The Dangers of Anonymous

No, I'm not talking about the real Anonymous, that international network of hackers and activists that emerged from that ever-weird imagboard website 4chan. I'm talking about the German (apparent) representative of them on Facebook: Anonymous Kollektiv. 

I've known both, the Facebook Anonymous (which I'll call Kollektiv to make it easier to differentiate) and the real Anonymous, for some time now. And while Anonymous should always be seen critically (as should everything, to be quite honest), I've come to really detest Kollektiv years ago. Which is really funny, considering how clever they are: they jumped on the Anonymous bandwagon and used their fame to become famous themselves - preying on Anonymous' real strength, their anonymity, and making it their weakness.

Anonymous can try to distance itself from Kollektiv as much as they want, Kollektiv has reached that level of fame where it's become a myth that's come to stay. Even if every person with some intelligence and knowledge should easily recognise just how much Kollektiv deviates from what Anonymous actually wants to achieve, it sadly isn't the case.

So, so many people I know on Facebook have liked Kollektiv's site, often sharing whatever rubbish they've published now. And yes, I'm very consciously saying rubbish here (even if bullshit is what first came to my mind, but oh well) because they are so often contradicting their own messages or are simply preying on what's popular right now. Hello there, all you little tin foil hat wearing conspiracists.

Especially in the face of Anonymous latest move on ISIS the public interest in what they're doing just exploded - and really, searching for something on Facebook is the next best thing we do after looking it up via Google. And tragically, most people blindly believe whatever they read on the Internet. In this case this means that Kollektiv and Anonymous must absolutely be the same thing, amirite? Yeah.

Just take a look at what kind of people comment their posts.

Trying not be judgemental but that doesn't sound like the kind of people that's trying to form their own opinion on important matters without questioning what some website is telling you.

And that's the tragedy of our age. We're being told to take everything with a grain of salt on the web but for most people it's just so tempting to believe that just because it's on the Internet it has to be true. Even with schools trying to teach children what you could call media literacy, it still won't change the fact that simply everybody with some decent IT knowledge can pose as someone else - and spreading lies has thus become easier than ever before.

Being Anonymous has never been so easy and difficult simultaneously.

For further insight, take a look at this Spiegel article that also offers some pretty valid points as to why Kollektiv and Anonymous are certainly not the same.