Twitter has reportedly suspended around 235,000 terrorist sympathizing accounts over the last six months.
The figure means that Twitter has allegedly removed around 360,000 extremist accounts since mid-2015, when they started the crackdown, despite it being easy to find Islamic extremists on the platform threatening people for a period of sometimes months on end without action from the social network.
In 2014, it was estimated that around 46,000 Twitter accounts were being used by ISIS between September and December, and since then, dozens of accounts have been allowed to celebrate and actively encourage the murders of American police officers without penalty. The account for Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos’ online store has also been threatened numerous times with bomb and death threats in response to his vocal stance on Islam.
https://twitter.com/swagbymilo/status/755245340547309568
These accounts are sometimes up for a few months before being suspended after multiple policy violations and threats; meanwhile conservative, libertarian, and Islam-critical commentators are being suspended and censored almost immediately by the day.
Twitter have also repeatedly rejected requests from British authorities to suspend the ISIS-supporting and recently convicted hate preacher, Anjem Choudary, from their platform, deciding only to shut down the account this week after public backlash.
Choudary, who now faces up to ten years in jail for inciting support for ISIS and other terror organizations, used the platform to radicalize other people online and muster support for a list of banned terrorist groups.
Meanwhile, Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos remains permanently banned from the platform after criticizing Ghostbusters (2016) actress Leslie Jones.
“The world has witnessed a further wave of deadly, abhorrent terror attacks across the globe,” said Twitter in a statement. “We strongly condemn these acts and remain committed to eliminating the promotion of violence or terrorism on our platform”.
However, with the increasingly swift action against vocal conservatives, libertarians, and free speech activists alike, and the release of new tools that attempt to silence them, it seems Twitter is more concerned with another group of people than it is with the Islamic extremists they pretend to care about.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.
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