After the recent attack in Brussels, a Twitter user named Abu Walid posted a message claiming responsibility for the massacre and vowing more similar attacks.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, since then Twitter has been struggling to curb rising propaganda on the microblogging site. The report adds that the profile of Walid kept resurfacing despite being taken down by Twitter. “Using his 464th Twitter account, he circulated photos of sweets handed out to celebrate the attacks,” the report added.
Terror groups such as Islamic State (IS) have used platforms such as Twitter and other online communities to spread their message to millions of users. As a result, companies such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube among others have joined hands with hacker groups and have tried to curb the spread of IS material online.
The report adds that it is common for online users affiliated to IS to indulge in a war of words, with tweets varying from the promise of paradise to brutal death for those who defy their ideology. Earlier this year, Twitter issued a statement, condemning the use of the microblogging service for terrorism. It said, “We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service.”