Jun 4, 2012 No Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Excerted from Buzz Feed: On Monday, members of the hacktivist group Anonymous claimed to have compiled a list of Twitter users who are part of pedophile ring, listing the account names in Pastebin.
The operation, given the hashtag #twitterpedoring, appeared to be the work of a small group of hackers who uncovered the accounts and then reached out to media outlets, federal authorities, and U.S. elected representatives to have the accounts investigated.
The information posted to Pastebin lists about 84 account names. A number of those accounts already appeared to have been suspended.
And in an unusual move, a Rhode Island elected official agreed to help the controversial activist group bust up the alleged lawbreakers.
Rep. Dan Gordon from Rhode Island, responded to Anonymous request for assistance on Twitter, replying:
@RepDan_Gordon
I have just spoken w/ the RI State Police Computer Crimes Division
re: #TwitterPedoRing I need the latest list & any d0x to fwd, to them plz
TYVM #Anonymous & all for all of ur hard work in tracking dwn those that
would harm kids. Pastes outbound to authorities.#TwitterPedoRing
One member of Anonymous who appears to be involved in the operation told BuzzFeed over email: “They have tracked down quite a few accounts, and are working on tracking down more,” the member of Anonymous said.
The member described what the group had claimed to uncover, including “Pictures and requests for pictures. Also open talk of pedophilia. There are people taking screen shots of what they found, and we still are able to access a few of the timelines… There were links to different pedophile sites in the twitter timelines as well. Some of the people were openly talking about molestation of young children.”
