A member of Anonymous, Speakeasy, has rebuffed claims that the group plans to attack Facebook, saying an attack on the social networking site "would be ridiculous" as the aim of the online hactivist group is to help people and not hurt them.

Yesterday, a group — believed to be a splinter group of Anonymous – had threatened to "kill Facebook" for intruding into the privacy of users and storing personal data without informing users about it.

The splinter group pasted a message on Pastebin, saying ‘Operation Facebook’ would be set off on 5 November, Guy Fawkes Night. The group also posted a video on YouTube to issue the warning.

It told viewers: "Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed. If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill Facebook for the sake of your own privacy.

"Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms…

"Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your ‘privacy’ settings, and deleting your account is impossible, even if you "delete" your account, all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time… Facebook knows more about you than your family. http://www.physorg.com/news170614271.html http://itgrunts.com/2010/10/07/facebook-steals-numbers-and-data-from-your-iph…."

The group also added that they would be destroying Facebook to save users from governments.

It said, "One day you will look back on this and realise what we have done here is right, you will thank the rulers of the Internet, we are not harming you but saving you."

However, Speakeasy told Gawker that ‘Operation Facebook’ is a months-old project which aimed to create awareness among Facebook users.

The member said on Pastebin that the group had abandoned the operation after people started losing interest in it. But scraps and messages remained on various boards such as Pastebin.

Speakeasy said, "The whole thing is a massive clusterfuck and i feel responsible, so can someone sort that shit out?"

"An attack on Facebook would be ridiculous," he said.

"Even if it succeeded, Facebook has a lot of users, and we want to help people, not hurt them."

Facebook has not commented on the matter so far.