The horrific attack by terrorists in Kenya’s Westgate Shopping Centre is creating headlines across the globe, with people pouring over social networking websites, expressing their shock and anger, and sending messages of prayer to those affected by the massacre. But there has been another prominent voice online, one that has used Twitter to spread words of hate about the attack, and that is the voice of the terrorists themselves.
Al Shabaab, the Somali militant group, took to Twitter under a series of accounts including @HSM_PressOffice and @HSM_Press2 which claimed to be live updates from inside the mall. Although, these have since been blocked, new accounts claiming to be the group are constantly popping up.
It all started with the @HSMPress handle two years ago. The account posted its first tweet on Decmeber 7th 2011 which read: "In the name of Allah". The tweets gave updates of suicide bombings they proclaimed to be ‘a success’ and gave gruesome casualty counts with pride. So why wasn’t the account suspended immediately?
One of the greatest things about Twitter and other social media sites is the freedom of speech. You can have a strong, online presence, and express your thoughts and opinions to the world, with a few clicks of a mouse. Even if your views are controversial or not mainstream, they can still be projected out to whoever will listen. But the fact that a terrorist group can instantly push their sordid views into the Twittersphere, cluttering their posts with trending hashtags related to the attacks so more people read them, seems to cross a line. Freedom of speech suddenly becomes a terrorist attack of words, praising the murder of dozens of victims and displaying religious hatred to billions of Twitter users.
I don’t believe that they should have lasted so long on Twitter. If someone makes racist, homophobic or aggressive comments, their account is blocked. It shouldn’t take hours or even days to take down a Twitter account that can be accused of extreme trolling. It should take one click, one ‘Report Abuse’ button, for the account to be analysed immediately.
However, until Twitter can act fast and take down these sites before they cause any distress, it’s great to see Twitter users naming and shaming the terrorists’ accounts and asking for retweets to get them reported and shut down. So even if Twitter will turn a blind eye, its users definitely won’t.
