Anonymous to take down Facebook on Guy Fawkes Day, who is Guy Fawkes?
(CBS) - Now that hacktivist group Anonymous has stated it will "take down Facebook" for their alleged misuse of personal information on November 5 - which is "Guy Fawkes Day" - everyone's wondering, why Guy Fawkes Day?
Anonymous threatens Facebook with Guy Fawkes Day attack
The English Catholic Guy Fawkes, also known as Guido Fawkes, fought in the Eight Years War on the side of Catholic Spain against the Protestant Dutch reformers. He planned to assassinate King James I to restore a Catholic monarch to the throne, but didn't succeed.
He was put in charge of gunpowder by leader Robert Catesby, but when authorities got an anonymous letter with a revealing tip, Fawkes was found guarding the explosives. This ordeal would later be dubbed the Gunpowder Plot. Fawkes was questioned and tortured for days after capture, and was eventually executed after breaking.
Anonymous is known to represent themselves with those creepy masks used in the movie, "V for Vendetta," which is also a representation of Guy Fawkes, the British revolutionary who plotted to blow up the Parliament in 1605.
Complete coverage of Anonymous on Tech Talk
In "V for Vendetta," a dark freedom fighter uses terrorist strategies to fight against his totalitarian society. Similar to Anonymous' vendetta for Facebook? We'd say so.
