AC = Domestic Terrorists? 519
Miang writes "A video from a recent FOX 11 (Los Angeles) newscast has surfaced on YouTube. In the segment, reporter Phil Shuman investigates so-called "Hacker Gangs" comprised entirely of anonymous users. The segment, which focuses mainly on users at 4chan, 7chan, and 420chan, seems to confuse /b/ raids and motivational poster templates with a genuine threat to the American public. For added FUD, the FOX team inserted an unrelated video of a van blowing up — twice! Presumably, one is intended to equate anonymous posting with domestic terror. The story and video can be found on the local FOX website, so it does not appear to be simply a clever parody." Cringe as you watch this video explain terms like 'LULZ' and show inspirational poster parodies as evidence of the evils of this terrifying "Group".
"so-called 'hacker gangs'" (Score:3, Insightful)
They're only called that because you just called them that! Jeeez. There are roving gangs of hackers, lurking the backstreets of the 'net looking for sites to spray their graffiti on.
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Conservative Fear (Score:3, Insightful)
It's little wonder groups like Al Qaeda are outmaneuvering Bush and the other conservatives: the Bushites are so fearful, they only know what they can see from their "undisclosed location". Conservative = coward.
Cowardservatives!
Re:Conservative Fear (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Conservative Fear (Score:5, Funny)
It's little wonder groups like Al Qaeda are outmaneuvering Bush and the other conservatives: the Bushites are so fearful, they only know what they can see from their "undisclosed location". Conservative = coward.
Cowardservatives!
"there is absolutely NOTHING which conservatives don't live in terror of" you say? Hmmm, I consider myself to be somewhat conservative, and yet there are quite a few things that I don't live in terror of. For instance, I'm not at all scared of bunny rabbits. Well, perhaps if I met the bunny rabbit that was featured in the absolutely terrifying documentary "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", I might be scared, but I certainly hold no fear of your average garden-variety bunny rabbit.
Oh, yeah, plush Cthulhu toys. They don't scare me. Well, as long as they're not the plush Cthulhu slippers of course, but that goes without saying.
Kiwi fruit. Sure, they scare me, but I think that "terror" is pushing it a bit far. I might cross the street to avoid one, but I've never yet run screaming from a Kiwi fruit.
In conclusion, I would like to state that your characterization of conservatives as being terrified of absolutely everything is not only inaccurate, but comes close to li . . . libe . . . written slander. Sorry, I've always been terrified of that word.
Re:Conservative Fear (Score:4, Insightful)
First off, you have a news station who adds a bit too much drama to their report, making it bigger than it should be. In turn, when this hits the web, it becomes a lambasting of the people who were victimized here.
Yes, these aren't 'hackers on steroids' or anything. The report is just talking about groups of malicious internet users -- I'm sure many of them have no skills and are at best script kiddies. The point is that there are people running around harassing people. Your typical slashdotter may feel the need to make fun of the mom that found a need to get a security system and a dog, but that's EXACTLY the kind of reaction most of our parents would have if confronted with calls of death threats, posting of family members pictures and addresses online, and notices for people to do bad stuff to them.
What you have are groups of people who do have fun being assholes to the rest of the internet. Terrorists, no. But it is a problem, none-the-less. So go ahead and laugh at the people that these assholes victimize. I, for one, don't think it's funny.
Re:Conservative Fear (Score:4, Interesting)
I sympathize with your compassion for anyone who is the victim of malicious mischief. I was quietly sitting in my dining room, next to a window, when a BB shot by some young punk broke the window and left a nasty welt on my arm. That said, I wouldn't call the FBI, and I don't think a couple years in Gitmo, are required (though the mental image does have certain appeal) as appropriate punishment for said miscreant(s).
The point here isn't the victims. It's not even the perpetrators... there have been pimply faced, antisocial, teenagers all the way back when young Ogg climbed up a tree and dropped a prehistoric rotten egg on Mrs. Umars head then promptly fell out of that tree laughing his furry protohuman butt off.
There's this E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N thing going on, and we're supposed to be rising to higher levels of intelligence and social functionality... the FOX NEWS folks (and there fearmongering minions) would have us devolving back into stupid brutes who club one another insensible at the slightest provocation. Kids are stupid... they do stupid things... don't any of your remember the stupid things you did in the throws of puberty? It's truly the human condition. Guide them if you can, talk to them because you must, spank them if you absolutely have to, but let's not cure adolescent inanity with the threat of thermonuclear deterent. The punishment cetainly doesn't fit the crime, and god knows once the hormones subside, and the frontal lobes develop a little more, most of these young jerks will mature into perfectly descent human beings. We just need to focus a little more on what's of real importance in the world and stop knee jerking at the sound of ever "BOO" emanation from the desk of FOX NEWS, because if you knee jerk long enough, all you're doing is Goose Stepping...
