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Kicked off of Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) social network for failing to follow the rules, the Anonymous group of hackers responsible for several serious cyber-security attacks is crafting its own social network, AnonPlus.
Anonymous, which counts the Bank of America, Arizona Department of Public Safety and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security among its considerable hacking credits, said that its Google+ accounts have been suspended by Google for violating terms of service regarding posted content.
“Didn’t take long to get banned from Google+ our Gmail is also gone …” according to this Anonymous blog post, which shows a screenshot of the suspension of its Your Anon News account.
Rather than avenging this affront and attacking Google, whose Google+ social network now has over 10 million members, Anonymous said it is launching its own network.
“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,” Anonymous wrote in another blog post.
“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.”
Anonymous added that AnonPlus will not tolerate being shut down, censored or oppressed by governments and corporations.
This network, which will be launched “soon,” will be open to all users, not just members of the shadowy Anonymous collective.
Security expert and Sophos technology consultant Graham Cluley said AnonPlus is in the early stages, noting that a team of 17 Java developers has been announced on the site’s holding page.
“Google – with all the resources it has available – appears to have done a good job with Google+, but surely a loosely-knit amateur collective like Anonymous, which rejects organizational constructs, will have a much steeper challenge,” Cluley wrote in a July 18 post.
He pointed to Diaspora, the open-source social network alternative to Facebook, which has struggled to gain traction.
“It will be interesting to see if AnonPlus becomes popular if/when it launches with the very people it is intended to help – those who are being prevented by oppressive regimes from sharing information freely and safely with the rest of the world.”
In other Anonymous news, three suspected members of the group had their New York homes searched by agents for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. FoxNews.com said FBI agents executed search warrants on homes in Brooklyn, Baldwin and Long Island.