Twitter shuts down more than 600K terrorist accounts

[CrAKeN]

 

Jaap Arriens/Getty Images

 

In a report, the social network says its internal tools found many of the offending accounts.

 

Twitter says it's rubbing out terrorism 140 characters at a time.

 

In a report published Tuesday, the social network said that in the last six months of 2016 it suspended 376,890 accounts for promoting terrorism. Nearly three quarters of those suspensions were caught by the company's own tools, Twitter said.

 

Since Aug. 1, 2015, the company has suspended a total of 636,248 accounts.

 

Twitter, where pithy posts serve as the online equivalent of bumper stickers, has long been used by extremists and terrorist organizations to promote nationalism, separatism and racism. The company has worked with groups, including People Against Violent Extremism and the Lumen project, to curb use of the platform for talking up terrorism.

 

The social network has strict rules against the promotion of violence on its service. Its rules specifically read, "You may not make threats of violence or promote violence, including threatening or promoting terrorism."

 

Twitter said it will continue sharing updates about its efforts to combat extremism, in its transparency report.

 

Source

[virge]

One would think a terrorist group might not want to post their "activities" on twitter.