Twitter and other social media giants are at the center of the current terrorism agenda after the Senate Intelligence Committee approved legislation requiring them to report terrorist activities. Industry leaders are, however, pushing against this move and this was demonstrated in the series of closed door meetings held on Capitol Hill recently, the Associated Press learned.
Social media has been singled out in the Senate legislation sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. since it is being increasingly used by militants to undertake terrorist attacks, recruit members and expand influence. ISIS, for example, is currently crowdsourcing terrorism using social media, CNN reported Friday.
"Twitter, FB and YouTube all, as I understand it, remove content on their sites that come to their attention if it violates their terms of service, including terrorism," Feinstein said in an earlier Reuters report. She stressed, however, that "the companies do not proactively monitor their sites to identify such content nor do they inform the FBI when they identify or remove their content. I believe they should." The legislation seeks to rectify this oversight.
The resistance from the tech industry stems from the perception that the legislation is part of the government surveillance requests that it is currently fighting to limit. Industry insiders are also apprehensive about their potential culpability in the event that terrorist activities are not reported, according to Associated Press. Feinstein's bill is still not clear about penalty or fines in the event of noncompliance. This appears to be important since the legislation is broad and could put social media companies in a legal tangle if they miss a Tweet or content that leads to a terrorist attack.
Debate is still ongoing as policymakers and stakeholders wrangle over the details such as applicability, penalty and coverage, among other legal issues. But as to the question whether Twitter and social media overall are willing to actively stop terrorism, the answer appears to be a resounding no.
