Twitter Suspends Anonymous For Accusing Innocent Man In Ferguson Killing

Twitter suspended Anonymous’ account after the hacktivist collective accused an apparently innocent man of being the police officer who shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Anonymous seemed unscathed by Twitter, but called off any further releases.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Anonymous released information about a citizen who has no relation to the Ferguson police, according to the department’s own twitter account. Twitter responded to the incident and immediately suspended the hacktivists’ account.

Twitter has some standards for respecting people’s privacy and naming someone as a killer apparently crosses the line.

The exact rules state:

“You may not publish or post other people’s private and confidential information, such as credit card numbers, street address or Social Security/National Identity numbers, without their express authorization and permission.”

The suspending did have an affect on the collective even though they opened new account afterwards: @TheAnonMessage2. Anonymous now seems to be holding back any further name releases until the facts are verified.

ANNOUNCEMENT: We are ceasing any future dox releases until further notice. #Anonymous #Ferguson

— TheAnonMessage2 (@TheAnonMessage2) August 14, 2014

But that doesn’t mean Anonymous is letting up on this fight. On their new twitter feed, they released a video apparently taken shortly after the shooting which can be found on YouTube.

The video seems to prove that police did nothing to try to save Michael Brown as he lay on the ground for well over ten minutes in the footage. At one point, a distant voice starts screaming, “Where’s the ambulance!” EMS would have been far too late even if it did arrive with the young man left for dead in the middle of the road.

Anonymous has also taken down the Ferguson police station email in a DDoS attack. In an earlier video release, Anonymous threatened to attack every computer and server belonging to involved police departments and release the personal information of anyone involved.

Also from the Inquisitr, the Ferguson police still refusing to divulge the name of the officer who shot Michael Brown. The department has cited violent threats to the officer as their reason for withholding the information.

That answer has left many unsatisfied as a growing number of prominent voices have called for a fair investigation.

Michael Brown’s mother said of the unknown officer:

“You take your punishment. If you were a man you’d stand up, you’d be a man, you would say you was wrong.”

Twitter can suspend Anonymous, but if police do not regain some measure of trust with the community, it may end up hurting more than just one officer.

Update:

Anonymous has now released information that the police department will be releasing the name of the officer involved.

The hacktivist group immediately took credit for outing the police saying:

I can guarantee you, if it was not for our actions, #Ferguson PD wouldn’t be revealing the “real” name today.

— TheAnonMessage2 (@TheAnonMessage2) August 15, 2014

Whether or not the police outing was directly linked to Anonymous is unclear, but revealing the name will relieve one of the many grievances brought against the police in this case.

[Image Credit: Scott Olson/Getty]