(Photo: AnonRelations)

The hacktivist collective Anonymous has now set its sights on the State of the Union. In a call to arms published to one of Anonymous' websites, the group announced its intentions to launch #opSOTU, an operation intended to disrupt all livefeeds of the State of the Union address scheduled for tonight at 9 p.m. EST.

Though it did not detail how exactly it plans to take down the livefeeds, Anonymous says the hack is in response to the death of hacker activist Aaron Swartz, whose suicide last month has been a lightning rod for the controversy surrounding the free and open Internet. Anonymous also calls out the President's refusal to discuss the NDAA, military drones and Bradley Manning.

Reads the release:

The President of the United States of America, and the Joint Session of Congress will face an Army tonight.
We will form a virtual blockade between Capitol Hill and the Internet. Armed with nothing more than Lulz, Nyancat and PEW-PEW-PEW! Lazers, we will face down the largest superpower on Earth.

And we will win!

There will be no State of the Union Address on the web tonight.

In order to block all web feeds, Anonymous will have to successfully hack ABC News, Yahoo News and the White House's official channel, among others.

(h/t The Daily Beast)

(Photo: Tumblr)

Faux Doxx Not long after it launched, Snapchat’s self-destruct feature and popularity with teenagers earned it a bad reputation as "that sexting app." (The kind of bad rep that makes you popular very quickly.)

And yet, a number of tech blogs, including BuzzFeed, Gizmodo, Gawker and Betabeat have pointed out reasons why Snapchat isn’t safe for sexting, including an exploit that lets you save videos without the sender knowing. Early this month, we argued that Snapchat’s real genius is its ephemerality, and that in the age of personal brand curation, teenagers (and even those us not born in the ’90s) want an anti-Instagram. PandoDaily later concurred.

Into all this adult squabbling over a teenage craze wades TechCrunch, wagging its finger at a manufactured sexting scare. Who is to blame? The media, of course. With a Perry Mason-ish flourish, TechCrunch reporter Jordan Crook points the finger at a number of bloggers in a section of her post dubbed (dun dun dun da) “The Conspiracy.”

“I learned,” says Ms. Crook, “that the former group is predominantly chatting with each other.” This leads our esteemed detective to two conclusions:

The first is that the same folks who serve you a round of tech news with your morning coffee and bagel are also in a Snapchat sexting ring. The second option is that the very same people who have repeatedly assumed that Snapchat is for sexting, and propagated that myth, don’t use Snapchat for sexting at all.

I.e., unless tech reporters own up to sexting each other all day every day, there’s no evidence of sexting. BuzzFeed’s Katie Notopoulos either admits to sending dick pics to Gizmodo’s Sam Biddle, or her conclusions are invalid. (Nick Bilton is written off as allegedly barely using the service.)

Unfortunately, TechCrunch made precious little effort to verify basic facts, assuming unverified handles were associated with individual reporters (did we learn nothing from the BuzzFeed vs. Oatmeal battle royale?). TechCrunch also doesn’t make note of the fact that your “top friends” and numbers of Snapchats exchanged are only based on recent activity. Ignore someone for a while and they fall off your list. Besides, there are so few adult normals on the service, who else is a 25-year-old tech reporter supposed to talk to?

In Ms. Crook’s case, she might have underestimated their willingness to take that dare:

TECHCRUCNH JUST ACCUSED ME IN BEING A MEMBER OF A BLOG ILLUMINATI SEXTING RING, WHAT HAPPENED 2 HUMAN DECENCY

— Sam Biddle (@samfbiddle) December 27, 2012

If anyone thinks @katienotopoulos is bluffing about snapchat to advance her career, call her out. She WILL show you her dick.

— Sam Biddle (@samfbiddle) December 27, 2012

@samfbiddle when you're workin with the kind of monster hog I got, who doesn't want to show it off?

— Katie Notopoulos (@katienotopoulos) December 27, 2012

Look: just because the founder (who has admitted the service was partially inspired by the sad tale of Anthony Weiner) says he didn’t design Snapchat for sexting doesn’t invalidate the use case. Using that line of reasoning, Facebook was built to bring the world together and not to cyberstalk and data-collect. Sure, nudes likely don’t account for a huge portion of the 50 million snaps per day, but if the arc of civilization has taught us anything, humans will share nude selfies by any means possible.

VC Style Though VCs may be considered more put-together than their hoodie-clad engineering counterparts, there's only so far a boring suit can take you. AHA Life, an online shop that curates "unique lifestyle products from around the world," chose its most stylish VC, and he's a New Yorker, natch.

Lawrence Lenihan, founder and managing director of FirstMark Capital, appears to be everything Tom Haverford wishes he was, right down to the swag-ass bowtie. Need a $935 smoking jacket or $5,000 Hyperion Turntable? Mr. Lenihan's got you covered.

