Twitter has blacklisted the accounts of Niger Delta Avengers, Boko Haram, as well hundreds of thousands others. The online social media suspended additional 235,000 accounts since February.
The accounts were suspended for violating policies related to violent threats and promotion of terrorism, the company said on Thursday.
Total suspensions related to violence and terror are now at 360,000 since the middle of 2015.
Meanwhile, up to 80 percent are being suspended daily since last year, Twitter said, thanks in part to proprietary “spam-fighting” tools.
The company said it has made progress in:
- shortening the amount of time that violators are on Twitter,
- reducing their followers and,
- disrupting the ability of offenders to immediately return to Twitter.
It said that it has bolstered its team to review complaints of extremism, as well as buoyed collaborations with law enforcement, other social platforms and international nongovernmental agencies.
Rival network Facebook has also said it has a “hard line” toward terrorism and terrorists.
A Facebook company leader told The Wall Street Journal earlier this year after it removed a profile of San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik even as it restricted 32,100 instances of a photo depicting terror victims in Paris.
The news comes after Twitter made headlines for its free-speech policies.
It had reporting from BuzzFeed News said it failed to block harassment for non-celebrity users.
Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo later implied the report was “laughably false while Twitter said it would continue to make the platform a “safer place.”
Niger Delta Avengers are hardline militants in the Niger Delta region known for destroying oil facilities in its “Operation Zero Economy”
Boko Haram, on the other hand, is the Islamist terror group that has massacred about 20,000 people and rendered about 12 million homeless. [myad]
