A new study says there were at least 46,000 Twitter accounts used by Islamic State supporters from September to December 2014.
The Brookings Institution study (PDF) claimed Twitter suspended at least 1,000 of those accounts during that period. Twitter, which did not help with the study, told the New York Times the study underestimated that number. ABC News reported this week Twitter shut down at least 2,000 ISIS accounts last week.
Whatever the number, the shutdowns were followed by death threats this week issued to Twitter executives and employees, including co-founder Jack Dorsey.
And this isn t the first time. Last fall, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo revealed that he and his employees had received assassination threats, also after suspensions of Twitter accounts of the extremist group, which has among other things publicized its beheadings of journalists and others.
The Brookings study, which analyzed a sample of 20,000 accounts, found that the ISIS-supporting accounts each had at least 1,000 followers, higher than the average Twitter user. Nearly 12,000 of the accounts were created in 2014. Also: Almost 20 percent of the ISIS supporters selected English as their primary language on Twitter, with three-quarters selecting Arabic.
The study s authors recommend that Twitter and other social media companies work with the U.S. government to find ways to fight the spread of extremism online. As Queenie Wong wrote last month, the White House is trying to do just that. It held a summit on the issue, which was reportedly attended by Google, Facebook and Twitter.
Photo from Bay Area News Group archives
