The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has published a report accusing Twitter, the popular social media service, of failing to explain its “indirect support for online jihad” by providing communication services to international terror groups, in apparent violation of U.S. law.
The report, by MEMRI executive director Stephen Stalinsky, notes that several terror groups–including Hizbullah, the Taliban, and Al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab Al-Mujahedeen–maintain accounts on Twitter. Members of Congress and the have encouraged Twitter to act against these accounts, and the State Department is reported to be investigating them, but Twitter has not acted and refuses to provide comment to the media.
Hizbullah's Al-Manar News on Twitter (Source: MEMRI)
Stalinsky writes:
According to Twitter’s Terms of Service, account holders may use the Services only if “you [the user] can form a binding contract with Twitter and are not a person barred from receiving services under the laws of the United States or other applicable jurisdiction.” Its “Restrictions on Content” states “We reserve the right at all times (but will not have an obligation) to remove or refuse to distribute any Content on the Services and to terminate users or reclaim usernames… We also reserve the right to… enforce the Terms, including investigation of potential violations hereof.”[11] Twitter also provides readers with the option to report violations.
Jihadis’ use of Twitter should not be dismissed. The terrorist organizations mentioned above, and an ever-growing cadre of online jihadi groups and bloggers supportive of Al-Qaeda, are tweeting 24/7…
Twitter, however, refuses to act, and continues to evade questions about terror groups’ accounts.
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