A growing number of free speech advocates criticized a San Francisco Bay area transit agency on Monday, saying its decision to cut off wireless service in an effort to stifle a protest last week was unconstitutional, according to AP. The mounting criticism comes as the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency prepares for renewed protests during the evening commute, though officials would not say whether they would block mobile phone service again. A hacker group known as Anonymous, angry over BART's action, broke into an agency website, and posted contact information for more than 2,000 customers. BART blocked the signal last Thursday at several San Francisco stations, as it tried to thwart a planned protest over the July 3 shooting death of a 45-year-old victim by BART police. Officials said he was wielding a knife The hacker group's action was the latest showdown between anarchists angry at perceived attempts to limit free speech and officials trying to control protests that grow out of social networking and have the potential to become violent. The legal groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation and others, are considering whether to file lawsuits against BART. Critics say the agency violated free speech protections with a move seen only in Egypt during protests against its former president. The ACLU said it will decide its next steps after meeting with BART's police chief Monday afternoon. BART officials have said they are working on a plan to block any efforts by protesters to disrupt the service, which carries 190,000 passengers during the morning and evening commutes every day. BART spokesman Jim Allison said police will be staffing stations and trains and that the agency had already contacted San Francisco police. The transit agency disabled the effected website, myBART.org, Sunday night after it also had been altered by apparent hackers who posted images of the so-called Guy Fawkes masks that anarchists have previously worn when showing up to physical protests. Anonymous posted people's names, phone numbers, and street and email addresses on its own website, while also calling 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." The BART computer problem was the latest hack the loosely organized group claimed credit for this year. Last month, the FBI and British and Dutch officials made 21 arrests, many of them related to the group's attacks on Internet payment provider PayPal Inc., which has been targeted over its refusal to process donations to WikiLeaks. The group also claims credit for disrupting the websites of Visa and MasterCard in December when the credit card companies stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange. Allison described myBART.org as a "satellite site" used for marketing purposes. It's operated by an outside company and sends BART alerts and other information to customers, Allison said. The names and contact info published by Sunday came from a database of 55,000 subscribers, he said. He did not know if the group had obtained information from all the subscribers, he said, adding that no bank account or credit card information was listed. Activists also remain upset by the 2009 death of Oscar Grant, an unarmed black passenger who was shot by a white officer on an Oakland train platform. The officer quit the force and was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after the shooting. Facing backlash from civil rights advocates and one of its own board members, BART has defended the decision to block cell phone use, with Allison saying the cell phone disruptions were legal because the agency owns the property and infrastructure. The group Anonymous, according to its website, does "not tolerate oppression from any government agency," and it said it was releasing the User Info Database of MyBart.gov as one of many actions to come. "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.
