Twitter has said that more than 1.2 million accounts were suspended for content related to terrorist activities on the microblogging site since August 2015. In a statement released on Thursday, Twitter said that “during the reporting period of July 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017, a total of 274,460 accounts were permanently suspended for violations related to the promotion of terrorism”.


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The figure is down by 8.4 per cent in comparison to the previous reporting period. The site further said in the statement that there was fall in such instances for two consecutive periods.


“This is down 8.4% from the volume shared in the previous reporting period and is the second consecutive reporting period in which we’ve seen a drop in the number of accounts being suspended for this reason,” said Twitter.


“We continue to see the positive, significant impact of years of hard work making our site an undesirable place for those seeking to promote terrorism, resulting in this type of activity increasingly shifting away from Twitter,” it added.


According to the statement, Twitter suspended 1,210,357 accounts between August 2015 and December 2017 for “violations related to the promotion of terrorism”. “Of those 274,460 accounts suspended in the last reporting period, 93% were flagged by internal, proprietary tools, and 74% of those accounts were suspended before their first Tweet.”


The statement further said, “Government reports of violations related to the promotion of terrorism represent less than 0.2% of all suspensions in the most recent reporting period and reflect a 50% reduction in accounts reported compared to the previous reporting period.”