Twitter on Friday announced that it has suspended nearly 1,25,000 twitter accounts and most these suspended accounts were linked to dreaded terror outfit ISIS (Daesh). Twitter is looking forward to remove terror content on the popular social networking site.
Twitter said that these suspended accounts were first targeted since mid 2015 as these accounts were spreading terror and promoting terror activities which is under pressure from government to act on it but it is also eager not to been seen as forcefully examining free speech.
Twitter Suspends 1,25,000 accounts in for Posting Terror Content
Twitter said in its policy blog that “Like most people around the world, we are horrified by the atrocities perpetrated by extremist groups”.
We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service.
This announcement came when the United States and Other Governments pressurized Social Networking sites to take more combative steps to wipe our the terror activities intended for recruiting youth and planning terror actions.
Twitter claimed that it already has rules to dismay these activities but it was driving up pressure by increasing its staff and using technology to get rid of content promoting terrorism. However, twitter informed that there is no easy technological solution.
As many experts and other companies have noted, there is no “magic algorithm” for identifying terrorist content on the internet, so global online platforms are forced to make challenging judgement calls based on very limited information and guidance.
In spite of these challenges, we will continue to aggressively enforce our Rules in this area, and engage with authorities and other relevant organizations to find solutions to this critical issue and promote powerful counter-speech narratives.
Head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Digital Terrorism and Hate Project, Abraham Copper welcomed this move by Twitter, and Cooper has long pressed for checking groups who promote violence online.
Copper said that “This is a long overdue move”. Twitter has been the favorite social networking site for terrorists for years. He further said that ISIS is nearly posting 2,00,000 tweets per day. The decision to remove terror content from twitter will help to reduce their strategy of online recruiting campaigns by Daesh, Al Qaeda and other terror outfits.
It seems that Terrorists have been successful in recruiting youth online by luring them with offers. Social Media has been pressurized by the various government to take stern action against any terror related content.
