Twitterfight! Group Threatens Lawsuit Over Terror Tweets
Ever since terrorists started using the internet, amateur crusaders, lawmakers and others have tried to fight back, pressuring technology companies to shut out the militants. So it was only a matter of time before the war on terrorist media went social.
On Thursday, an Israeli legal advocacy group Shurat HaDin threatened Twitter with a lawsuit if it didn’t remove the accounts of U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations such as the Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Somalia’s al-Qaida-linked al-Shabaab. Though a legal tussle may give the folks at Twitter a headache, the terrorists behind the Twitter accounts probably aren’t sweating a potential shutdown.
The lawsuit threat is based on a Supreme Court case, Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, which upheld a controversial portion of the Patriot Act banning support to terrorists. The prohibited forms support include traditional forms of help such as money and guns, extending to “any … service, … training, [or] expert advice or assistance.” Critics argued that the definition encroached on free speech rights and criminalized dialogue with terrorist groups.
Shurat HaDin claims that Twitter’s continued tolerance of terrorists’ accounts constitutes a form of support to the organization. If the micro-blogging service doesn’t immediately take down the accounts, Shurat HaDin says the inaction will “expose Twitter, Inc. and its officers to both criminal prosecution and civil liability to American citizens and others victimized by terrorisms carried out by Hezbollah, Al-Shabaab or other [Foreign Terrorist Organizations].”