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Uncategorized Friday, December 30th 2011 at 4:25 pm

Anonymous Allegedly Threatens Sony, Justin Bieber, Others Over SOPA Support

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An Anonymous-branded message threatening Sony and a handful of celebrities has surfaced and calls for attacks on the target parties as retaliation for their collective support of SOPA. The message announces that Anonymous will “destroy [Sony's] network,” and has “declared that [their] fury will be brought upon…Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian, and Taylor Swift,” for their grievous crime. Now, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Releasing a video announcing an Anonymous attack doesn’t necessarily make said Anonymous attack real, but this one seems to be gaining some traction.

As with any “Anonymous Announcement,” it’s imperative to consider the source. The YouTube account that released the video, TheAnonMessage, probably isn’t what you would call a premier source of Anonymous news, but the video does have about 60,000 views at the time of this writing. TheAnonMessage has also uploaded plenty of other videos announcing other Anonymous operations, but I can’t say that I’ve heard of many of them, and I’m willing to bet that at least 95% of them never actually took off. They date back to July of this year, and the first 2 laughably include the prefix “Official” in the title. It’s also worth noting that the YouTube channel’s associated Twitter account boasts a paltry 225 followers, so take the decree as you will.

All that being said, do a quick Google search for “Anonymous Sony SOPA” and see how many hits you get. Quite a few. Just like the big “Anonymous is attacking Facebook” thing a few months ago, the media has gotten the ball rolling on this one, despite the fact that it’s nigh impossible for anything to actually be officially related to Anonymous until after the fact, and it’s a grey area even then. In any event, if something does happen, it’s going to be bad news for Sony, who’ve already had to deal with this sort of mess plenty of times before. Then again, maybe they’re ready for it this time. As for the random assortment of celebrities, well, when isn’t there someone trying to take them down or steal their personal data, right?

Here’s the script from the video:

Hello, SONY.

We are Anonymous.

It has come to the attention of the Anonymous activist community that you have chosen to stand by the Stop Online Piracy Act. This act will halt online businesses and restrict access to many sites for many users. Supporting SOPA is like trying to throw an entire company from off a bridge. Your support to the act is a signed death warrant to SONY Company and Associates. Therefore, yet again, we have decided to destroy your network. We will dismantle your phantom from the internet. Prepare to be extinguished. Justice will be swift, and it will be for the people, whether some like it or not. Sony, you have been warned.

To those doubting our powers. We’ve infiltrated the servers of Bank of America, The United States Department of Defense, The United Nations, and Lockheed Martin. In one day.

For their approval to SOPA, we have also declared that our fury be brought upon the following persons. Justin Bieber. Lady Gaga. Kim Kardashian. and Taylor Swift.

Operation Blackout, engaged.
Operation Mayhem, engaged.
Operation LulzXmas, engaged.

We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.

Supporters of SOPA, you should’ve expected us.

And a link to the actual video if you really, really need to hear the text above read by a computer.

(h/t The Next Web)

Relevant to my interest in trying to mitigate media reactions to Anonymous announcements

Filed Under | • • • • • • •
  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=110401237 Joshua Burkett

    Dear Anonymous,  I’ve liked some of your exploits in the past, but c’mon, leave poor Sony alone. Their network horribly sucks enough without anyone interfering.

  • Anonymous

    The video is a fake although Kim will most likely become a target of Anonymous because of the new scandal that suggest her clothing line uses child labor in foreign countries.

    Anonymous, is however, hacking Sony for a second time around because of it’s support for SOPA.

    Sony, you should’ve expected us.

  • Yu Lee

    i thought the authorities could easily trace a computer from its IP address?

    Why cant they catch these bullies?

  • Dfgdfgdfz

    lolololol

  • Valinor

    Probably because the users in Anonymous (who all wear matching V for Vendetta masks and speak in pleasing baritone) are better at covering their tracks than the government is at finding them.

  • Chaingang268

    Anonymous fags? Well to course u know because they losers ttat got aids from fucking their grannies sucking their dads dicks anonymous= -> milimeter dick fuck to anonymous homos

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Steve-Thompson/100000355411389 Steve Thompson

    you sound very intelligent.

