Twitter Pulls The Plug On Anonymous

This afternoon, Anonymous's Twitter account went offline to the horror of thousands of followers and supporters who expressed their collective outrage. Turns out the social network pulled the plug on the hackers' account for posting private info. The account came back a while later, with Anonymous sharing the letter it received from Twitter over the incident.

Anonymous recently announced a campaign against Westboro Baptist Church after it stated that it would picket the Newtown, Connecticut elementary school where the school shooting took place earlier this week. Allegedly, Anonymous tweeted an image that revealed personal information about Westboro's member Shirley Phelps-Roper.

As a result, Twitter pulled the plug on Anonymous's @YourAnonNews account, where the information was tweeted. The social network sent Anonymous a letter stating the reason for the suspension: "Your account has been suspended for posting an individual's private information such as private email address, physical address, telephone number, or financial documents. It is a violation of the Twitter Rules to post the private and confidential information of others."

The account was down for approximately one hour before being reinstated – sans the personal information. Twitter declined commenting on the issue. The suspension ultimately proved fruitful for Anonymous, however, not only drawing additional attention to its operation against Westboro Baptist Church, but also gaining it 100k new followers.

[via New York Times]