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Twitter suspends another 235,000 terrorism-related accounts

The social network says there's no single "magic algorithm" for identifying terrorist content online.

Terry Collins Staff Reporter, CNET News
Terry writes about social networking giants and legal issues in Silicon Valley for CNET News. He joined CNET News from the Associated Press, where he spent the six years covering major breaking news in the San Francisco Bay Area. Before the AP, Terry worked at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis and the Kansas City Star. Terry's a native of Chicago.
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Terry Collins
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Twitter has suspended an additional 235,000 terrorist-related accounts in its ongoing efforts to combat violent extremism online, the social network said in a blog post Thursday.

The move comes more than six months after Twitter said it had suspended more than 125,000 accounts linked to terrorism since mid-2015, bringing the overall total of deactivated accounts to about 360,000.

"Since that announcement, the world has witnessed a further wave of deadly, abhorrent terror attacks across the globe," Twitter said. "We strongly condemn these acts and remain committed to eliminating the promotion of violence or terrorism on our platform."

Twitter also said while there is no single "magic algorithm" for identifying terrorist content online, it is using tools to identify abuse and those promoting terrorism. The social network also said its suspension rate is up 80 percent since last year, including spikes in suspensions immediately following terrorist attacks.

The Anti-Defamation League said in a statement Thursday Twitter has set the right tone in "the fight against nefarious content on its platform."

"By suspending accounts that have regularly promoted terror and other deeply troubling content, Twitter has taken an important step forward in combating cyberhate," ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said. "We welcome Twitter's announcement as another significant step in the effort to remove the most horrendous content from mainstream platforms and limit its reach."

Another observer, noted human rights leader Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Weisenthal Center in Los Angeles said Thursday he agrees with Twitter's move. He calls it a very important development in the social network's attempt to cease being "global terrorists' weapon of choice" in promoting violence.

"This won't be the end of the problem, but Twitter is showing us again it is very serious about dealing with the problem," he said.

Thursday's announcement also comes after a federal judge ruled last week Twitter could not be held responsible for the activities of terrorist groups on the platform, including ISIS.

Updated at 5:15 p.m. PT: Adds comments from human rights organization leaders.