  • invicta

    goddamit if they want to help the people then why attack them? these backwards activists are obviously cyber terrorists if you actually had any sense of decency they’d keep on that cartel job instead of having the group of fat ass xbox players and wannabe guy fawkes’ attack a game network, if you really wanna piss people off attack xbox i’m fairly sure they’ll get a much bigger WTF because that’s all they’re doing pissing off the people they’re supposedly fighting for. honestly they’re nothing but stupid knuckle dragging vaginas that in no way help the world can’t wait to see you hang from an electric barbed wire and i do hope i get to one day have you look down a barrel as i tell you to remember that 5th of november and show what a real activist does because anarchy is better then you pitiful way’s

  • Person

    Because they anonymize their computers so that the IP addresses can’t be traced… anything that allows you to find someone can be undone, it’s only a matter of figuring out how to do it (and we’ve known how to do this for a long time now)…

  • invicta

    the PSN or playstation network has actually proven to a better network compared to the xbox live service but when you have a group of so called “activists” that are in reality a bunch of XBOX junkies that have nothing better to do but hack and and attack the people they claim to fight for you get a stupid mess honestly what good comes out of getting about half of your cyber cell to take down a game network? all they did was piss off upwards millions of sony costumers aka THE PEOPLE and every intention they had of making a point was nullified when they fired on the innocent if this is supposed to be activism without casualty i’m still waiting for no casualty part. as far as i’m concerned they’re vigilantes with blind eyes shooting the wrong people in the search for “justice”

  • invicta

    yep they only way to attack sony is to piss off the people you want to protect and help honestly this is bullshit absolutely came out of a few basement D-bags bringing down the PSN and you can’t say that they are not stupid opportunists and XBOX fanboys, if even one of them was a PS3 player he would have retaliated in a big way but since they’re a bunch of idiots with no sense of who to attack they’re going for someone whos easy to pin, it’s the 99% versus the 1% only in this situation the 1% did nothing wrong but speak their voice while the so called “freedom fighters” want to silence them. so much for sense of right and wrong 

  • Chaingang268

    In all honest SOPA is a good idea the only reason fags anonymous is mad because they arnt gettig ther way this attack towards sony isn’t going to help but what it will help is showing that anonymous has to hide behind shit like the pussies they are this act to bill w/e isn’t but to sony for it to pass I was reading about fags anonymous tey say they hacked the pentagon wtf! Well ovbiously get aren’t professionals because in one is pshyco enough to yell it out online if I had the right to execute. Their whole family by execution. But I can’t these guys are terrorist we need to capture them and. Put them in federal prision

  • Kfkracer

    ok look if u piss off “THE PEOPLE” on the PSN bad enuf people will turn from sony and go elswere what is how thay hurt sony the most its a money game

  • Nathandog04

    Justin Bieber does not Support SOPA and the true Anonymous is much more well informed than this group claiming to be them on FaceBook

  • 7488843382587

    I hope you realize that anonymous is not a bunch of xbox junkies… And I also hope you realize he said nothing about xbox live being better (hasn’t crashed yet, unlike psn) Anonymous are a bunch of hackers on COMPUTERS. Since your an idiot and lashed out on this guy to try to get your horrid opinion out. everything you have said has become invalid due to the fact that you know nothing

  • Kzahid06

    I love how you capitalized the “b” in “Facebook”. 

  • Anon

    you are fucking clueless to say the least do you think anyone gives a fuck about your ps3 over the whole internet…? do you even understand why they are doing this? and yes that 1% has spoken and said 99% we are going to get this law passed to get even more control over the media and your lives and are you being serious thinking this is something to do with Xbox vs PS3 Sony constantly piss anonymous off so they constantly get hacked how can you not realise this?

  • justsomeguy

    LOL the people, do you honestly think Sony has any of our interests in mind? Of course not they are a business and their only goal is to make more money so SOPA is an amazing law that will give them enormous control over any so called “piracy issues” I’m using quotes here since we all know they won’t be targeting piracy but anyone who they think is in their way. Also I think some time off the PSN would be good for anyone go outside, read a book, expand your horizons, do some googling on SOPA before you come in here and make more of an ass of yourself. BTW we’re not xbox fanboys, those guy are a bunch of pansies.

  • http://rbianchi.myopenid.com/ Rich

    ROFL!!! Sorry but Anonymous attacking Justin Bieber is hilarious!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=110401237 Joshua Burkett

    You’re right on the money in regards to Anon shooting the wrong people in search for justice.  Quite well said.

    …but 7488 is right – For the love of God let’s not go down the path of comparative fanboy rhetoric.  God kills a kitten every time people talk about Xbox vs. PS3 on the internet. :P

  • Anonymous

    LMAO Just because you support something, that doesn’t it will pass. XD

  • WalterSolano

    lol SONY servers are linux… you know how hard it’s to hack a LINUX SERVER?

  • http://freesoftwarehacker.blogspot.com/ Patrick Niedzielski

    Not very.

  • artillery boy

    Take everything else but leave Taylor swift alone.

