Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Twitter Is Suspending Accounts That Post Images of U.S. Journalist's Beheading

Twitter Is Suspending Accounts That Post Images of Journalist's Beheading

Twitter Is Suspending Accounts That Post Images of Journalist's Beheading

James-foley-twitter-blackout-02
James Foley in Syria in 2012.
Image: Manu Brabo
Hours after a video purportedly showing the brutal beheading of American journalist James Foley started circulating online, Twitter announced Wednesday that it is "actively" suspending accounts that share the gory images.
As journalists and others rushed to self-censor and stop the spread of the graphic imagery, Twitter was ramping up its effort to avoid becoming an indirect propaganda channel for the group claiming responsibility for Foley's murder, the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIL or ISIS.)
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo announced the move:
Many Islamic State fighters, or supporters claiming to be fighters, often share violent pictures and propaganda on Twitter. And American spy agencies might actually be happy to let them use the network, since it helps them gather intelligence, as Mashable revealed last month.
But now, some accounts related to the Islamic State seem to be getting shut down at a faster rate.
Pieter Van Ostaeyen, a researcher who's been tracking Islamic State fighters and supporters on the Internet for months, started noticing the suspensions soon after the news of the beheading started spreading online.
Then on Wednesday, Van Ostaeyen noticed that many accounts he was following, allegedly belonging to Islamic State fighters, had been suspended overnight.
Islamic State fighters and supporters also took notice, inviting others to avoid suspension by deactivating their accounts or periodically changing handles.
At least one Islamic State account was apparently suspended and then reactivated.
Twitter has traditionally erred on the side of freedom of speech when it comes to policing content. It has suspended accounts only when they break any of its content rules, which include a prohibition against posting "direct, specific threats of violence against others."
In any case, suspensions normally depend on other users reporting the abusive behavior.
It's unclear which company policies, if any, are prompting this new wave of suspensions. It could be those related to threats, since the beheading video ended with a threat to kill another imprisoned American journalist, Steven Joel Sotloff. Or, perhaps, Twitter is applying its new rules on the removal of imagery of deceased people, which the company published on Tuesday evening.
(The timing of the new policy may have been coincidental and possibly related to harassment of Robin Williams' daughter after the actor's death last week. Twitter did not respond to Mashable's multiple requests for comment.)
Some Twitter users are confused by these suspensions as well. Some, for example, are wondering whether Twitter should suspend the account of the New York Post for tweeting a picture of its Wednesday cover, which shows an image of Foley just instants before his death.
Others asked Twitter to suspend the Post's Twitter account.
But a Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider that the Post's account would not be suspended (nor that of the Daily News, which tweeted a somewhat less graphic image).
Twitter is walking a fine line here, and given the gravity of the issue, whatever it does it's probably bound to be controversial.

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Twitter Is Suspending Accounts That Post Images of Journalist's Beheading

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