Twitter Removed 299,649 Accounts Tied To Terrorism In The First Half Of 2017

Twitter Inc said that its internal controls were allowing it to weed out accounts being used for the “promotion of terrorism” earlier rather than responding to government requests to close them down.

U.S. and European governments have been pressuring social media companies including Twitter, Facebook Inc, and Alphabet Inc’s Google to fight harder against online radicalization, particularly by violent Islamist groups.

Twitter said it had removed 299,649 accounts in the first half of this year for the “promotion of terrorism”, a 20 percent decline from the previous six months, although it gave no reason for the drop. Three-quarters of those accounts were suspended before posting their first tweet.

Britain’s interior minister, Amber Rudd, used a visit to Silicon Valley last month to ask Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube to step up efforts to remove content that incites militants after four attacks in Britain killed 36 people this year.

“Loser terrorists must be dealt with in a much tougher manner. The internet is their main recruitment tool which we must cut off & use better!” U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted on Friday after a bombing on a London commuter train.

Less than 1 percent of account suspensions were due to government requests, Twitter said, while 95 percent were thanks to the company’s internal efforts to combat radical content with “proprietary tools”, up from 74 percent in its last twice-yearly transparency report.

Twitter defines “promotion of terrorism” as actively inciting or promoting violence “associated with internationally recognized terrorist organizations.”

The vast majority of notices from governments concerned “abusive behavior”, which includes violent threats, harassment, hateful conduct and impersonation.