125,000 Twitter Accounts Linked To ISIS Shut Down

Since mid-2015, Twitter said it has shut down over 125,000 accounts promoting terrorism and most of them are linked to ISIS. Twitter made it clear that it would not condone any act of terrorism on its platform and it’s willing to do more to help law enforcement agencies in fighting terrorism.

In a blog post on its website, Twitter said:

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.

The company also said that it has increased the size of the team monitoring accounts and responding to reports.

In spreading its message of terror, terrorist organizations now use social media for recruiting new members. Platforms like Telegraph was being used by ISIS for messaging and there were even public channels linked to the terrorist organization before being shut.

Some weeks later, the terrorist organization was reported to have its own mobile app for secure messaging and recruiting.

The latest announcement by Twitter comes at a time when other tech companies like Facebook took even stronger steps to fight terrorism. Shutting down 125,000 ISIS related account may look huge but Twitter noted that identifying these type of accounts isn’t particularly easy. According to the post:

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 response to these massive take-downs by companies like Twitter, terrorist organizations have reportedly migrated to smaller, less monitored platforms where recruiting may be easier.