Is the anon message even real? The official anon news twitter has 1.2 million followers. What's the difference
Because Anonymous has no leadership, no action can be attributed to the membership as a whole.
Parmy Olson and others have criticized media coverage that presents the group as well-organized or homogeneous; Olson writes, "There was no single leader pulling the levers, but a few organizational minds that sometimes pooled together to start planning a stunt."
[18] Some members protest using legal means, while others employ illegal measures such as DDoS attacks and hacking.
[19] Membership is open to anyone who wishes to state they are a member of the collective;
[15] Carole Cadwalladr of
The Observer compared the group's decentralized structure to that of
al-Qaeda, writing, "If you believe in Anonymous, and call yourself Anonymous, you are Anonymous."
[20] Olson, who formerly described Anonymous as a "brand", stated in 2012 that she now characterized it as a "movement" rather than a group: "anyone can be part of it. It is a crowd of people, a nebulous crowd of people, working together and doing things together for various purposes."
[21]
The group's few rules include not disclosing one's identity, not talking about the group, and not attacking media.
[22] Members commonly use the tagline "We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us."
[23] Brian Kelly writes that three of the group's key characteristics are "(1) an unrelenting moral stance on issues and rights, regardless of direct provocation; (2) a physical presence that accompanies online hacking activity; and (3) a distinctive brand."
[24]
Journalists have commented that Anonymous' secrecy, fabrications, and media awareness pose an unusual challenge for reporting on the group's actions and motivations.
[25][26] Quinn Norton of
Wired writes that "Anons lie when they have no reason to lie. They weave vast fabrications as a form of performance. Then they tell the truth at unexpected and unfortunate times, sometimes destroying themselves in the process. They are unpredictable."
[25]Norton states that the difficulties in reporting on the group cause most writers, including herself, to focus on the "small groups of hackers who stole the limelight from a legion, defied their values, and crashed violently into the law" rather than "Anonymous’s sea of voices, all experimenting with new ways of being in the world".
[25]