Earlier this week, Google banned pages related to loose-knit hacker group Anonymous from its hot new social network, Google+. Fed up with the apparent censorship, a group of like-minded hackers, programmers and other digital underground activists decided to take the realm of social networking into their own hands by creating the world’s first-ever anonymous social network. Still in its infancy (version 0.8 alpha, to be exact), the new network is currently calledAnon+, but that name will soon change, according to “Higochoa,” a self-professed hacker, Web developer and computer programmer from Galveston, Texas, who is leading a core team of 12 to 15 other developers, plus freelance specialists, to build Anon+. We had a chance to speak with Higochoa via IRC chat, and he gave us the low-down on what the team hopes Anon+ will become. Contrary to many of the reports about Anon+, the project is not being built by members of Anonymous, said Higochoa during our interview, at least not in an official capacity. The Anon+ dev team does have ties to Anonymous, but they have distanced themselves from the group because they were “getting attacked by those who don’t like Anonymous,”
said Higochoa. The Anon+ crew also wanted to differentiate themselves from certain negative connotations associated with the notorious hactivist collective. “We just didn’t want everyone to think we are a bunch of hackers sitting around trying to change the world,” he said. “We are actually going to do it.” The guiding principal behind Anon+ is to give “the people what most corporations have taken away, and that is control,”said Higochoa. “[Anon+] will allow people to get both educated freely, and allow them to voice their opinion without having fear of any org or gov.”
Like traditional social networks, Anon+ will allow users to create profiles, add friends and communicate with one another. Higochoa says that users will have total control over their “circles” of friends (though it’s unlikely they will use the word “circles” officially, as Google+ has already co- opted that word). Like Facebook, only people in a user’s circles will be able to view their posts and other activities on the network.
Higochoa says it’s likely that Anon+ will attract a lot of hackers and Anonymous members “because of the tech and what it provides,” but stipulates that the service is intended for a “wide audience” — anyone will be able to join. One major difference from traditional social networks, of course, is that Anon+ will be entirely anonymous; members won’t use their real names, a practice that is forbidden on both Facebook and Google+ for legal reasons. “It is also secure and without a central server, so it can’t be stopped once it’s started,” says Higochoa. This ensures “that control stays in the hands of the people. That alone is pretty different from other social networks.”
The lack of a central server means that Anon+ users will have to download an application to use the network, which will be at least partially based on peer-to-peer technology. This type of system will serve as a key security mechanism for the network. Anon+ will also differ from traditional social networks — and even other anonymous forums, like 4Chan.org — because users will have greater control over the discussions around their posts to the network, says Higochoa. Things like comment deletion are on the table, as well as the ability to have “parallel” conversation threads on the same topic. This will enable users to “go off on a tangent with one guy
while continuing the
conversation with another,
without worrying about
someone else interfering,”
he says.
The goal of Anon+, says
Higochoa, is to give a user
“the tools to get his voice
heard over the masses.”
Higochoa refused to go
into detail about what
exactly those tools would
be, but he says that the
structure and built-in
functionality of Anon+ will
make such empowerment
possible — users will have
“the same tools as the big
guys.”
In addition to enabling
online activism, Higochoa
says the team plans to
build Anon+ in a way that
will let users to more
easily organize offline
protests, without the risk
of the corporate
censorship Anonymous
and other dissident
political groups have
experienced on other
networks.
Anon+ will likely include
“Skype-like” video chat
functionality, and other
real-time communication
features, says Higochoa.
The network will also
incorporate ways for users
to anonymously transfer
money between each
other, though Higochoa
said that system is far
from complete, and he
could not say whether it
would be based upon
traditional currency (like
dollars), or something
more like Bitcoin.
In addition, Higochoa says
the Anon+ crew hopes to
create a sort of online
university, that will
incorporate “interactive
teaching,” and give
teachers the ability “to
reach students 24/7, on
any subject,” he says.
When asked whether
Anon+ users would be
setting themselves up to
be targeted by law-
enforcement agents —
just yesterday, 16 alleged
members of Anonymous
werearrested in the
United States — Higochoa
says that accounts will be
essentially un-hackable,
making it impossible for
authorities to reveal a
user’s true identity.
“[Your] circle of friends will
not only be the only ones
that see your posts, but
the only ones who ever
handle any of your data,
so there isn’t one place to
get hacked,” says
Higochoa. “If you get your
Anon+ account hacked, it
was you or one of your
friends.”
Obviously, the team still
has a lot of work to do
before Anon+ will be
ready to start taking on
users. Higochoa says the
official release will be
“sooner rather than later,”
but couldn’t give an exact
launch date. Of course,
the entire project could
fall through the cracks at
any moment — building a
social network from
scratch isn’t easy. And
besides, the Anon+ team
has enough enemies to
keep them on their toes.
There are “people who
wanna stop us,” says
Higochoa. “As long as they
are there, we are going to
have problems. But other
than that, there are none.”
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