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chris woodNot very anonymous of the guy, huh. Chris Wood, who says he goes by "coldblood" online, gave CBC News a relatively sound overview of what Anonymous is attempting to do with Operation Payback and why. He'd previously spoken to the BBC with his face blurred, but this time he showed his face and shared his name.

The backlash has already begun on 4chan, with a few users hailing him as the King of /b/, but most decrying his hippie ideals. Most members of anonymous want to see themselves as unseen hacker ninjas, and they think this dorky tow-headed 20-something makes them look like a band of sniveling brats with misguided idealism. [But they are, and Chris makes them actually sound smart and sensible! Anon is never frickin' happy. - Ed.]

In a 4chan thread from this afternoon, 4chan founder Moot (Chris Poole) responded to a thread claiming Chris Wood was the new King of /b/ with, "I disagree." When asked to elaborate, he offered an alternative king.

Here's the original video footage of Chris Wood's TV appearance (apologies for the poor quality):


Here is some conversation from a 4chan thread from this afternoon about Chris Wood being the new King of /b/. Click through for a big version.


You can see 4chan's founder moot interjecting in that last comment. When asked to clarify, he responded with this:

That's Teletubby Tinky Winky saying, "Some men just want to watch the world burn," a line spoken by Alfred in The Dark Knight. Clearly moot is just messing with his followers. (It's also possibly an imposter.)

Even though Chris Wood's ideals line up well with the rest of Anonymous, it's likely that he'll be ultimately rejected by the collective due to his choice to grasp at limelight. Some 4chan users are scrambling to find his personal information in order to punish him for outing himself. To some hardliners in Anonymous, turning attention away from the movement and toward yourself is tantamount to betrayal.