Twitter has suspended 6 lakh terror-related accounts in 18 months

Since August 1, 2016, the micro-blogging website Twitter is believed to have suspended more than six lakh terror-related accounts.

New York, March 22: Micro-blogging website Twitter has blocked more than six lakh terror-related accounts in last one and a half years, media reported.

According to a report in CNET on Tuesday that quoted Twitter's 'Transparency Report', the micro-blogging site has suspended a total of 636,248 terror-related accounts since August 1, 2015. In the last six months of 2016, Twitter suspended 376,890 accounts for promoting terrorism.

Twitter had announced the blocking of more than 1,25,000 accounts earlier in 2016 which were primarily related to the Islamic State extremist group.

In addition to the account suspensions, Twitter's global public policy team has expanded its partnerships with organisations working to counter violent extremism online.

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.

Twitter has also been working with groups such as People Against Violent Extremism and the Lumen project to curb the use of the platform for promoting terrorism, racism and separatism.

Twitter has charted out rules against the promotion of violence.

One of the rules specifically talks about terrorism, saying: "You may not make threats of violence or promote violence, including threatening or promoting terrorism."

IANS