Privacy = Terrorism (Score:3, Insightful)
As we've had to see for the past seven+ years, there is absolutely NOTHING which conservatives don't live in terror of.
I'm more worried about the connecting "anonymity" with "terrorism". Anonymity causes people to be jerks, but it's also great for free speech.
Cue suggestions to track people by name and number online, to prevent this kind of terrorism. The police state and crackdown on piracy fits lovingly well together.
Yes, that's a bit on the paranoid side. I'm bored.
Fear the wrath of Anonymous! (Score:5, Funny)
Yellow journalism at its finest (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Yellow journalism at its finest (Score:5, Funny)
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Anonymous always delivers.
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Re:Yellow journalism at its finest (Score:5, Informative)
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I try, I really do, not to fall into the obvious traps but if I did it wouldn't be the first time. My implied premise is that there's a difference between Anonymous and anonymous. Ok that's splitting hairs I know but it's Saturday so I reserve the right to ride off on wild tangents. Anonymous is a proper noun and anonymous is an adjective. *sigh* I even annoy myself sometimes.
On top of the fact that I'm perched on a darkly obscure distinction is the unfortunate fact that I'm using Fox as a source. That's
I ... (Score:5, Funny)
Either the words don't exist to describe just how stupid these people are, or I'm too stupid to describe how stupid they are.
And the FOX reporters are worse!
Re:I ... (Score:5, Funny)
Either the words don't exist to describe just how stupid these people are, or I'm too stupid to describe how stupid they are.
And the FOX reporters are worse!
Other than it being one of the worst "spin" attempts I've seen, I have to admit, it was worth it for the amusement value. visions of a mob of geeks, derringers hidden in their pocket protectors.... Drive by shootings from late model Scooters.....
thanks, everyone, really cheered me up this morning.
Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory (Score:5, Funny)
Nothing new here people, move on.
I'm crazy! I'll do it! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'm crazy! I'll do it! (Score:5, Funny)
Fox reporter: How did you get this number? Get lost kid we have a war on terror to report on.
Alex: But... butbutbut... They ARE terrorists! They... they.. they once threatened to destroy stadiums with carbombs!
Fox reporter: Hmm I guess we can stretch this enough to make it Fox-worthy. Jackson, get my coat - we may have to blow up a minivan for dramatic footage just to be sure.
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The reason why they blew up the vans (Score:5, Funny)
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Out
Loud
The moar you know.
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(oh boy oh boy, genuine 'lols' here from me on this whole shambles)
But if you carry out threats anonymously.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:But if you carry out threats anonymously.... (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, but when you die, you go to heaven and get 42 brand new computers - never used!
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What the hell are they going to get from never used computers ?
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Hackers On Steroids (Score:5, Insightful)
PH33R J00R 1337 SKILLLLLLZZZZZZZZ!!!!1!!!1 (Score:3, Funny)
There is only one solution for this problem. (Score:4, Interesting)
Death to all those fanatics!!!! And yes, i will post anonymously.
I actually have sympathy.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Anonymous is what happens when you give people the ability to act without reprecussions, a good portion of the world turns into total a**holes. And they will surely retaliate, for two reasons. The first being the justification that "oh, we're called domestic terrorists, we better at least do something worth that name now".
The second being the justification "Umm, no. You totally misunderstand what we do here. We're just normal internet stupidity. want a sample? How about everyone in your company? We can do a mass raid if you want"
The second already is happening in droves, if you'll notice their forums.
Now, that said, the people i DON'T feel pity for are the "victims".
The male victim, who fails at trying to be anonymous, now has his name, and his story, all over all of the *chans. All he's doing is trying to get revenge because anonymous wouldn't raid his stupid girlfriend and that they told him he was being a moron. He spends most of his time actively trying to spread dirt on the *chans, including warning potential raid targets, making up lies about what raids actually are.
As for the female victim, her story is similarly stupid, but as I do not know the entire thing with all facts for certain, i will refrain from final judgement and spreading rumors.
But for most raid "victims" in general, their main flaw was that they posted too much personal information online, and made a point of either harassing others, who happened to be anonymous, or whining to anonymous for favors.
I am not anonymous, but it pays to know about them.
Re:I actually have sympathy.... (Score:5, Insightful)
The internet is a wonderful place, everyone can get their 15 minutes of fame, and more. However, it might not be the fame they want, and trying to control it is absolutely futile. Maybe posting some sob story on your livejournal that everyone on the internet can read isn't such a good idea, maybe posting too much skin on your myspace is a bad idea too. It's as if people forget why it's a good idea to protect your privacy when they go on the internet, and some of these people get burnt by it. I hope they learn something at least.
Re:I actually have sympathy.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I actually have sympathy.... (Score:5, Funny)
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Fooled you!!! I don't HAVE a minivan!!!!!!!!!