Mile in Your Shoes Congratulations to fitness freak and Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley for hitting his goal of running 1,000 miles this year. If New York tech falls off the funding cliff, good to know he can always fall back on a career as a personal trainer.

(Photo: Instagram)

SMDH Hey, entrepreneurs, consider this a public service announcement warning you not to get cute with your title:

Just saw "artrepeneur" in a twitter bio.

— Samir Mezrahi (@samir) December 28, 2012

(Screencap: YouTube)

In the wake of the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, social networks lit up with cries for gun control. Hundreds of thousands of people descended on We the People, the White House's official petition portal, to ask the President to take meaningful action to help stop gun violence. Today, President Obama released a video recorded especially for those who signed these petitions.

In the video, President Obama reiterates statements he made on Wednesday, including calling on Congress to ban "military style assault weapons and high capacity ammunition clips." He also said that Vice President Joe Biden is working on drafting a "comprehensive set of serious proposals to keep our children safe, including strengthening school safety, improving mental health care and addressing a culture that too often glorifies guns and violence." The proposals are slated to be reviewed by the President in January.

President Obama also thanked petitioners for speaking up, and asked that they continue engaging in a sustained effort to eradicate gun violence by calling members of Congress to express their concerns.

U mad?

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued a statement regarding Antisec's claim of having hacked over 12 million unique Apple user IDs from an agent's laptop: the feds say that's bullshit.

AllThingsD reports the FBI states that it is "aware of published reports alleging" Agent Christopher Stangl's laptop was breached "and private data regarding Apple UDIDs was exposed."

The FBI begs to differ:

At this time there is no evidence indicating that an FBI laptop was compromised or that the FBI either sought or obtained this data.

As AllThingsD notes, one of Antisec's main goals was to alert the public to a "top American law enforcement agency" possibly making this list for what may very well be nefarious reasons--perhaps furthering a persistent hacktivist concern about creeping surveillance states.

The @AnonymousIRC Twitter account has already posted what appears to be a response to the FBI's denial:

Also, before you deny too much: Remember we're sitting on 3TB additional data. We have not even started. #funtimes #fff

— AnonymousIRC (@AnonymousIRC) September 4, 2012

One question still unanswered--was that really President Obama's iPad user ID? If so, the leader of the Free World may now be restoring his tablet to avoid having his Words With Friends screen name revealed.

PasteHTML states that the number of UDIDs leaked from the hack is 985,117. If you are concerned your own UDID is in that batch of data you can use this tutorial to find it.

We have contacted the Obama campaign for comment regarding this claim and will update if we receive a response.

(Photo: Know Your Meme)

Reddit had its biggest day ever thanks to President Obama's AMA. No surprise there, considering the site was inaccessible for most of it. [The Verge]

RIP Microsoft Zune, can't say anyone will really miss you. [Engadget]

Shopbop is trying to make itself into a high-end competitor to sites like Net a Porter. [New York Times]

Facebook has been cleared to officially purchase Instagram. [Wall Street Journal]

Is TechCrunch a bully? [Lane Wood]

Sphero, the slick robotic ball that can be controlled with your iOS mobile device, just announced the addition of two new apps, Chromo and Macrolab, before kicking off a national tour of hackathons to promote its SDK. Sphero is made by a company called Orbotix based out in Boulder. So why are we writing about it? Because earlier this week, Ross Ingram, Orbotix's genius operations guy, managed to get President Obama to play with it.

Even better, Mr. Ingram, who accosted the POTUS while he was scheduled to speak at the University of Colorado, inspired the President to utter the following immortal words: "Excuse me, give me some space to drive my ball." Something tells us Sphero will have an easier time getting people to come out for its tour now.

Of course, this approach works better if your product involves a shiny, scene-stealing robotic ball. (We can't imagine getting as enthusiastic a response from the president for just by handing him any ole app.) But now that we've introduced you to this novel proximity-to-famous-people marketing strategy, have it. Just don't plan on lurking outside "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." Something tells us he won't be stopping by again for awhile.

JOBS Act supports via Angel List

Ready your startups, the early stage investing climate is about to go into overdrive. This afternoon, the JOBS Act (or Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act) passed in the House with an overwhelming vote of 380-41. Next, the bill moves to President Obama, who is expected to sign it into law.

It's been a bit of a bumpy ride. The JOBS Act originally passed in the House a few weeks ago with a 390-23 vote a couple weeks ago. The Senate's version of the bill, called the CROWDFUND Act (or Capital Raising Online While Deterring Fraud and Unethical Non-Disclosure Act), added a number of safeguards for investors and passed last week 73-26. The JOBS Act was then revised to reconcile with the Senate's bill, which is why the final version had to move back to the House for another vote. 

