Scrubbing Terrorists: No Magic Mr. Clean
April 30, 2018
Removing terror suspects from Facebook and other social media outlets seems like it should be a cut and dry job, from the outside. However, doing so while not infringing on others’ rights gets very tricky. We learned just how tricky from a recent Telegraph article, “Facebook Reinstated Account for Terror Suspect Nine Times After He Complained They Were Stifling His Free Speech.”
According to the story:
“The social media giant suspended Abdulrahman Alcharbati’s account on nine occasions after he posted sickening Isil propaganda videos, but reinstated it each time when he complained….“Emails between the 31-year-old and Facebook’s moderators were read out to the jury at Newcastle Crown Court, where? he ?is standing trial accused of terror offences.”
This is a difficult position, since social media outlets claim they want to respect free speech on one hand, but not encourage violent and hurtful speech on the other. Even Mark Zuckerberg has addressed the issue of removing terrorists from his site. This speaks to how prevalent the issue is and how difficult it is, as well. Don’t expect the elimination of dangerous actors from social media any time soon. There are just too many loopholes.
Patrick Roland, April 30, 2018
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