Twitter activists and monitoring specialists have reported that thousands of accounts have disappeared from the networking service.
More than 10,000 Twitter accounts linked to ISIS have been shut down, according to the New York Times. The news was later confirmed by an anonymous Twitter spokesperson who explained that the accounts were removed due to violations of Twitter rules. The suspicious accounts were linked to violent threats spread across the network as ‘tweets’.
The Twitter representative also added that ISIS opponents have recently been quite active and have continuously reported accounts for policy violations.
Anti-ISIS Campaigns on the Rise
This is not the first campaign against ISIS. In February, an anonymous group together with RedCult, initiated #OpISIS. Operation ISIS may be described as one of the most crucial efforts to put an end to the Islamic State’s online recruitments. Hunting down the people responsible for violent social media actions is possibly the best measure for exposing Islamic militants.
In that relation, this is not first time Twitter has shut down ISIS-linked accounts. At the beginning of March, more than 2000 profiles were ceased on a weekly basis. To help prevent such threats, Twitter and other social networks have a step-by-step guide on how to report violations. 一方, there are anti-ISIS advocates who are unconvinced that massively scaled account suspensions are effective.
Is Suspension the Best Solution?
There are activist users who keep on following once suspended accounts only to discover that they are quickly put back into action. Adding some letters to the name of the suspended account is one way to recover it continuously. Such an account may be reported and suspended numerous times without being eradicated.
どちらにしても, reporting suspicious activities on social media networks is an approach that could be adopted by every user worldwide.