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Twitter suspends Hamas and Hezbollah news accounts

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What Happened: Twitter has suspended a series of accounts associated with Hamas and Hezbollah.

  • According to AFP, the Arabic, English, Spanish and French twitter accounts of Hezbollah-affiliated TV station Al-Manar and Hamas’s Al-Quds TV have been suspended. Access to three Quds News Network accounts were also suspended. “There is no place on Twitter for illegal terrorist organisations and violent extremist groups,” a Twitter spokesperson said. Twitter’s website features a list of rules, including that one may not “threaten violence against an individual or group of people” or “threaten or promote terrorism or violent extremism”.
  • Al-Manar blamed political pressure for the decision to suspend the accounts. Quds News Network, which had more than 630,000 followers on its primary handle, said in a statement: “Placing restrictions on, deleting and blocking accounts is a demonstration of clear bias against Palestinian media and an attack on it.”
  • Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus praised Twitter for the move saying: “Kudos to @Twitter for suspending the accounts of terror groups #Hezbollah and #Hamas … internationally recognised terror groups should never have a platform for their violent extremism.”

Context: Earlier this year Twitter temporarily banned an account connected to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for posting a message threatening author Salman Rushdie.

  • On 22 October four members of the US House of Representatives wrote a letter to CEO Jack Dorsey to criticise Twitter for allowing Hamas and Hezbollah to maintain a presence on its social media platform in violation of its own rules. The Congress members said that they were alarmed to learn that Twitter “draws a distinction between the political and military factions of these organisations,” which is “not meaningful nor is it widely shared,” noting that Hezbollah and Hamas are designated as terrorist organisations by the US Government.
  • The lawmakers also noted that other social media companies including Facebook and Google “have taken proactive measures to address the presence of FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organisations) and affiliated accounts and content on their platforms.” It is unclear whether this letter had anything to do with Twitter’s decision.
  • Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, praised the decision by tweeting: “Thank you @Twitter for suspending the accounts of Hamas and Hezbollah. US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organisations do not belong on the platform. Let’s hope all platforms follow @jack’s [Twitter CEO] lead.”
  • The American Jewish Committee pointed out that while Twitter has accepted that there is no difference between the military and political wings of terrorist groups, the EU continues to separate the two.

Looking ahead: The suspension of the Twitter accounts has not stopped Hamas and Hezbollah from spreading material. The accounts of specific programmes on the stations were still active on Twitter as of Sunday and it remains unclear whether Twitter will enforce a complete ban on all accounts associated with Hamas and Hezbollah.