PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, US Bank, Capital One, Chase Bank, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. If their demands are not met, they will take down all of these servers.

For the banks, Anonymous claims that they have the account info of every client at these banks. They want to reassure citizens, however, that they are not going to compromise their information. They only want to make a statement to Congress.

As for Congress, they have a very special message – “To those who support PIPA and SOPA. To those congressmen who want to vote yes on these bills. We are not fucking playing.”

This has essentially turned into a game of chicken between Anonymous and the U.S. Government with the Internet in the crossfire.

Mike Masnick provides an embed of the government’s case against MegaUpload:

78786408-Mega-Indictment

He raises a rather interesting point about the government’s case against MegaUpload in that…

The indictment points out that Megaupload did not have a site search, by which users could find material. That’s interesting, but it seems like an odd piece of information in making the case. Other copyright cases have specifically found that having a search engine is part of an inducement claim — so there’s an argument that the idea not to have a search engine wasn’t so much “conspiracy,” as it was an attempt to follow the guidance of the court and to stay legal. To use the lack of a feature, that previously was shown to be a problem, as evidence of a conspiracy is crazy. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Here’s what some people are saying about #OpGlobalBlackout:

What do you think of this “Message to Congress”? Let us know in the comments.