Anonymous-related Twitter accounts suspended after misogynist abuse
Hacktivist collective blames Labour MP Stella Creasy and Times columnist Caitlin Moran for the suspension of 30 accounts
Alex Hern
The Guardian, Wednesday 4 December 2013 12.26 GMT
Members of Anonymous threatened prominent feminist campaigners. Photograph: Isopix/Rex Features
More than 30 Anonymous-related Twitter accounts, including @Anon_Central, one of the largest with over 150,000 followers, have been suspended by Twitter following a campaign of misogynist abuse aimed at feminist campaigners on the social network.
The four women, Labour MP Stella Creasy, Times columnist Caitlin Moran, freelance journalist Caroline Criado-Perez and campaigner Hannah Curtis, were all named in a document shared by the largest anonymous Twitter account, @YourAnonNews, which claimed that "mentioning these accounts can result in suspension and possible scrutiny for future accounts." It also claimed that "Perez and Creasy appear to have some direct line to Twitter to get accounts suspended sooner."
Criado-Perez, who has been the subject of campaigns of misogynist abuse before, says that those claims are nonsense. "I certainly don't have the power to ban accounts, but I do report accounts that send threats and harass me," she said. "Sometimes they get suspended and sometimes they don't.
"I don't bother reporting accounts that just call me a cunt, which is what they seem to think. Just ones that are directly threatening or are inciting harassment, like the Anonymous accounts have been."
Moran also confirms that she "doesn't even have a verified account, let alone any contact with Twitter."
She added: "If I had a hot-line to Twitter HQ, I'd have used it to campaign for all half-naked pictures of Bruce Springsteen to be much bigger."
Judge and jury?
In the past, groups related to Anonymous have made headlines for carrying out apparently feminist campaigns, including attempts to bring vigilante justice to the Steubenville and Maryville rape cases. In both situations, the hacktivists helped bring the situation to greater public awareness, but also faced criticism for taking on the role of judge and jury.
But the group itself is too fractured and nebulous to pin any single ideology on to, and while some members may consider themselves feminist, it is clear that others do not.
The last tweet of @Anon_Central, one of the suspended accounts, was directed at Criado-Perez: "How much sex with an unconscious person until it counts as rape?", twisting the facts of the Steubenville case into something halfway between a rape joke and a threat.
Anonymous allies
Twitter doesn't comment on individual accounts, nor does it comment on response times on support requests, but the company does have a stated policy on IP blocking, something various Anonymous allies have accused the site of doing in what they are calling "#Trollocaust".
"IP blocking is generally ineffective at stopping unwanted behavior," Twitter says, "and may falsely prevent legitimate users from accessing our service.
"IP addresses are commonly shared by numerous different users in a variety of locations, meaning that blocking a single IP may prevent a large number of unconnected users from logging into Twitter."
The @Anon_Central account had been the centre of a previous controversy when it began tweeting out virulently anti-semitic and racist material in June.
At the time, the larger, more respectable Anonymous accounts line @YourAnonNews and @YourAnonCentral neither condoned nor condemned the messages, but this week they are firmly on the side of their "fallen comrade".
"Nobody is ashamed Perez. #RIPAnonCentral" tweeted @YourAnonCentral.
• "The FBI were embarrassed by Anonymous and they feel that they need to save face," said Anonymous hacker Jeremy Hammond the day after his 10-year sentence
• Is hacktivism on behalf of Rehtaeh Parsons a revolution in rape campaigning?
