Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) has temporarily suspended the account of a popular hacker known as Guccifer 2 after the hacker publicly posted files from the democratic party.
WikiLeaks took notice that the company had blocked the account by posting about it on Twitter. The move by WikiLeaks led to a lot of complaints about the censoring on the social media platform thus adding to previous claims posted by BuzzFeed about internal problems. The recent hack involved the public release of email addresses and phone contacts belonging to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).
The hack on the DCCC was reported towards the end of July alongside reports of a hack on the Democratic National Campaign which also involved sensitive files that were later made available to the public by WikiLeaks. The FBI had also stated that Russian operatives might have been involved in the hack. Guccifer 2 had previously posted that he was responsible for the hack on the DNC. The DCCC file was leaked on his account but Twitter quickly responded by removing the files and suspending the account. Guccifer 2 had tweeted on Saturday that he would supply the DCCC files to WikiLeaks. The post was retweeted more than 1,000 times.
The suspended account has since then been restored but some users have pointed out that Twitter has deleted some of the tweets relating to the DCCC. There were, however, other Twitter accounts that were already circulating the screenshots of the leaked DCCC content. Twitter seems to have boosted its censoring efforts despite complaints. The firm blocked numerous accounts in July for posting abusive content about Leslie Jones, an actor in the Ghostbusters reboot film.
There have been arguments about the company’s decision and the ability to uphold the freedom of speech. The now available information about the Congress members could have some negative effects such as the use of that information by spies or terrorists. However, the people affected will most likely delete their email accounts and create new ones as well as changing their phone numbers.