The hacker group Anonymous, which has been at the centre of some of the most famous hacks in the last few months, appears to have splintered, with one of the factions attacking the primary communications channel in an attempt to decentralize the outfit.

The “splinter group” has seized control of two websites used by Anonymous to organise their various distributed denial of service (DdoS). The channels are AnonOps.net and AnonOps.ru, both of which host the Internet relay chat (IRC) channels used by Anonymous members.

One of the AnonOps network staff, who goes by the name “Ryan,” told Thinq that he and a number of other disaffected Anonymous members seized control of the sites because they believed the group had become too centralized. Some members had been “behind-the-scenes string-pulling” that allowed these Anons to assume leadership positions in the previously headless organization. Before now, it has been widely stated that Anonymous has no central leadership, a tactic used to limit the ability of law enforcement (or anyone else, for that matter) from discovering Anonymous members’ real identities, or infiltrating their operations.

Members of Anonymous claim that Ryan is threatening to use an 800,000-computer-strong botnet to attack AnonOps, if they are able to take back the site from the splinter group. They claimed he was “dangerous,” prone to “outbursts,” and “arrogant and narcissistic.”