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Twitter temporarily turns out the lights on Anonymous account

After the hacker group allegedly posted a photo of an individual's private information, its Twitter account goes dark and then is later restored.

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Dara Kerr Former senior reporter
Dara Kerr was a senior reporter for CNET covering the on-demand economy and tech culture. She grew up in Colorado, went to school in New York City and can never remember how to pronounce gif.
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Dara Kerr
Anonymous' Twitter account was temporarily shut down after it posted a tweet that broke the social network's rules. Screenshot by Dara Kerr/CNET

Twitter temporarily shuttered Anonymous' most popular account today, which caused a barrage of hate-tweets -- given that the hacker collective despises online censorship.

The account, @youranonnews, which now has more than 800,000 followers, went black around mid-day. The group claims the censorship had to do with a photo it posted regarding a campaign Anonymous has lodged against Westboro Baptist Church after church leaders announce plans to protest at the site of the Newtown, Conn., school massacre.

Once Anonymous' account was restored, the group posted an image of the letter it got from Twitter regarding the temporary suspension.

"Your account has been suspended for posting an individual's private information such as private email address, physical address, telephone number, or financial documents," the letter read. "It is a violation of the Twitter Rules to post the private and confidential information of others."

Apparently Anonymous' tweet said, "Sorry, Shirley isn't available at the moment," then had a link to a photograph that presumably revealed "Shirley's" private information. This tweet is no longer in Anonymous' Twitter feed.

The social network did not offer any further insight into the matter. A Twitter spokesperson told CNET that the company does not comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons.