CA Transit Agency cuts wireless to stop protest, Anonymous responds with attack
The full story is here, but here’s a brief summary:
The Bay Area Transit agency (BART) in San Francisco shut off cell phone access at a number of their stations to stop a protest likely related to shooting earlier this year of an unarmed black man by a white transit cop.
BART has been under fire for its actions, which some are calling unconstitutional and the group Anonymous, in response to the shutoff, hacked BART’s website and posted the personal information of 2000 passengers.
More from the article…
CA transit agency under fire over wireless shutoff
SAN FRANCISCO — With the flip of a few switches, the San Francisco Bay area’s transit agency shut off wireless service to thwart a protest and joined a raging debate over how far authorities can go to disrupt protests organized on social networks.
In San Francisco, free speech advocates say the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency went too far.
As BART officials prepared Monday for a rush-hour demonstration at its subway stations, they would not say whether they would cut cell phone service again. Like before, they said their primary concern was to ensure that passengers are safe.
“It’s wrong,” American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Michael Risher, whose group was scheduled to meet later Monday with BART’s police chief at the agency’s headquarters in Oakland. “There were better alternatives to ensure the public’s safety.”
Following the shutdown, the FCC got involved and Anonymous struck:
BART’s actions prompted a Federal Communications Commission investigation, and a hacking group organized an attack on one of the agency’s websites on Sunday and posted personal information of more than 2,000 passengers online.
The group, named Anonymous, called for a disruption of BART’s evening commute Monday.
“We are Anonymous, we are your citizens, we are the people, we do not tolerate oppression from any government agency,” the hackers wrote on their own website. “BART has proved multiple times that they have no problem exploiting and abusing the people.”
Anonymous says that riders who had their information breached should NOT blame them, but BART for not adequately protecting the info:
“We apologize to any citizen that has his information published, but you should go to BART and ask them why your information wasn’t secure with them,” the statement said.
The FBI was notified to investigate the hacking.
In addition, opponents of BART’s actions are suggesting what they did was unconstitutional:
By Monday, a growing number of free speech advocates were calling on BART to renounce the tactic, with many calling the action an unconstitutional attempt to stifle lawful protest. Even a BART board member criticized the action.
“We really don’t have the right to be this type of censor,” said Lynette Sweet, who serves on BART’s board of directors, said. “In my opinion, we’ve let the actions of a few people affect everybody. And that’s not fair.”
I don’t have a strong opinion, either negative or positive, of Anonymous though I am generally inclined to disagree with a lot of what they do.
The actions of BART may well be unconstitutional as they are a government agency and so seemingly are required by the constitution to NOT inhibit the free speech of individuals but their actions did prevent a crime (or crimes) from occurring.
Any way you slice it, this whole string of incidents is messy.