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

(Image credit: YouTube.com)

last updated 8 January 2015

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 has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.