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Twitter and Facebook have both taken measures to suspend accounts and remove content supporting radical Islamic terrorism, which have traditionally been key components of the terrorist group’s recruitment strategy.
Now, desperate members of ISIS are threatening the social media establishment for shutting down their online presence.
A 25-minute propaganda video showing pictures of Zuckerberg and Dorsey covered with bullet holes was uncovered by Vocativ deep web analysts on the social-media site Telegram, which ISIS frequents. The video is titled “Flames Of The Supporters,” and ends with a direct threat to the two CEOs.
“You announce daily that you suspend many of our accounts, and to you we say: Is that all you can do? You are not in our league,” text on the video clip reads. “If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete your sites, Allah willing, and will know that we say is true.”
Twitter said earlier this month it suspended 125,000 accounts “for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, primarily related to ISIS.” Facebook has said that it works to ensure that terrorists don’t use the site, and that it removes content supporting terrorism.
…Over the last several months, ISIS supporters have responded to efforts to minimize its Twitter reach by moving to other platforms such as the messaging app Telegram. In the past, dating back to at least September 2014, ISIS supporters have called on “lone wolves” to target Twitter employees and even kill Twitter co-founder Dorsey.
The release of this latest ISIS video is an indicator that social media censorship is damaging their reach a lot more than they care to admit.
Stay strong, Silicon Valley. Combating the spread of terrorism online is a battle worth fighting.
