Anonymous are to destroy Facebook – for privacy’s sake

The hacktivist group Anonymous has issued a YouTube video in English, Spanish and German announcing plans to destroy the world’s biggest social network, Facebook.

The hackers offer anyone concerned with the spread of personal information on the web to join the cause and “kill Facebook for the sake of your own privacy” in the action that “will go down in history,” setting the date for November 5, 2011. “Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from around the world,” the video statement, recorded in a typical digitally-altered voice says.

Anonymous insists the service is free for users for the sole reason that their personal information is on-sold and says the system remembers all the changes in user profiles, enabling the owners of the social network to recover any information put into the system at any time and recover deleted profiles. “Facebook knows more about you than your family,” their message says.

November 5 is Guy Fawkes’ Night in the UK. Fawkes was the mastermind of the Gunpowder Plot: in the 17th century, who planned to assassinate King James I by exploding the House of Lords building with large quantities of gunpowder. The plot, in fact, backfired.