Audio By Carbonatix
Twitter's war against terrorism is escalating.
The social media company said in a blog post Thursday that it has suspended 235,000 accounts for promoting terrorism in the last six months.
In total, Twitter (TWTR, Tech30) has suspended 360,000 accounts since the middle of 2015.
While the company didn't identify the terrorist groups or specific accounts, it's likely many are affiliated with ISIS, which has been particularly active on Twitter and other social networks to spread propaganda and attract new recruits.
"We strongly condemn these acts and remain committed to eliminating the promotion of violence or terrorism on our platform," Twitter said in the blog post.
Twitter said it is leaning on a combination of spam-fighting tools, expanded teams reviewing abuses and new partnerships with organizations fighting violent extremism. This has helped identify more accounts and prevent those users from returning after getting suspended.
Related: ISIS supporters threaten Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey
"Our response time for suspending reported accounts, the amount of time these accounts are on Twitter, and the number of followers they accumulate have all decreased dramatically," the company said.
Those efforts appear to be working. The Obama administration said last month that Twitter traffic for ISIS has declined significantly over the past two years.
Facebook (FB, Tech30) and YouTube have also reportedly taken steps in recent months to suspend accounts or block violent content shared by ISIS supporters.
ISIS supporters, meanwhile, have gone so far as to threaten the founders of Twitter and Facebook for suspending accounts.
Twitter's apparent success in combating terrorism on its platform comes amid renewed criticism of the social network's attempts, or lack thereof, to combat harassment.
A BuzzFeed article claimed the company had favored free speech over effective anti-harassment policies.
Twitter also moved to address this issue on Thursday by announcing two tools to help people filter out some of the noise and potential abuse on the platform.
The first, called a Quality Filter, gives users the option to filter out "low quality content," including posts that are automated or duplicates.
The other feature lets users tweak their settings to only see notifications from people they follow on the social network, potentially filtering out all the trolls.
Latest Stories
-
AFCON 2025: Senegal beat Morocco to win second title
3 hours -
Sports journalist Alex Kobina Stonne elected UniMAC External Affairs Commissioner
3 hours -
NDC’s economic gains ‘cosmetic’; real impact yet to be felt – Bryan Acheampong
3 hours -
WEF warns geoeconomic confrontation now world’s biggest threat
4 hours -
Top 10 safest countries in Africa for travellers in 2026: Ghana places 7th
5 hours -
Inflation to remain within lower bound of medium-term target of 8 ± 2% – BoG
5 hours -
Bright Simons: Ghana’s budget should follow gold, not oil
5 hours -
Stress test on restructured government bonds: Banks appear resilient to shocks – BoG
5 hours -
T-bills auction: Investor interest continued to surge, but interest rates soar
5 hours -
2025/26 Ghana League: Holy Stars edge Bechem United to secure vital home victory
7 hours -
Gun amnesty programme extended by two weeks
7 hours -
Tano North farmers threaten demonstration against Newmont ‘unfair compensation’
7 hours -
GPL 2025/26: Richmond Opoku brace sees Young Apostles draw with Hohoe United
7 hours -
Over 75% of NPP Parliamentary candidates outpolled Bawumia in 2024 – Bryan Acheampong
7 hours -
Kyebi Zongo to become a model for excellence, environmental stewardship – Chief of Kyebi Zongo
8 hours
