Twitter ruled that black activist Shaun King did not violate the platform’s rules after he threatened to release the names of Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officers believed to have been involved in the shooting of Jacob Blake.
On Tuesday, King tweeted that if the local police department did not divulge the identity of the officers who shot Blake over the weekend, he “will simply begin naming officers from your department who may or may not be him” because protecting the officer’s identity is “unethical.”
A Twitter spokesman told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that the tweets did not violate the platform’s guidelines on doxxing, the release of one’s personal information without their consent, because he only shared an officer’s name and not an address.
“Simply naming someone is not in violation of this policy,” the spokesman said, noting that publishing someone’s home address or location, identity documents, and contact or financial information would violate the platform’s policies.
King, in the thread of tweets, which remains visible on his profile, posted the photo of an officer and identified him by name, posted a photo of one of the officers at the scene where Blake was shot, and then asked his followers if they were the same person.
Tensions in Kenosha, a city of roughly 100,000 residents, have been escalating since the viral video emerged of Blake, a 29-year-old black man, getting shot on Sunday. The Wisconsin Department of Justice, with the help of the federal Justice Department, is investigating the shooting. Officers involved in the incident have been placed on administrative leave, but their identities have not been released.
Blake’s family said the father of three has been paralyzed as a result of the shooting.
About a year ago, King falsely accused Robert Cantrell, 49, of murdering a 7-year-old black girl late in 2018. Cantrell, who was white, ended up committing suicide in his jail cell, where he was serving time for a robbery arrest, after the accusations levied by King turned out to be false.
