Anonymous and the KKK are having a Twitter fight over Ferguson protests. Anonymous is winning.

Anonymous and the KKK are having a Twitter fight over Ferguson protests. Anonymous is winning.
(Image credit: YouTube.com)

The Ku Klux Klan's Twitter feed has probably never been so popular: On Sunday, after a week of online sparring, the hacktivist collective Anonymous appears to have taken control of two KKK Twitter accounts and knocked offline one of its websites:

Until Twitter steps in or the KKK somehow wrests control of its Twitter feed by itself, this is @KuKluxKlanUSA's avatar:

The fight started after a KKK chapter in Missouri, Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, threatened to use "lethal force" against "terrorists masquerading as 'peaceful protestors'" in Ferguson, the St. Louis suburb on edge awaiting the grand jury decision on Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot dead unarmed black teenager Michael Brown under contested circumstances. In response, Anonymous started publicly revealing the names and other details of KKK members and declared "cyber warfare" on the Klan. The KKK responded with taunting.

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In a video posted Friday by Anonymous Australia, a computer voice tells the KKK that Anonymous isn't "attacking you because of what you believe in, as we fight for freedom of speech." Instead, "we are attacking you because of your threats to use lethal attacks against us at the Ferguson protests." You can read more about the fight at ZDNet, but needless to say, two secretive groups threatening each other probably won't lower the temperature in Ferguson. And as long as this fight stays online, though, I wouldn't bet on the KKK.

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Peter Weber

Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian and plays bass and rhythm cello in an Austin rock band. Follow him on Twitter.