Anonymous Denies Targeting Westboro Baptist Church 212
lenwood writes "Last week we discussed news that the hacking group Anonymous was staging an attack against Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church. It turns out that this was a publicity stunt staged by WBC themselves. Anonymous issued a press release disassociating themselves from this."
But... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Wait a minute (Score:2, Interesting)
There are no leaders of Anonymous, so if you happen to be Anonymous, you've gotta figure out what to believe for yourself.
In this case, the hypothesis that Anonymous has better things to do with its time makes more sense than the original idea of attacking WBC. And because the text in WBC's "come at us bro" had patterns that identified its author as the same one as in the initial "hai guyz lets raid WBC".
Anonymous is right: There's nothing Anonymous could do to WBC to make WBC any more funny than it already is. WBC is a troll; if you do not feed the troll, the troll will starve to death - maybe its death throes could inspire some lulz. An invite to DDOS is often a trap. Anons who do not step into the trap can remain Anonymous.
An analysis of the text is consistent with the hypothesis that WBC appears to have invited Anonymous to a DDOS party of WBC for reasons unknown. It's a troll, it's a trap, and it wouldn't have even been particularly funny.
Wake me when over 9000 people show up for something like the awesome [scienceblogs.com] counterprotest at Comic-Con [scienceblogs.com].
Not exactly how it works (Score:1, Interesting)
But since anyone can act as Anonymous then the WBC claim was legit. I can put up a server, make myself a part of Anonymous, attempt to hack my server, leave Anonymous, then claim Anonymous tried to hack my server.
Well, yes and no.
Yes, you could do all of the above. And yes, you could make those claims. And yes, the press would probably pick up the story and run with it as written.
But No, it would not be Anonymous proper. And they would know it. And you would be in some serious deep shit. Anonymous is a community. Like any community, if you're in it, you know who else is in it. The two guys at the party who know the secret handshake.
WBC just tried this and it didn't work. So No, they will not get a horde of newfags bombing their server so they can countersue and make money and continue their nonsense that way.
But something tasty will happen - rest assured of that. Something will happen. It will require a measure of elegance that the mob cannot deliver. Because that's what they want. No. It will be something subtle and untraceable, done with the skill of a surgeon and the quiet stealth of a butterfly.
The most brilliant pranksters on the planet Earth have now been aroused. Remember WBC, when it happens, you DID ask for it.
WBC are *very* professional trolls (Score:5, Interesting)
If you think they're not genius viral marketers, you haven't been paying attention to how you heard of them or why you know what they claim to stand for or why TV covers them when they're standing out there with signs. They're not just dumb bigots, they're a sociopathic family of lawyers, who go out and make themselves as publicly offensive as they can, so that people will attack them and towns will ban them and they can make money by sueing them. They're also happy to get donations from actual knuckle-draggers and from right-wing politicians who profit from the Culture Wars, but it's really about the lawsuits and the publicity.
Haven't Seen Proof WBC did the Anon Press Release (Score:4, Interesting)
It's not like AnonNews announced they traced the IP address of the poster back to the WBC. Sure. It could have been them. It could also have been just about anyone who has a beef with the WBC. Many people are chomping at the bit to take them down and have tried to recruit 'Anonymous' to do this. But they haven't been successful in the past. For all we know it was the folks from HBGary trying to pick a fight between the two groups to provide ground cover. But again, that is still nothing more than idle speculation.
I don't think Anons will ever do anything against the WBC just because they have no power. WBC may be annoying assholes. But at the end of the day that is all they are. They can pretty much only offend people who allow themselves to be offended.