The top Twitter account for online hacker group Anonymous has been suspended after they were found to be violating Twitter’s terms of service. Currently, going to @YourAnonNews will show up as “Account Suspended” with no tweets.
The Anonymous Operations account found at @Anon_Central tweeted about the suspension and exactly what caused it.
It’s official @twitter reply : You may not publish or post other people’s private and confidential information. | #YAN #Anonymous
— Anonymous Operations (@Anon_Central) December 19, 2012
Like any social network, Twitter has rules and here is exactly what it says in its Help Center:
“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.”
As far as the personal information that caused Anonymous to get their top account suspended, signs point to them targeting members of the Westboro Baptist Church after the church announced they’d be picketing funerals of Sandy Hook victims.
The hacker group leaked personal information of WBC members in an effort to take a stand against their hateful vitriol. In the meantime, Anonymous appears to have planned for @YourAnonNews to be suspended with the creation of @YANBackUp on December 4.
This account will remain dorment unless: 1. @youranonnews gets rate limited. 2. @youranonnews gets suspended. – From the #YAN team.
— YANBackUp (@YANBackUp) December 5, 2012
As far as when and if Twitter will restore the account, it’s a waiting game.
#Anonymous, #YAN and its contributors wait to hear from @twitter. Our ticket number is #6930160.
— YANBackUp (@YANBackUp) December 19, 2012
Update: The account was eventually restored with full access.
The account was back up within a couple hours. Perhaps you should stay up to date and revise this article.