Anonymous Follows Through on Threat, Posts Info for Hundreds of Alleged KKK Members
Approximately one week ago, Anonymous announced #OpKKK on Twitter, saying that they would soon release the names and social media information of a thousand Ku Klux Klan members. As it turns out, they weren’t bluffing:
OFFICIAL #OpKKK #HoodsOff 2015 Data Release.
With Love,
Anonymous
— Operation KKK (@Operation_KKK) November 5, 2015
The hacker group has fought an online war with the white supremacist group for the past year, stating that this was retaliation for the group saying it would use “lethal force” against the protestors of Ferguson, Missouri. The hacktivists took control of numerous supremacist forums and websites, and promised that today would be the first day of #HoodsOff.
A report from Re/code states that Anonymous obtained this information through interviews, covert record reviews, and digitally breaching supremacist websites. The released data is supposedly the cumulation of Anonymous’ searching ever since they began to target the group.
“We consider this data dump as a form of resistance against the violence and intimidation tactics leveraged against the public by various members of Ku Klux Klan groups throughout history,” the group wrote on Pastebin. “We hope Operation KKK will, in part, spark a bit of constructive dialogue about race, racism, racial terror and freedom of expression, across group lines.”
The dump includes over a dozen pro-supremacy social media pages, and information that included names, email addresses, and Facebook pages for about 400 alleged members. While the original threat was promised for 1,000 people, Anonymous stated that they were still investigating certain people, and that the members listed were supposedly confirmed:
We removed several names from our list for further investigation. We would rather have a smaller, accurate list that we are comfortable with
— Operation KKK (@Operation_KKK) November 5, 2015
Anonymous has been getting some flak over the past few days, when other hackers claimed that a group of senators and public officials were Klansmen, but did not offer any concrete proof. The group distanced itself from these groups on its main Twitter page, claiming they were not official members.
[h/t Motherboard]
[image via screengrab]
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