Re:I actually have sympathy.... (Score:5, Insightful)
And "reporter" is what happens when you have sunk so low that it doesn't matter anymore what you say as long as it's controversial.
No matter how anonymity may be abused, it's an essential part of a functioning democracy and free society, because if you don't have it, the only people participating in discussions are those with nothing to lose.
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Anonymity is a prime ingredient for a functioning democracy. Take camera surveillance. People are going to be scared to do anything out of the ordinary, for fear of being flagged as a peculiar guy (and thus much more likely to be caught doing anything illegal, even the mundane stuff like throwing something on the ground instead of in the trashcan). This fear prevents anyone from questioning the status quo, and thus a "democracy" results in everyone agreeing with the current
Re:I actually have sympathy.... (Score:5, Funny)
Are you referring to the hackers, the reporters, or FOX?
Re:I actually have sympathy.... (Score:5, Funny)
Yes.
Anonymous, not Anonymous Coward. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Anonymous, not Anonymous Coward. (Score:5, Funny)
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They did bring us HP7... (Score:5, Insightful)
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it was actually LueLinks that leaked them out.
Sheesh, why must LLers always be anonymous outside of LL? Anyway, yes. The leak was originally from a user on www.luelinks.net, who obtained an advance copy from a friend working at a bookstore. He then proceeded to take photos of every single page and leaked them to LL. The LL community then introduced them to 4chan on /b/, and 4chan went ahead and attempted to frame Gaia Online and eBaum's World for the leak and subsequent spoilers.
Shock News Flash - FOX panders to stupid people (Score:2)
I am not a number (Score:2)
Re:I am not a number (Score:4, Funny)
Damn, too fast to post. Damn this is what you call an unmasked AC - oh well.
Re:I am not a number (Score:5, Funny)
Did this video come out on 4/1? (Score:2)
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Next time, I'll say "prima aprilis".
Cheers,
-b.
You got a bunch of people (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:You got a bunch of people (Score:5, Insightful)
We are all more or less anonymous here on slashdot. Very few people know who hides behind a username. The problem with ACs isn't their anonymity, it's their lack of identity. It's the same thing people are discussing about certain muslim women covering their face. Not only are they anonymous (most everyone in a big city is, even if they tell you their name (which could be fake)), but they also lack an identity. If you met her later, you wouldn't be able to tell if it was the same woman, or somebody else. This makes people feel uneasy about talking to such a person, even if she is a nice religious woman, and not a bank-robber (although bank-robbers have been known to use burkas as well).
It is no doubt that anonymity, and certainly, lack of identity, leads to antisocial behaviour. If people are to be held responsible for their actions, they need to be recognized by the people around them. That's why every discussion group on the Internet is full of people behaving antisocially, from flamers to trolls to crackpots, most of those people would have shut their mouth if it wasn't for the fact that they are anonymous. People who also choose to lack an identity (such as AC) are usually even worse, and seldom worth listening to.
There is nothing wrong about being scared of anonymity. What is funny about the Fox 11 coverage isn't that they claim anonymous Internet users can behave badly. What is funny is that they compare this to actual real-world terrorism, which, to take it mildly, is quite a different matter.
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But ACs aren't the extent of anonymity on Slashdot. You go by the nickname iminplaya. I assume that's not your real name. All I know about you is that you have 6,309 posts on slashdot, I can easily find the last 24 if I'd like, and somehow after 6,309 posts you've managed to avoid getting a karma bonus.
The same is pretty much
simply wow (Score:4, Insightful)
First off, wasn't the Harry Potter spoiler clip in the middle of there taken from the Daily Show? (I could swear that's John Oliver's voice).
Second, the tool with the MySpace account--it's clear to anyone that has any idea about anything that he simply ended up with a virus/keylogger installed. "Anonymous" got his passwords from that and the virus got spread to his friends. Woooooh, that kinda shits been happening on the internet for forever now. He simply appears even more foolish for not having even that much of a clue (hell, my grandparents are aware that there are viruses and nasties out there).
What I find most disturbing about this is that if anyone sends Fox 11 an email/letter/phone call/whatever explaining to them how far off base their piece is, they'll just treat it all as threats that further back up their claim. Truly truly sad....
HA! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:HA! (Score:5, Insightful)
/b/ is mainstream (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously, /b/ is so mainstream now, it beggars belief. Here is a Slashdot article that mentions it in passing without so much as stopping to explain the term. This was always going to happen. A group of people focused around memes, with a subset of them bent on spreading these memes to other sites? There is no more perfect recipe for notoriety than that. Rules 1 and 2 have completely failed, just as miserably as they would fail in a real-life fight club (where did those new members come from anyway?).