As the Washington Post reports, President Obama's support for the bill "has put him at odds with frequent allies, including labor unions and consumer and regulatory groups." Although the bill has been buoyed by overwhelming support from the tech community, "Critics say that the changes would allow firms to avoid disclosing crucial financial information and elude government oversight, opening the door to fraud and investor abuse," adds the Post.

We detailed some of the crucial changes the bill will bring about, including increasing the 500-shareholder cap up to 2,000 investors before companies have to disclose their financials and allowing unaccredited investors to contribute limited amounts to small companies via crowdfunding platforms.

For a more thoughtful take on what this means for the startup world from a veteran tech investor, check out Rick Webb's incisive column from earlier today.

It's worth noting, however, that Mr. Webb isn't the only techie with misgivings.

@naval @katedmitchell I for one think this Jobs act is a terrible idea and sec would neuter it big time. Cc @davewiner

— Om Malik (@om) March 27, 2012

Mr. Winer's response? Cross your fingers.

@om @naval @katedmitchell -- actually I read that it was neutered before it passed. In any case, nothing can be done now. Hope for the best.

— Dave Winer ☮ (@davewiner) March 27, 2012

A little Wilco, a bit of No Doubt—check out what else made it onto the new official #Obama2012 campaign playlist: OFA.BO/pHpWYy

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 9, 2012

As the Verge points out, President Obama may catch a little flack for using a Swedish service like Spotify instead of its American counterparts, but we think it shows a keen eye for global tech trends. Besides, Spotify's Facebook integration gives Obama another reason to mention the Second Coming of Tech IPOs in his stump speeches.

As for the playlist itself, the President trades Clinton-era Fleetwood Mac nostalgia and sweet saxophone stylings for Arcade Fire and Florence + The Machine, but nods to the boomers with some James Taylor and Aretha Franklin, to Gen X with  U2 and REO Speedwagon, and to people with questionable taste everywhere with Ricky Martin and Hootie frontman Darius Rucker.

Can't you just imagine Barack crooning "Let's Stay Together" in your ear as you step into the polling booth?

Rep. Issa, Internet hero?

Detractors of the the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) may have reason to celebrate, albeit momentarily. According to Rep. Darrell Issa (CA-Rep.), an opponent of the bills,  House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has assured him that SOPA will not move forward in Congress until "a consensus" has been reached.

Rep. Issa also said that a hearing regarding SOPA's impact on cybersecurity scheduled for today has been postponed. On Friday, Rep. Lamar Smith (TX-Rep.), chief sponsor of SOPA, said he would take out a portion of the law that would allow the Justice Dept. to seek court orders requiring American ISPs to block subscriber access to foreign websites accused of infringing copyright, reports PC World.

Although Mr. Cantor's camp has yet to issue a public statement, Rep. Issa, who is pushing for alternate legislation called the OPEN Act claims:

"Majority Leader Cantor has assured me that we will continue to work to address outstanding concerns and work to build consensus prior to any anti-piracy legislation coming before the House for a vote. The voice of the Internet community has been heard. Much more education for Members of Congress about the workings of the Internet is essential if anti-piracy legislation is to be workable and achieve broad appeal."

Protest for the bills has been getting more vociferous and coming from harder-to-ignore corners of the internet. Reddit, Wikipedia, and the hacker collective Anonymous have all announced impending blackouts on January 18th to protest SOPA. New York's tech community has its own rally against Senators Schumer and Gillibrand planned for the same day.

But the most high-profile objection thus far has come from President Obama's camp.  On Friday, his IP, technology and cybersecurity chiefs wrote a joint statement on online piracy, saying, “We will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet.”

It was not the unequivocal dismissal some had hoped for, but the statement, co-signed by Victoria Espinel, Aneesh Chopra, and Howard Schmidt did note that, “Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small," adding, "We must avoid creating new cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the internet."

The Senate is still scheduled to begin voting on PIPA on January 24th. Although if the internet keeps getting its way like this, perhaps we should expect further delays.

In response to a question about whether Reddit will continue its blackout, Redditor farmersam writes:

"Do not take this concession as a victory! This is an old trick. Please spread the word and call them out repeatedly. 1: Make crazy offer (SOPA) 2: Client rejects crazy offer (us) 3: Make a "reasonable" offer (PIPA) 4: Client accepts offer because it seems reasonable compared to crazy offer. Don't let up."

That thread quickly devolves into a discussion of whether that technique is called the contrast effect, the anchoring effect, door-in-the-face technique or Overton window. See, the internet is a fun place. Be careful when you're messing around with it.