Twitter shuts down 125,000 accounts

Coming as one of the measures Twitter has adopted to grind hard on violent extremism, the giant social media made announcements yesterday that it has suspended more than 125,000 accounts since mid-2015 owing to what it described as sharing connections to terrorist or extremist groups, primarily ISIS.

Twitter shuts down 125,000 accounts

The company has claimed earlier that there existed no “magic algorithm” to correctly pinpoint terrorist content on the Internet, so it is stranded with options as to making challenging judgment calls on the grounds of on “very limited information and guidance.”

“The company says it is trying to strike the right balance between enforcement against tweets that break the rules, the needs of law enforcement, and free expression,” Aarti reports.

In a statement, Twitter also said it has “increased the size of the teams that review reports,” enabling it to respond more quickly to terrorism-related posts.

“We have already seen results, including an increase in account suspensions and this type of activity shifting off of Twitter,” the company said.

The statement proceeds some few weeks following the incidence of a woman suing Twitter, in which she slapped allegations against Twitter that the platform has been aiding ISIS. Tamara Fields, the woman in concern here whose husband, Lloyd was a sad casualty of a November attack on a police training center in Amman, Jordan, said Twitter “knowingly let the militant Islamist group use its network to spread propaganda, raise money and attract recruits,” going by the complaint.

The suit also included claims that “ISIS members use Twitter to post instructional guidelines and promotional videos, referred to as ‘mujatweets.’ ”

Twitter, which facing sustained pressure to cut hard on extremist accounts, brushed aside the basis of the lawsuit, officially releasing the statement below:

“While we believe the lawsuit is without merit, we are deeply saddened to hear of this family’s terrible loss. Like people around the world, we are horrified by the atrocities perpetrated by extremist groups and their ripple effects on the Internet. Violent threats and the promotion of terrorism deserve no place on Twitter and, like other social networks, our rules make that clear. We have teams around the world actively investigating reports of rule violations, identifying violating conduct, partnering with organizations countering extremist content online, and working with law enforcement entities when appropriate.”