Twitter says it shuttered 235k accounts linked to terrorism in 6 months
Twitter said Thursday it has shut down 235,000 accounts linked to violent extremism in the last six months alone. That brings the total number of terminated Twitter accounts associated with terrorism to 360,000 since mid-2015.
San Francisco-based Twitter, which had come under fire for allegedly not doing enough to crack down on extremist speech on its site, said it condemns acts of terrorism and that it is "committed to eliminating the promotion of violence or terrorism on our platform."
The announcement on Twitter's blog comes as lawmakers mull legislation demanding that Internet companies report suspected terrorist activities to the government. It also comes days after Twitter fended off a lawsuit (PDF) accusing the company of providing material support to terrorists and of being a "tool for spreading extremist propaganda." Twitter's successful defense was, among other things, that the Communications Decency Act shields the company from being legally liable for content posted on its site.
