Twitter Blocked Hamas, Hezbollah Accounts at Israel’s Demand (VIDEO)

December 21, 2018 Blog, News, Videos
Senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya. (Photo: Mohammed Asad, via MEMO)

Twitter has revealed that it blocked over 20 accounts belonging to Hamas and Hezbollah to meet demands issued by Israel.

In the first half of 2018, the social media giant blocked over 20 accounts belonging to senior figures of Hamas and Hezbollah, including those of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum and Rawhi Mushtaha, a close associate of Hamas’ leader in Gaza Yahya Al-Sinwar.

Twitter’s decision came after it received a letter from the Cybercrime Department of Israel’s Ministry of Justice on June 26, demanding that it “permanently close” the accounts in question.

The letter – published by the Times of Israel yesterday – cited Article 24 of Israel’s Counterterror Law which “states that any act of solidarity with a terror organization, including any publication of support in its actions, is an offense punishable by three or five years’ imprisonment”.

This is not the only time Twitter has bowed to Israeli pressure to restrict content and accounts. Earlier this month it emerged that Twitter has been enforcing Israel’s gag order on details of its botched operation in Gaza, instructing a number of media outlets to remove posts revealing the identity of Israel’s undercover operatives.

The Electronic Intifada (EI) disclosed that it had received a message from Twitter instructing it to delete a tweet linking to a story about the operation, despite the fact that, as a US-based organization, it is not required to comply with the gag order Israel places on its own media.

(MEMO, PC, Social Media)

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