14 DAY TRIAL // Google's decision to ban Anonymous-related accounts from its new Google+ service was the last drop for the hacktivists who decided to create their own social network.
One account called "Your Anon News" was apparently the most popular one, but others associated with the group were silenced as well.
"This is the sad fact of what happens across the internet when you walk to a different beat of the drum. We’ve all heard the stories of activists being banned from FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, and governments blocking their people from these sites as well through organized black outs.
"That day has came to an end. Not only did a few people organized an Operation ageist [.sic] Google+, but we have started to build our own Social Network," the group wrote in a blog post.
The name for the planned network is AnonPlus. The domain has already been registered and a forum was set up to coordinate and discuss various aspects of the project.
While the details still need to be worked out, one's thing is clear - the network will be censorship-free and will have very few restrictions. "This is one social network that will not tolerate being shut down, censored, or oppressed - even in the face of blackout," the group says.
There's already a list of 20 Java and web developers who signed up to participate, but it remains to be seen if the project will go anywhere. Building a successful social network requires more than just programming skills.
Anonymous has a lot of supporters and has captured the media's attention for the past six months or more. However, this is sort of a symbiotic relationship. The public wants Anonymous and Anonymous needs the public to survive.
But the public is on websites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+. It's hard to believe that a lot of people will register an account on AnonPlus just to hang out with the hackers. And it's hard to believe hackers will use it for anything meaningful.
After all, why would they create a central point of compromise? If law enforcement or rivals can obtain access to the site's database it would expose all of their potentially incriminating private messages. That's why hackers prefer using chat rooms to discuss with each other.
