Twitter suspends 125,000 accounts with ‘terrorist content’

Twitter says it has suspended over 125,000 accounts since mid-2015 for 'threatning or promoting terrorist acts' 

Twitter has suspended over 125,000 since mid-2015 as part of a campaign to eradicate “terrorist content” on the popular online platform.

The social network said that the accounts, most of which were linked to the Islamic State militant group, were frozen for “threatening or promoting terrorist attacks”.

"Like most people around the world, we are horrified by the atrocities perpetrated by extremist groups," Twitter said on its policy blog on Friday. "We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the Twitter rules make it clear that this type of behaviour, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service."

However, the social network warned that there was no easy technological solution to tackle online alleged terrorist activity.

"As many experts and other companies have noted, there is no 'magic algorithm' for identifying terrorist content on the internet, so global online platforms are forced to make challenging judgement calls based on very limited information and guidance," Twitter said.

"In spite of these challenges we will continue to aggressively enforce our rules in this area and engage with authorities and other relevant organisations to find viable solutions to eradicate terrorist content from the internet and promote powerful counter-speech narratives."

Governments around the world – including the US – have urged social media companies to take more aggressive steps to root out online activity aimed at promoting violence.

In December, US politicians put forward a bill that would force social networks to report any apparent terrorist activity they find.

Last March, Facebook updated its "community standards", in an attempt to curb the use of the social network giant for promoting "terrorism" or hate speech.

The update said that Facebook will not allow a presence from groups advocating "terrorist activity, organised criminal activity or promoting hate".

The social network’s move came after videos of gruesome executions appeared on Facebook and other social media as part of IS propaganda efforts.