(Newswire.net — January 15, 2016) — A lawsuit against Twitter has been filed on Wednesday in federal court in Oakland, California, accusing the social network of facilitating IS (ISIS, ISIL).
Widow Tamara Fields, whose husband Lloyd Fields was killed in Jordan, claimed the social network is well aware to whom this account belongs to and yet they have not removed or cancelled their services, Russia Today reported.
“Without Twitter, the explosive growth of ISIS over the last few years into the most-feared terrorist group in the world would not have been possible,” she said in the complaint.
Lloyd Fields was reportedly killed in a shooting spree at a Jordanian police-training center in November. IS later claimed responsibility for the attack.
Twitter officially replied to the lawsuit with a statement that the social network is deeply sorry for the woman’s loss, however, the company does not deserve to be accused of helping ISIS.
“Violent threats and the promotion of terrorism deserve no place on Twitter and, like other social networks, our rules make that clear,” Twitter added in a post.
Twitter received more than a thousand service cancellation requests in 2015, mostly from governments and courts with 42% being approved.
Russia Today also reported that the Obama administration announced last Friday that it has set up a task force to curb the terrorist organization’s online activity.
Ahead of the lawsuit, a number of officials have expressed concern about the fact that various terror groups use Twitter as a channel for online promotion and communication.
“Twitter works as a way to sell books, as a way to promote movies, and it works as a way to crowd source terrorism – to sell murder,” FBI Director Comey said.
US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton urged social networks last month to help eradicate terrorism. “They’re going to have to help us take down these announcements and these appeals,” she said.
Reportedly, Islamic State as well as other terrorist organizations use social networks to market their cause, recruiting sympathizers around the world. Among its propaganda stunts have been images of various atrocities, published on accounts that remain operational afterwards.
According to a study conducted last year by the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, there were anywhere between 46,000 to 90,000 Twitter accounts belonging to IS supporters, each with an average of around a thousand followers.