People operating under the Anonymous banner took over a KKK-linked Twitter account during the Ferguson uprising in retaliation for Klan threats to attack the protesters. Now people under the #Intelgroup Anonymous banner are threatening to dump the personally identifying information of "1000 Klan members, Ghoul Squad affiliates and other close associates of various factions of the Ku Klux Klan across the United States."
The #Anonintel post discusses the participants' commitment to free speech, including anonymous speech, but concludes that terrorists have no right to anonymous freedom of association. I hate the Klan, and might even cheer this action in some part of my heart, but I recognize the irony of people operating under the Anon banner adopting this posture. More practically, I worry that they might incorrectly identify someone as being part of the KKK or these affiliated groups.
The anons involved in this operation still believe you no longer particularly deserve the right to Freedom of Speech and Freedom to Assemble but that is not up to us. Let us make this especially clear: We are not oppressing you, Ku Klux Klan. We are not here to strip you of your Freedom of Speech. Anonymous will never strip you of any of your Constitutional rights. There is no "hate speech" exception to the Constitution. In a free society, we do have a duty to protect free thought, even when especially offensive. Your hateful ideas and words remain yours to keep. You are allowed to speak and in kind, we are allowed to respond. You are legally free to live and be any which way you choose to live and be. Keep in mind, it is not illegal nor oppressive to hurt your feelings. With that said – We are stripping you of your anonymity. Again. This is our protected speech.
After closely observing so many of you for so very long, we feel confident that applying transparency to your organizational cells is the right, just, appropriate and only course of action. You are abhorrent. Criminal. You are more than extremists. You are more than a hate group. You operate much more like terrorists and you should be recognized as such. You are terrorists that hide your identities beneath sheets and infiltrate society on every level. The privacy of the Ku Klux Klan no longer exists in cyberspace. You've had blood on your hands for nearly 200 years. You continue to inflict civil rights violations, commit violent crimes and solicit others to commit violent criminal acts. You seek to intimidate and/or eliminate those that are different from you and those that you dislike by any means possible. You seek to terrorize anyone and anything that you feel is a threat to your narrow view of the "American way of life".
The last time we took your hoods off, you claimed to be misunderstood. Victimized. No. You are a damaged, dangerous, fragmented, splintered and amorphous collection of terroristic cells with a hate-based ideology and a well documented history of violence against the American public – assault, murder, terrorism. You play a deep, damaging and historically sinister and malevolent role in the United States. We understand you far too well. You made a clear and ever present enemy of Anonymous when you threatened the lives of protesters and the men and women representing Anonymous on the ground in Ferguson, Missouri in November of 2014. You continue to make threats to anons you believe you have identified, journalists, anyone in the public that speaks out against your behavior. Your threats and intimidation are unprovoked, unwanted and will not be tolerated. Enough is enough. You once told
Anonymous that we awakened a sleeping giant within you. We are here to remind you once again – you summoned an unslayable dragon.
Anonymous Hackers Threaten to Release Names of Ku Klux Klan Members
[Jon Schuppe/NBC News]
