Members of the white supremacist movement, the Ku Klux Klan standing by an aeroplane, out of which they dropped publicity leaflets over Washington DC on March 20, 1922. (General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)
Hacktivist group Anonymous has published a new list that allegedly contains the personal information of purported Ku Klux Klan members.
Anonymous published the list to Pastebin, “a website where you can store text online for a set period of time.”
To view the list, click the link in the embedded tweet above. The list includes links to alleged KKK members’ personal Facebook pages. Some alleged members have already deactivated their Facebooks.
However, Anonymous has already admitted that the data on the list is fallible and they are working to make it as accurate in the allegations as they can.
Earlier this week, Anonymous allegedly released a list that tied Mayor Kent Guinn of Ocala, Florida, Mayor Madeline Rogero of Knoxville, Tennessee and Mayor Jim Gray of Lexington, Kentucky to the hate group. However, according to Anonymous, this list was not created by the organization. In a statement to The Guardian, Anonymous wrote:
We did not release this list that circulated social media [November 1] and we do not vouch for the content of any work we did not complete ourselves.
The above list is verified to be by Anonymous. Read their full press release below:
Where to Start? The basics. The Ku Klux Klan has approximately 150 active cells, operating in 41 states, with membership concentrated in both the South and the Midwest. The KKK is not what it once was but it does continue to survive in various locations throughout the United States. At its peak, membership was in the millions. Now, membership is likely less than 5,000. It is very important to understand – the KKK does not have a central unified leadership. Instead, they are split off into local cells or groups.
These groups generally oppose interracial relationships, homosexuality and illegal immigration and historically express this ideology through acts of terror. We want to remind you: This operation is not about the ideas of members of the Ku Klux Klan. This is about the behaviors of members of KKK splinter cells that bear the hallmarks of terrorism. When members of the KKK like Frazier Glenn Miller, (founder of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and the White Patriot Party) murdered three innocent individuals at a Jewish retirement home during Passover – the word “terrorism” was seldom found in mainstream media’s coverage of the attack. Why? What sort of violence does it take to call *some* factions of Ku Klux Klan what *some* of these cells really are?
We defend free thought and free speech. The anons responsible for this operation will not support *acts* of terrorism and *acts* of hate inflicted upon the public. The KKK is part of an important cultural landscape and history in the United States.
We need to make room for important, blunt, honest, public, productive conversation. Violent bigotry IS a problem in the United States. This is not a colorblind society. It deeply divided on racial lines.We hope Operation KKK will, in part, spark a bit of constructive dialogue about race, racism, racial terror and freedom of expression, across group lines. Public discourse about these topics can be honest, messy, snarky, offensive, humbling, infuriating, productive, and serious all at once. The reality is that racism usually does NOT wear a hood but it does permeate our culture on every level. Part of the reason we have taken the hoods off of these individuals is not because of their identities, but because of what their hoods symbolize to us in our broader society.
In media, the Ku Klux Klan is an easy target to pick on. In terms of the KKK, journalists usually print what they want with very little consequence because sensational stories like this generate impressive ad revenue (just like with the bogus OpKKK leak).
We feel it is important to provide accurate information about our observations during this operation. We learned, that aside from our striking differences in overall ideology and behavior, we have found that many members of Ku Klux Klan groups actually have a few important similarities to us. For example, they are mostly poor and pissed off at the the Man. They oppose government surveillance and they generally feel persecuted for free thought. Day to day, some klan members work very hard for very little. This is a common ground we understand all to well. We feel that the ability to find common struggles with those that are very different than ourselves is important. Even if they are filled with hatred. We will never sympathize with the KKK but we do desire to understand them and learn about how they see their world. We do see their humanity, we respect their right to free thought and we know their fear of others is wrong. We also know their behaviors strike fear, anxiety and terror into others. This will no longer be socially tolerated.In this dox list, you will find official members of various KKK groups throughout the United States as well as their closest associates (most are also in other extremist hate groups). You will see many names with ALIAS beside it. If indicated, these are CONFIRMED aliases. Other names on this list may be aliases, as well. Some aliases we were unable to crack. The klan sometimes hides behind several online identities. Given name or alias, these are the real people underneath the hoods.
It is important to note that many klan members change klan affiliations as well as go back and forth between being klan members and neo nazis etc (sometimes both, if permitted). There is quite a bit of movement between these types of groups (usually due to infighting). For this reason, you will see some names of individuals that are listed as neo nazis and so on. Some members of this list are quite dangerous, sociopathic individuals. Others are not.
Data collected for Operation KKK was gathered over approximately 11 months and those included on this list were identified primarily through HUMINT (human intelligence) data collection strategies. This means that individuals on this list were often identified by human sources of information through both overt (interviewing expert sources) and covert (digital espionage / social engineering) methods. Individuals on our list were also identified through open source intelligence strategies (OSINT). This is a broad array of information and sources that are generally available to the public. This includes: multimedia, academic records and public data. Members often told on themselves to us about their connections with the KKK during various chat conversations we had with klan members and affiliates throughout the course of our operation. You never know who you are talking to on the internet.
We understand this initiative is extremely controversial and we know we will face much criticism for this operation and our work will be heavily scrutinized. We hope this body of work speaks for itself. This is the OFFICIAL Operation KKK 2015 intel report associated with the @Operation_KKK Twitter account. The anons at @Operation_KKK are responsible for this specific liberation of information and we have done our best to ensure accuracy and avoid collateral damage to innocent parties. Erring on the side of caution, we removed several names from this list for further evaluation.
We consider this data dump as a form of resistance against the violence and intimidation tactics leveraged against the public by various members of Ku Klux Klan groups throughout history.
