Rep. Gottheimer to ‘Post’: Glad that Twitter changed foreign terror policy

“There is no place on Twitter for illegal terrorist organizations and violent extremist groups,” a Twitter spokesperson told AFP.

By OMRI NAHMIAS
SOCIAL MEDIA GIANT Twitter (photo credit: REUTERS)
SOCIAL MEDIA GIANT Twitter
(photo credit: REUTERS)
WASHINGTON – Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) expressed his satisfaction with Twitter’s decision to take down accounts that associated with terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
“I was glad that they came to their senses about changing their policy and not supporting foreign terrorists,” he told The Jerusalem Post.
Twitter has suspended all Hamas-affiliated accounts and “most” accounts associated with Hezbollah, over the weekend. “There is no place on Twitter for illegal terrorist organizations and violent extremist groups,” a Twitter spokesperson told AFP.
The social media platform took the decision after a bipartisan group of US lawmakers accused it last week of violating American law by allowing content from US-designated terrorist groups to appear on the micro-blogging site. Congress called Twitter to suspend all accounts affiliated with Hezbollah and Hamas by November 2. Al-Manar TV, a Hezbollah-affiliated station, said over the weekend that most of its Twitter accounts had been suspended on Saturday. The Twitter accounts in Arabic, French, English and Spanish were suspended with no prior notice.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Twitter refused to comply with the lawmakers’ demand. “The initial responses that we received from Twitter was that they had decided to keep content up from Hamas and Hezbollah and we, in a bipartisan way, made a strong case to Twitter and to the public that no American companies should be doing business with a foreign terrorist organization,” Gottheimer told the Post. “I’m obviously glad that Twitter has taken this important step to take down and content from these organizations and its affiliates on Twitter.
“I am happy that they listened to our case and obviously recognized that this was a violation of US law and took steps to remedy it,” he continued.
Gottheimer said that Congress should keep monitoring terrorist accounts on social media. “I think it’s important that we remain vigilant, it’s essential that we remain vigilant. We plan to continue to monitor and to ensure that not just Twitter, but all social media companies continue to comply with US law.”