Nothing is truly official with Anonymous, but @YourAnonNews was the closest thing the hackers had to a spokesperson. Now it’s deactivated. This is a big blow to Anon’s power to organise (and boast) across the web. Update: And it’s back!
The suspension isn’t shocking, with regular calls to illegal activity and the sharing of personal information coming from the 700,000+ follower account — both of which violate Twitter’s terms of service. Although Anonymous hasn’t had all that much to say given its generally shambolic state post-Sabu — the account has mostly been broadcasting the kind of things a pissy sixth-grade boy would write on his backpack.
So what happens now? Anonymous tries to use @YANBackUp instead, or a multitude of other, weaker accounts, to try to organise. Maybe a futile attempt to DDoS Twitter. But really, this just means almost a million people around the world won’t be plugged into Anonymous anymore. And that’s bad for Anonymous.
Twitter declined to remark on the suspension, noting that they “don’t comment on individual accounts for privacy reasons”.
Update: @YourAnonNews is back online.