Politicians are not happy with a hacker claiming they're linked to the KKK
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One week after the hacking group Anonymous claimed to know the identities of 1,000 Ku Klux Klan members, someone purportedly affiliated with the collective published the names of nine politicians — four U.S. senators and five mayors — who supposedly have ties to the white supremacist group.
Anonymous has tried to distance itself from the list of names, vowing "due diligence" before posting its own information. And of course, hackers doxxing people don't always have their facts straight, so it's wise to read the list of names and chapter affiliations skeptically.
It didn't take long Monday for most of the politicians named to start refuting the hacker's claims:
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Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Mayor Kent Guinn of Ocala, Florida, have also denied the allegations. Mayor Madeline Rogero of Knoxville, Tennessee, wrote a particularly searing response to the accusation on Facebook.
"I have advocated publicly for LGBT civil rights, and I was the only mayor in Tennessee to sign onto the mayors' amicus brief for the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court's marriage equality case," she wrote. "In short, I don't think the KKK would want anything to do with me."
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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.
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