  • invicta

    they have no goddamn right to, if i get pissed off at work i don’t piss on the floor and throw crap in my bosses face i take a logical approach and this i’m sorry but it’s wrong and have you even heard what they’re doing now? they admitted that innocent people are going to lose money because of their next move and they don’t care. now tell me how you support that tell me how taking the money of the innocent helps us.

  • invicta

    hey guess who also knows how to read, ME :). i know he didn’t say anything about xbox live being the better network but they obviously have been live alot longer and have alot of kinks worked out and that there really is no reason to attack them. anonymous is made up of hundreds to millions, we don’t know and probably half of them don’t even play video games so for to even think that i think that is stupid. also i in no way insulted anyone in this i simply stated that i in no way appreciate an activist group that shoots at the people they’re “helping”

  • invicta

    don’t even try to make yourself look like an anon i know what the damn SOPA is and i know what it will do but there is no way it will pass as it will cross the bill of rights. i’m not talking about SOPA i’m talking about how the real pansies anonymous attack the innocent because they have no idea to handle a global organization with millions of dollars in funding, you break em down they will only get back up with a stronger wall. i’m going to assume that most anon’s have actual lives and that spending a lot of time doing this is taxing and they have actual work to do so it’s already a war lost just like americas war on drugs

  • FunnyCop

    They are not in it for the money (as a group) but individuals may be. So don’t worry about your CC info because less than likely it will not but stolen/released to the public. The hacking is just another protest just like the voluntary website blackouts, but this time its involuntary. Since the SOPA and the Protect IP act will not just shut down U.S piracy websites they can shut down any U.S website and block foreign severs/websites. If you heard about other hacktivists making a private internet server by send a satellite into space, that depends on whether SOPA or the Protect IP act pass or not. Censuring the internet violates MANY of our natural rights and will cause a MASSIVE wave of fury. I doubt that anybody can predict if people will create their own armed forces to fight the government or not but I hope it doesn’t come to that extreme.

  • buhbyesony

    There not hacking PSN silly.  There hacking sony network. *sigh* 

  • Derp

    If you are buying Sony products and using PSN you are supporting SOPA… You deserve to burn along with them. How bout you put down the controller for a little bit and figure out wtf is going on in the world today. If you had half a brain you would be cheering them on because they are trying to protect the internet that you are using to write you thoughtless posts on.

    They are attacking Sony because Sony supports SOPA, it has nothing to do with them being “xbox junkies”. You’re obviously about as dense as a rock.

  • invicta

    no i’m supporting myself by keeping myself entertained, honestly i couldn’t care less what they do because honestly if the bill passed there would be a massive uproar against it and riot’s is something the government can’t afford to pay to put down, now while i myself am a firm believer in governments needing to fear it’s people i don’t like it when so called “activist’s” attack their own people and as i’ve said before the anons are getting worse at handling their business and their next move as they stated will make innocent people lose money. now you tell me why i should support this group if this is how they handle things because so far all i see is them leaving poorly done jobs to mop up, hell an idiot with a block of C4 he doesn’t know to ignite could probably do a cleaner job then these guys

  • invicta

    yet if you’re attacking “the people” constantly you’re no longer in the image of an activist but a cyber cell or angry hacker group with their own personal agenda. if they really wanted to get SOPA stopped dead in it’s tracks they would actually try helping in a good way like idk hack the list and take off the supporters names or mess with the people who started the bill and other such things idk i’m no hacker but it seems like they have a wrong vendetta on sony because really all they are is an entertainment and innovation company and i don’t see anything wrong with that but apparently those freedom fighters at anon want to take sony corp’s freedom of speech. in the end it’s just a variant of the drug war, they can keep fighting but they won’t win just exhaust themselves and their reserves

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001776926779 Austin Lindsey Gates

    Justin Bieber CLEARLY SPEAKS AGAINST SOPA!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1001385134 Brandon MacDougall

    You are pretty stupid for thinking thats the only anonymous youtube account and the only anonymous twitter account then.

  • FroadeL

    what a moron!

  • FroadeL

    your right, Sony’s network is pretty lame…

  • anonymous

    what’s an alot?

  • RandomCitizen.

    Obviously you don’t know how to read then. Since they aren’t attacking PSN.

  • invicta

    no but this next move is going to make innocent bystanders lose money, read the kotaku interview one of their members says it clear as day, and in this day and age nobody needs them doing that, that’s an indirect attack on that persons family and i don’t take to kindly to that

  • killer04289

    some rocks float

  • killer04289

    Bouncing ip’s usin things like tor browser and removing all traces make it pretty hard to find people

  • ashelz

    seriously wtf… you cant just say somthing and then say “i didnt say that, youre stupid to think that i think that”, i dont really care what youre real opinion is, just dont be a retard on the internet