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US lawmakers tell Twitter to ban Islamic terror groups

Washington, Oct 22


A group of US lawmakers on Tuesday called on Twitter to ban Islamic terror organizations on its platform.

In a press conference here, Democratic House Representatives Josh Gottheimer and Max Rose and Republicans Tom Reed and Brian Fitzpatrick asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to immediately ban foreign terror groups like Palestinian Sunni-Islamic militant organization Hamas and Lebanonese militant group Hezbollah.

"Rep. Gottheimer says they're calling on Twitter to pull Hezbollah and Hamas accounts by November 1," tweeted Alex Thomas.

Twitter is choosing "profits over patriotism," said Rose.

The US State Department classifies Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations, making it illegal for Americans to provide them with "material support or resources."

"There is simply no reason why the terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah deserve access to Twitter's user base and platform to promote themselves as they continue to sponsor violent, radical, hate-filled extremism," www.nj.com reported Gottheimer and other representatives as saying.

The micro-blogging platform in May said it suspended 166,513 accounts for promoting terrorism in the July-December 2018 period, adding that there's a steady decrease in terrorist groups trying to use the platform owing to its "zero-tolerance policy enforcement".

According to Vijaya Gadde, Legal, Policy and Trust and Safety Lead at Twitter, there was a reduction of 19 per cent terror-related tweets from the previous reporting period.