Twitter suspends 125,000 accounts for terror-related activity

Revelation 6:3-4 NCV When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" Then another horse came out, a red one. Its rider was given power to take away peace (prosperity, rest) from the earth and to make people kill each other (butcher, slaughter, to maim violently, in streets), and he was given a big sword (assassins sword, terrorist, loud, mighty, sore afraid).

More than 125,000 Twitter accounts have been suspended “for threatening or promoting terrorist acts” since the middle of 2015, the website announced on Friday.

Most of those accounts were related to the Islamic State, the company said in a blog post.

“We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service,” the company wrote.

Twitter also said it had placed more staffers on teams to review reports of terror-related activity, “significantly” cutting back its response time, and was using spam filters to locate other accounts that might violate the company’s rules.

“We have already seen results, including an increase in account suspensions and this type of activity shifting off of Twitter,” the company wrote.

Lawmakers and federal officials had called for social media companies to do more to prevent the Islamic State and other terrorist organizations from spreading propaganda through the Internet and social media, particularly in the wake of the San Bernardino terrorist attacks.

One bill introduced into the Senate would require technology companies to report any suspected terrorist activities they discover to law enforcement, much like they are required to report child pornography.

In its post, Twitter wrote it cooperates “with law enforcement entities when appropriate” and had received praise from the FBI its work in shutting down terrorist accounts.

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