It's a shame really. For a short while, /b/ was a great little internet phenomenon. Anonymity, with all its baggage, and somehow no lawsuits. Now, though, the old guard is quickly moving on. Anybody who's frequented the site can attest to this.
As for the FOX clip... pure garbage. Most /b/tards call images "pictures", and directories "folders", and get confused between wallpaper images and desktop screenshots. The /i/nvasion people are a little closer to "hacker gangs", but even then, the "hacking" only ever amounts to SYN flooding and MySpace phishing.
Despite my pessimistic tone, I predict that "Anonymous" will continue to grow. As more and more attention is given to these "secret websites", more and more people are clamoring to become "hackers on steroids". This new Anonymous will be larger, with more brute force at his call, but at the same time stupider, and less apt to create entertaining content. And paradoxically, he'll be less anonymous than before. I see threads where a bunch of high-schoolers recognize each other based on posted photos and local memes. They greet each other by name and socialize. On /b/.
They say that raiding /b/ is liking pissing in an ocean of piss. But what if the people doing the raiding aren't pissing? What if they think this is a kickass beach where they can hang out and go for a swim with their friends and not worry about taking a piss while they do? It's not cancer, it's a full-on mutation.
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It will always happen, if something is really good and funny, news of it will spread, more people will come, and for every new person that comes, the original will be somewhat diluted, less good, less funny. Some people are true creators that add value, most are just consumers unfortunately. But people move on, and there will be a new place as good as
/huh?/ (Score:3)
Re:/huh?/ (Score:4, Informative)
Urban Dictionary [urbandictionary.com]
Encyclopedia Dramatica [encycloped...matica.com]
Uncyclopedia [uncyclopedia.org]
Enjoy!
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While some people point to the invasions as the beginning of the end, I think there were far more contributing factors, of which the invasions are a relatively minor contribution. The most obvious problem is that there are only so many quali
Re:/b/ is mainstream (Score:5, Informative)
And yet..... I'm glad it's there. I'm glad that there still exists a place where people can be offensive, racist and rude in all manner of ways. Frankly, the place warms my heart because of its simple honesty. It doesn't pretend to be anything other than the asshole of the internet. It even revels in it. I can respect that kind of honesty.
Ultimately, the
To finish off, anytime I have browsed
I can see the hypocritical legions of politicians, reporters and busybodies rallying to condemn
Sites like
bigger example please... (Score:2)
I believe it was fox national that would pull stuff like using split screens showing one thing, the narrator talking about another thing and a small box showing someone speaking in another language.
It made it appear that it was all related like the non-english speaker was talking about the larger picture being shown while the narrator appeared to be a translator. But none of them were related. And this h
And you're surprised? (Score:3, Funny)
Fox 11 Trolled (Score:5, Insightful)
Congratulations, sir. You have my undying admiration for having the balls to do a RL troll the likes of which I have never seen before.
What's wrong with people. (Score:5, Insightful)
ad infinitum.
Re:What's wrong with people. (Score:4, Funny)
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AC/DT -- LOLZ 0x07'z (Score:2)
I'm messin it up like a hurricane
My LULZ is flashing, across the web
You switched to Linux but I switched to deb
I won't leave no pictures, won't spare no drives
Nobody's usin, firewalls right
I got my 0x07'z I'm gonna get LOLZ
I'm gonna get ya, MSN or AIM & get ya
LOLZ 0x07'z
LOLZ 0x07'z, you got me pinging
LOLZ 0x07'z, your latency's high
LOLZ 0x07'z
Origin of the Story (Score:2)
Just another day at FOX (Score:2)
FOX "news" is for fools. Old story. But I sometimes wonder whether they are happy to be the outrageous scapegoat of the left because it takes the heat off all the untrue crap on the other networks' "news". Seriously, the other networks are just puppies, kitties, drug commercials and 10 minutes of government propaganda too. Don't t
Good Lord (Score:2)
I'm a victom too! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Hahaha... and I thought Slashdot was funny... (Score:5, Funny)
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It's not FOX's national news that did this report, it was a local affiliate. Check out your local ABC or NBC station for more examples of idiocy.
Re:What's the Background? (Score:5, Informative)
You might learn more here:
http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/B [encycloped...matica.com]
http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Image:B_summ
http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/4chan [encycloped...matica.com]
http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Image:4chan-
If you think tubgirl, lemonparty and goatse is funny, this is where they came from. If you think lolcats and ORLY is funny, this is where it came from.
Also, the biggest crime you can commit is to ask for information, just like you did. You clearly need to lurk moar.
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4chan is not the place where all this gets started. 4chan is the place where all this collects. Due to 4chan having a rather large population, it is more than likely that most soon to be popular things on the internet will pass through the place.
These things then become popular on 4chan and outside of 4chan simultaneously and independently. 4chan then takes the credit for making it popular. For proof that 4chan cannot propagate a meme, look at Cracky. No one outside
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