Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by cmn32480 on Saturday February 06 2016, @01:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the get-a-bigger-hammer dept.

Twitter has been engaged in a game of whack-a-mole with accounts linked to "terrorism" since 2015, and has announced that it has suspended more than 125,000 accounts as part of its efforts to "combat" extremism:

In its ongoing effort to combat violent extremism, Twitter announced Friday that it has suspended more than 125,000 accounts since mid-2015 because of what it called their connections to terrorist or extremist groups, primarily ISIS.

NPR's Aarti Shahani reports that the company says there is no "magic algorithm" to identify terrorist content on the Internet, so they're forced to make make challenging judgment calls based on "very limited information and guidance." "The company says it's trying to strike the right balance between enforcement against tweets that break the rules, the needs of law enforcement, and free expression," Aarti reports.

In a statement, Twitter also said it has "increased the size of the teams that review reports," enabling it to respond more quickly to terrorism-related posts. "We have already seen results, including an increase in account suspensions and this type of activity shifting off of Twitter," the company said.

The statement comes just weeks after a woman sued Twitter, accusing the platform of giving voice to ISIS. Tamara Fields, a Florida woman whose husband Lloyd died in a November attack on a police training center in Amman, Jordan, said Twitter "knowingly let the militant Islamist group use its network to spread propaganda, raise money and attract recruits," according to the complaint. The suit also alleged that "ISIS members use Twitter to post instructional guidelines and promotional videos, referred to as 'mujatweets.'"

Related: Google Chairman Eric Schmidt Asks for "Spell-Checker" for Hate and Harassment


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 06 2016, @04:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 06 2016, @04:59PM (#299850)

    So, like 200 people?

    The statement comes just weeks after a woman sued Twitter, accusing the platform of giving voice to ISIS.

    So where is the sacred 1st Amendment? Down the toilet? There is whole bunch of assholes in the world that are able to speak out of US because of 1st Amendment rights. And that lawsuit is completely retarded and Twitter should coutersue for costs. One might as well sue Microsoft for not blocking porn on "The Internet" (you know, IE)

    Twitter has their terms of service and that's THE ONLY reason why they should be censoring any accounts. Then again, they were happy with KKK having accounts there. So WTF?

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +1  
       Insightful=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   1  
  • (Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Saturday February 06 2016, @10:22PM

    by Yog-Yogguth (1862) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 06 2016, @10:22PM (#299945) Journal

    The US 1st amendment (and the rest of them including the 2nd —$deity¹ bless Americans for their love of guns) or alternatively (in the rest of the world) the UN human rights charter has been going down the toilet for years.

    However it got stuck :D (at least so far).

    What we are seeing are the continued efforts to get it to clear the bend, the powers-that-be are having some problems achieving that because people don't like it and are liking it less and less the more they try.

    In a fascist system there is no meaningful difference between private companies and state agencies: they all do the bidding of the same "masters". Yes I'm saying the previously named "western world" aka "free world" has become or is very close to becoming fully fascist.

    There are people both inside and outside the system that object in lots of different ways.

    So far it's looking more and more like the ultimate aim is a combined US-EU-muslim fascist superstate but who knows (power is likely all that matters) and anyway there are a hell of a lot of crinkles to iron out no matter what and you might be one of them just like I am.

    Anyone remember the League of Nations? »space to insert jokes about how old many here are :P« What was the attempt previous to that one called? The Treaty of Rome or some such thing?

    Off topic I just realized that "misanthrope" isn't only the new "racist" but also the new "black"! :D

    ¹ I think I'll try [wikipedia.org] today :)

    --
    Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))