Anonymous Claims Twitter Is Shutting Down Its Accounts Reporting ISIS Content

Anonymous claims that among the hundreds of thousands of accounts Twitter recently suspended due to links with terrorism, were multiple accounts belonging to the online activist group that were suspended incorrectly.

Twitter confirmed that it had shut down 125,000 accounts for “threatening or promoting terrorist acts, primarily related to ISIS,” but it emerged that among those accounts were a number of Anonymous members, who were actively seeking to help Twitter in identifying accounts affiliated with terrorist groups.

According to one Anonymous member, who goes by the name WauchulaGhost, their account was briefly suspended without warning. “I never received an email from Twitter,” the hacktivist told The Epoch Times. Anonymous has been involved in a campaign called “Operation ISIS” (or OpISIS) for over a year, which is seeking to disrupt the communication of groups like ISIS online.

WauchulaGhost also claimed that Twitter should give more credit to the members of Anonmyous. “Who suspended 125,000 accounts? Anonymous, Anonymous-affiliated groups, and everyday citizens. You do realize if we all stopped reporting terrorist accounts and graphic images, Twitter would be flooded with terrorists.”

Multiple members of Anonymous, and some of the most prominent “OpISIS” accounts, have reported losing control of their Twitter account in the last month. Some have since been granted access to their accounts again, but others remain suspended.

As well as Anonymous, groups like CtrlSec and GhostSec are also part of a growing army of online vigilantes who are taking the fight against ISIS into their own hands, as they see the work being done by Twitter and other communication platforms as not going far enough. These groups have published long lists of accounts they claim are controlled by ISIS supporters, though like Twitter, these groups have been criticized for including accounts owned by academics and journalists simply referring to ISIS.