“We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.”
No longer just an adjective in the English language, “Anonymous” is now also used to refer the countless members of Internet subculture who choose to protect their identities from the world. Just about everyone has felt the effect of Anonymous’ presence online and off. From the net’s ubiquitous lolcats that can has cheezburger or Rick Astley at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the mass of nameless, faceless computer users known collectively as Anonymous are responsible for these social phenomenon. More interestingly, Anonymous has also been responsible for raids, invasions, activism, protests, and public defamation, via both legal and illegal means, with both good and malevolent intentions.
The idea of remaining anonymous on the Internet has been a topic of debate for nearly two decades, but in recent years, imageboards like 4chan and Futaba 2chan alongside wikis and forums like Encyclopedia Dramatica have proven themselves breeding grounds for users with a dangerous sense of unity and ability to willingness to make a difference in the world around them. Often, Anonymous’ goal is to cause as much mischief as is possible without causing real harm. Cases include mass [vulgar] posting on sites such as the anti-profanity “No Cussing Club” and inciting fear on Oprah’s talk show. For the most part, these practical jokes are not much different than your 8th grade friends prank calling the teacher, just on a much larger scale.
But there is great power in numbers. Under the blanket of modern technology, it seems that members of Anonymous consider themselves masked anti-heros. There are countless examples of how Anonymous has pulled together to cause real harm. For one, Anonymous was credited with an attack on Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email account last year. After discovering the password, a user posted it along with screenshots of personal photos and emails to 4chan. Since, they have been posted and re-posted to the point that they are publicly available online and can be found with a simple Google image search. The culprit, David Kernell a.k.a. Rubico, was easily discovered because of several mistakes he made when bragging to posters on 4chan.
Luckily, Anonymous has shown that power in numbers does not necessarily mean a digital Ku Klux Klan. In addition to terrorizing Sarah Palin, Anonymous has done some good in bringing awareness to the common man regarding topic the media might otherwise glance over. Project Chanology, led by members of Anonymous, is a group set out to bring about knowledge of the dangers of The Church of Scientology, a religion formed in the US in 1954. After an interview with Tom Cruise, an avid Scientologist, leaked onto YouTube in 2008, the Church attempted to remove it claiming it was unfairly edited to misprepresent the religion and was intended only for current members of the Church. Once 4chan discovered the video, it was immediately reposted and remains available to this day. Subsequently, Anonymous began to band together in public protest of Scientology and was called to arms via a series of videos. Perhaps most interesting about these videos is that they alert the public that Anonymous is not an elite group of hackers, but rather your everyday man and woman who choose to take action through the force of a faceless army.
Unfortunately, some members of Anonymous decided to take it upon them to take criminal action in the form of denial of service attacks on Scientology owned sites. After the case was investigated and some identities were uncovered in October of 2008, Dmitriy Guzner, 18, of Verona, New Jersey pled guilty to computer hacking for his role in the attacks which took place during January of the same year. According to the information filed in United States District Court in Los Angeles, Guzner participated because he “considered himself a member of an underground group called ‘Anonymous.’”
I personally feel that Anonymous was coming one way or another. Although the intentions of your average 4chan user might be less than ideal, change comes about when groups of people get passionate about something. If lolcats are what thousands and thousands of users are passionate about, I can’t complain. If protests and public awareness are what these people are all about, even better. Even if it is a waste to see such mass amounts of people passionate about pranking the rest of the world, it is good to know that there are ways for people out there to make a difference because others agree with their ideals. Although not necessarily attributable to 4chan and Anonymous, the recent Iran election protest was a largely Anon type of digital protest. When I heard of friends doing their part to wreck Ahmadinejad’s web infrastructure, I was interested to say the least. If something vile like a rigged election occurs in the United States, it’s basically guaranteed that Anon will be on top of it and that they (we?) have the power to do something about it. That kind of power and freedom is empowering.
Since joining this course, I have done a fair bit of lurking around Anonymous safe havens. Most of what I see is creepily dark humor mixed with a lot of pornography, profanity, and an occasional glint of useful, interesting, or heartwarming info. While doing a little bit of research for this post, I found a rather amazing forum thread regarding Anon. For some people, Anonymous is not just an adjective or even a mass noun, but a rather a way of life. With anonymity becoming easier and easier, it’s no wonder that people all around the world are taking part in this underground revolution. Expect us.
We are anonymous. We are Legion. For each that falls, ten shall take his place.
We do not forgive. We do not forget. We are everywhere and we are nowhere. We cannot be found. We cannot be fought. We cannot be counted. We cannot be named.
We are Anonymous
We are anonymous. We are Legion. For each that falls, ten shall take his place.
We do not forgive. We do not forget. We are everywhere and we are nowhere. We cannot be found. We cannot be fought. We cannot be counted. We cannot be named.
We are Anonymous.
We are anonymous. We are Legion. For each that falls, ten shall take his place.
We do not forgive. We do not forget. We are everywhere and we are nowhere. We cannot be found. We cannot be fought. We cannot be counted. We cannot be named.
Expect us
See what I mean?
This is what Anonymous means to me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncob8pgKB2c
Darn. They took the audio away from that one ^^^. Okay, here’s something else Anonymous means: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCbKv9yiLiQ
maxine you sound cute
We are anonymous. We are Legion. For each that falls, ten shall take his place.
We do not forgive. We do not forget. We are everywhere and we are nowhere. We cannot be found. We cannot be fought. We cannot be counted. We cannot be named.
