The Social Media Battlefield
Just as social media platforms, like Tik-Tok, Twitter and Instagram have become popular and valuable tools for communication, networking, and marketing for individuals and entities around the world, radical Islamic jihadists and other terror groups have also adopted social media to recruit followers, incite violence, and carry out their terrorist activities.
Unfortunately, social media providers have largely turned a blind eye to the use of their services by terrorists, refusing to actively identify and delete known terrorist accounts. Groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Fatah and Islamic Jihad all utilize social media to disseminate their messages, recruit and raise funds.
Shurat HaDin has initiated a public campaign and activist strategy to challenge these companies for their complicity in the terrorism that their services are used to facilitate and promote.
We have been very active working to compel the social media giants to self-regulate and demanding that elected officials step-in to combat the antisemitism and incitement to hate on the platforms. We accuse the internet giants of turning a blind eye and insist they are liable in aiding and abetting the extremist violence that is originating on social media. We have taken the lead in arguing that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 cannot and must not provide blanket immunity to these companies. They must be viewed as publishers, curators and d editors of the content that appears on their sites. They are not simply “neutral bulletin boards.” The battle over social media continues.
