Terrorist group ISIS, or Islamic State, makes direct threats at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. These social media outlets are fighting to silence the terrorist group’s propaganda of murder and jihad.
The Islamic State made the threats in a 25 minute propaganda video. They don’t stop with threats to Zuckerberg and Dorsey. The deep, obviously disguised voice brags about how Islamic State hacked 10,000 Facebook accounts, 5,000 Twitter profiles and 150 Facebook groups. They claim after they were hacked, the accounts were given to Islamic State supporters. The video admits this is in retaliation of Facebook and Twitter’s campaigns to suspend accounts created by the terrorist groups. Twitter has suspended 125,000 profiles linked to ISIS. The video threatened to create one for every ten Twitter profiles removed. At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Zuckerberg declared, “If we have opportunities to basically work with governments and folks to make sure that there aren’t terrorist attacks then we’re going to take these opportunities…”. There’s been pressure on other Internet companies to crack down on ISIS, especially after last fall’s terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernadino. Nobody at Facebook nor Twitter has yet to comment on this recent video.
But ISIS often uses social media for propaganda and recruitment. They’ve shown You Tube videos of them serving ice cream to kids. They’ve sent messages to lonely and venerable women promising them the world if they leave everything behind and join them in Syria, even paying for their one-way plane ticket. So Zuckerberg and Dorsey are doing what any businessman, and any concerned upstanding citizen would do. They’re protecting their businesses and customers from a serious threat by any means necessary. ?It must be working. The Islamic State wouldn’t be threatening them if it had no effect. If I saw Dorsey and Zuckerberg, I would encourage them to keep the fight up. I’d say intensify it. Don’t give in. Don’t give up. Social media should NEVER be used to recruit others for murder, war, jihad, or other acts of such demonic evil. Shouldn’t other online companies and leaders follow Dorsey and Zuckerberg’s example?