Various news outlets breathlessly reported that the well-known activist / hacktivist group known as Anonymous had posted an announcement about an impending NASA announcement that intelligent ET life was a reality. The link above leads to a video that purports to be this announcement.

The first thing I did was to check the OFFICIAL Anonymous website. After all, it would seem reasonable that, if Anonymous had insider information like this they would post it. As of this writing, there is nothing of the sort on their official website. (Go ahead … search the site for “alien” and “extraterrestrial” and “NASA”). If one clicks on the “Message for Humanity” on the official website (of the same date as the alleged ET announcement) and watches THAT video, there is nothing mentioned about ET — and the video is quite different. Here’s the video from the official site:

So, why the incongruity? Why is there nothing about a NASA ET life announcement on the official (read: real) Anonymous sites?

My guess (and it’s only a guess) is that someone wanted lots of web traffic, so they posed as Anonymous and made their own video. It wouldn’t be hard. After all, anyone can get one of those Anonymous masks (the official site runs an ad for getting yours). Sure,. this could also be a “move the herd” social experiment, too, but I’m guessing it’s about selling ads and web traffic.