Twitter has finally decided to ban accounts linked to Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorist group Hamas from its platform.
The official account of the Hezbollah TV station, Al Manar TV, and the official account for Hamas’ Al-Quds TV were both suspended, as far back as November 2. In a statement given to Hareetz, a Twitter spokesperson said, “There is no place on Twitter for illegal terrorist organizations and violent extremist groups.”
Four members of Congress wrote a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Oct. 22 asking why the platform allowed Hamas and Hezbollah to have accounts. Congressmen Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Tom Reed (R-NY), Max Rose (D-NY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) said that they were alarmed that Twitter “draws a distinction between the political and military factions of these organizations.”
In a Nov. 4 interview with The Hill, Gottheimer said: “To me, it's essential that they’ve taken these steps to scrape the content and the handles of foreign terrorist organizations off their site.”
International spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces Jonathan Conricus tweeted out screenshots of the suspended accounts, saying, “Internationally recognized terror groups should never have a platform for their violent extremism.”
According to the New Arab, Hezbollah is protesting its suspension. Al-Manar believed that “political pressures” were the reason for Twitter’s suspension.
However, the fight is not quite over. ISIS propaganda is still rampant on Twitter. The company that has been quick to ban accounts for questioning transgender ideology can’t seem to keep ISIS propaganda hashtagged with al-Baghdadi’s name and the Islamic State.
