Twitter removed 1.2 million terrorist accounts since August 2015
Twitter has published its 12th biannual Twitter Transparency Report, where it revealed that the micro-blogging platform has removed 1.2 million accounts for "promoting terrorism" since August 2015. Further, solely for the period of the 12th biannual Transparency Report, between July 1, 2017, and December 31, 2017, a total of 274,460 accounts were permanently suspended for violations related to promotion of terrorism.
This is an 8.4% drop in account suspensions
This is an 8.4% drop in account suspensions compared to the prior period when a total of 299,649 pro-terrorism accounts had been removed. Twitter is crediting this drop to the fact that terrorists have started getting discouraged from using the platform following Twitter's actions. Twitter's Transparency Reports detail information about the accounts it has banned, government inquiries on Twitter accounts, and data requests.
"Terrorists are shifting away from Twitter"
"We continue to see the positive, significant impact of years of hard work making our site an undesirable place for those seeking to promote terrorism, resulting in this type of activity increasingly shifting away from Twitter," the company said.
74% Twitter accounts were banned before their first tweet
According to Twitter, 93% of the banned accounts were spotted by its internal tools, 74% were banned before they could post their first tweet, and 0.2% of accounts were flagged by governments. There can be several reasons on the basis of which Twitter suspends an account, including legal orders or warrants and violation of Twitter's terms of services.
Governments reported 6,254 Twitter accounts for abusive behavior
Twitter reportedly uses US and EU lists of terrorist organizations and expert research to identify terrorists on its network. Further, the Transparency Report detailed that governments reported 6,254 Twitter accounts for "abusive behavior" in the second half of 2017, of which a quarter were removed. These accounts were found violating Twitter's policies in the areas of impersonation (66%), harassment (16%), and hateful conduct (12%).
