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by Joshua Levitt
An IDF montage featuring the barred Hamas-Al Qassam Brigades Twitter account. Photo: Screenshot / IDF.
Twitter suspended a second online social media account believed to be associated with terror group Hamas on Wednesday, taking its Al Qassam Brigades feed offline, after removing its primary account on Tuesday.
While Hamas blamed “Jewish-Christian incitation against the Qassam active account,” the Israel Defense Forces cited chapter and verse of the U.S. law, by which San Francisco-based Twitter must abide, that prohibits Hamas from using the service.
On Tuesday, when Twitter suspended the first account “@alqassamBrigade,” while the second account “@qassambrigade” continued to operate, Hamas claimed:
“The Qassam Brigades confirmed that they did not violate Twitter’s terms of service ever, asserting that reason behind the suspension is Twitter’s subordination to US government and ‘Israel’ as usual. Jewish-Christian incitation against the Qassam active account, so long exposed Israel’s war crimes and violations against the Palestinian civilians led to the suspension of the Qassam Twitter account. The Qassam Brigades strongly condemned the act and asserted its right to freedom of speech and expression and media.”
The IDF pointed out that in Twitter’s Terms of Service, Section 1, their rules say: “You may use the Services only if you … are not a person barred from receiving services under the laws of the United States.”
The IDF wrote on its blog: “Because Hamas is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under s219 of the USA’s Immigration Act, it is thereby ‘barred from receiving services under the laws of the United States.’ By using Twitter, a company based in the U.S., Hamas was indeed violating the company’s Terms of Service.”
“Hamas demands freedom of speech and expression, but the organization has often been quick to censor and arrest journalists in Gaza, and anyone who speaks against them. Recently, Hamas shut down two media bureaus in the Gaza Strip. They are also known to beat up journalists whose coverage they don’t agree with,” the IDF said.
