I recently got FB scolded by someone who alleged that I had misused the word "latter." I contested. I had written "the latter, not the former," and omitted the nouns that "latter/former" modify for concise writing. Did omitting the nouns render me incorrect, or could I get away with truncating the sentence?

"...or could I get away with truncating the sentence?"

How can anyone say - we don't know what the sentence was, what the context was.