The “hacktivist” group Anonymous had one of its Twitter accounts deactivated Thursday after it released the name -- which turned out to be wrong -- of the officer it believed to have fatally shot teenager Michael Brown.

The situation in the Missouri town of Ferguson has become increasingly heated after nights of protests have ended in police confrontations involving tear gas and rubber bullets.

People in and around the community have demanded to know the name of the officer who shot and killed the unarmed African American teen. So far, police have refused to release the officer’s name due to concerns for his safety.

The Twitter account @TheAnonMessage released a name and photos Thursday, which turned out to be of a person who is not even an officer, according to St. Louis County police.


After that account was suspended, Anonymous created a second account, @TheAnonMessage2, on which the group said Twitter had shut them down as punishment.

“Twitter has suspended my main account. The powers that be will stop at nothing to silence us. #Anonymous,” the new account tweeted.

Officials at Twitter declined to comment on the situation.

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