US Congressmen Appeal to Twitter CEO to Stop Terrorists From Propaganda

Several US Congressmen say that Twitter CEO Dick Costolo should make greater efforts to stop terrorists from using his social medium to fundraise, spread propaganda and recruit.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Twitter CEO Dick Costolo should make greater efforts to stop terrorists from using his social medium to fundraise, spread propaganda and recruit, US Representative Ted Poe stated in a statement joined by four other Congressmen.

“Twitter is far behind other social media companies in combatting this threat [terrorism],” Poe said on Thursday. “Twitter needs to do more. It’s time to put a stop to this cyber jihad.”

US Representative Brad Sherman added that this fight against cyber terrorism is similar to a game of whack-a-mole, “the moles being terrorist operatives that pop up here and there online.”

It is far better to play the games than ignore the moles altogether, Sherman added.

US Representative Eliot Engel said that while Twitter has taken down 2,000 accounts already, the move can only be the first step in stopping terrorist organizations like ISIL from gaining a foothold on the web.

The Washington, DC-based Brookings Institution found that there about 46,000 currently active ISIL accounts on Twitter.

Twitter is an online social networking service than enables users to send and read short messages of up to 140 characters called “tweets.”