The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), Australia’s leading civil and human rights organisation fighting hatred in all its forms has hailed the decision by Twitter to suspend more than 200,000 accounts that have been found to promote terrorism. The company also reported that over the last year it has removed 360,000 accounts that have violated its rules on this issue.
Dr. Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, issued the following statement:
“This is a tremendously critical step in the fight against terrorism and hate online. Terrorist groups are increasingly exploiting the platform of social media to extend their reach and to promote their vile ideologies in order to incite and to recruit members. Clearly, social media giants and technology companies in the private sector have a moral obligation and a duty to aggressively clamp down on terrorist-related activities and to shut down the accounts of violent extremists. We know that Isis and other groups maintain a strong presence on this social network, dispatching hundreds of thousands of tweets a day. We trust that Twitter will continue to devote more resources to confronting the highly troubling growth of digital terrorism, and will keep developing new technologies and strategies to counter this ever-burgeoning threat. As the first Australian organisation to join the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Working Group on Cyber Hate which includes YouTube, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Twitter, the ADC welcomes this very positive development and commends Twitter for stepping up its efforts.”
The Anti-Defamation Commission, founded in 1979, is Australia’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through educational programs that combat bigotry, prejudice and all forms of hatred.
For further information please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on (03) 9272 5677.