We will never die.
Expect us
We are defenders of the internet. We are the keepers of truth. We are the army of one divided by zero. We are Anonymous. Join the Legion.
We are anonymous. We are Legion. For each that falls, ten shall take his place.
We do not forgive. We do not forget. We are everywhere and we are nowhere. We cannot be found. We cannot be fought. We cannot be counted. We cannot be named.
Expect us
We are anonymous.
We are Legion.
For each that falls, ten shall take his place.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
We are everywhere and we are nowhere.
We cannot be found.
We cannot be fought.
We cannot be counted.
We cannot be named.
Expect us
We are everybody and we are nobody.
We are anonymous;
We are legion.
For every one that falls,
Ten shall take his place.
We do not forgive,
We do not forget.
We are the face of chaos,
The harbingers of judgement.
We laugh in the face of tragedy;
We mock those in pain.
We ruin the lives of other people simply because we can.
We are the embodiment of humanity,
With no remorse,
No caring,
No love
And no sense of morality.
We have only the desire for more.
And now, quite simply, you have our attention.
We are Anonymous, we are Legion. For each that falls, ten shall take his place.
We do not forgive, we do not forget. We are everywhere, and we are nowhere.
We are the the face of chaos, the harbringers of judgment.
We laugh in the face of tradgedy, we mock those in pain.
We cannot be counted, we cannot be fought, we cannot be counter, we cannot be named.
Expect us, even if you have the sniffers.
We are Anonymous, we are Legion. For each that falls, ten shall take his place.
We do not forgive, we do not forget. We are everywhere, and we are nowhere.
We are the the face of chaos, the harbringers of judgment.
We laugh in the face of tradgedy, we mock those in pain.
We cannot be counted, we cannot be fought, we cannot be counter, we cannot be named.
Expect us.
Another slice of marblecake gentlemen?
Good god,Anonymous is not a super legion of hackers.
Anonymous is a bunch of faggot /b/itches that think talking dramatically makes them cool.
None of you are anonymous.
None of you are legion.
Lukeywes shows that you do forgive.
Remember Dusty the cat? No,you don’t. You forgive,you forget,and you are newfags that think wearing a guy fawkes mask=cruise control for cool.
Go suck a dick.
We are anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Hoi, the game…
Precisely what you said is part of anonymous… The newfags will do what the oldfags say… and the oldfags don’t forget, simply because there are so many. None of them are legion, but together, they are. It also says WE do not forgive… lukeywes isn’t the representative of anonymous… As a collective, anonymous will never forgive or forget…
We are anonymous;
We are legion.
For every one that falls,
Ten shall take his place.
We do not forgive,
We do not forget.
We are the face of chaos,
The harbingers of judgement.
We laugh in the face of tragedy;
We mock those in pain.
We ruin the lives of other people simply because we can.
We are the embodiment of humanity,
With no remorse,
No caring,
No love
And no sense of morality.
We have only the desire for more.
We are everything
We are nothing
And now, quite simply, you have our attention.
Expect us.
hi scott… i was wondering if youve done a lot of research on this topic?
We are anonymous.
We are legion.
United as one,
Divided by zero.
For every one that falls,
Ten shall take his place.
We do not forgive,
We do not forget.
We are the face of chaos,
The harbingers of judgement.
We laugh in the face of tragedy,
We mock those in pain.
We ruin the lives of other people simply because we can.
We are the embodiment of humanity,
With no remorse,
No caring,
No love
And no sense of morality.
We show no mercy.
We have only the desire for more.
We are everything
We are nothing
And now, quite simply, you have our attention.
Expect us.
And now, quite simply, you have our attention.
Fear Us
Expect Us.
5.19.13
You guys all realize that I have a list of all of your email addresses? And IPs? See, anonymous isn’t very anonymous if you’re ignorant…
So yes, AJ-football100@hotmail.co.uk from Amsterdam, I will expect you on 5.19.13.
We are anonymous.
We are legion.
United as one,
Divided by zero.
For every one that falls,
Ten shall take his place.
We do not forgive,
We do not forget.
We are the face of chaos,
The harbingers of judgement.
We laugh in the face of tragedy,
We mock those in pain.
We ruin the lives of other people simply because we can.
We are the embodiment of humanity,
With no remorse,
No caring,
No love
And no sense of morality.
We show no mercy.
We have only the desire for more.
We are everything
We are nothing
And now, quite simply, you have our attention.
Expect us.
Good day Scot, what you pointed out with AJ-football up there got me wondering. I am currently using TOR, can you say where I am from?
anonymous is the way the internet will fight, we are thousands of many, you do not know who we are. or what we do, but you know us outside of the mask, we are your aunt, your uncle, your mother your father, your sister, your brother, we are that one teacher you really hated, we are your ex, we are every one and no one, we are anonymous. expect us
Lee, it says http://ws.arin.net/whois/?queryinput=192.251.226.205
Good
/b/rothers
we must pick on bigger prey then this, this is why we have become the laughing stock of the internet
for those of you who are unaware of our upcoming mischief
email me for more information
wearelegionwedonotfear@gmail.com
Hello Fellow Mmebers Of Anonymous.
We are anonymous
We are Legion
For each that falls
Ten shall take his place.
We do not forgive
We do not forget
We are everywhere
And we are nowhere
We cannot be found
We cannot be fought
We cannot be counted
We cannot be named.
We will never die.
Expect us
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