Twitter suspends accounts linked to Hamas, Hezbollah

Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Social media company Twitter has started to block from its platform all groups linked to Islamist militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, following a push by federal lawmakers.

New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer said Twitter had suspended accounts linked to Palestinian activist group Hamas and Lebanon-based Hezbollah. Both outfits are designated as terrorist by the U.S. government. Gottheimer posted a response he received from the company notifying him of the move. Both English and Arabic language accounts of the groups were blocked, he said.

Bipartisan lawmakers wrote a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey last month demanding the company stop allowing tweets from Hamas- and Hezbollah-linked accounts.

"There is simply no reason why terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Hazbollah, who have killed countless Americans and our allies, deserve access to U.S.-based social media platforms to promote themselves as sponsors of violent, radical, hate-filled extremism," Gottheimer said. "This is a big day in the fight against the global war on terror.

"We will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that Twitter, and all other social media networks, deliver on the commitment to standing up to these threats from foreign terrorist organizations."

Reps. Tom Reed, R-N.J., Max Rose, D-N.Y., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., co-authored the letter to Dorsey.

"If Twitter identifies an account as affiliated with Hamas or Hezbollah, Twitter's policy is to terminate that account," Twitter said in a statement. "We are in the process of reviewing the accounts identified in your letter and if we confirm that they are foreign terrorists organization accounts, they will be terminated."