As Twitchy reported this morning, anti-Israel Twitterers celebrated Twitter’s suspension of the official Israel Defense Forces account. Of course, the IDF account wasn’t actually suspended, but the false rumor was too good to check for many Israel bashers.
This afternoon, writers at BuzzFeed, Politico and The Daily reported that the IDF is in violation of Twitter’s terms of service due to tweets like this one Twitchy reported yesterday:
We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 14, 2012
That tweet has reporters fainting daintily onto their swooning couches because they believe it violates Twitter’s rule against “direct, specific threats of violence against others.” But apparently this one from the military wing of Hamas wasn’t worth mentioning:
https://twitter.com/AlqassamBrigade/statuses/268791630583193600
BuzzFeed called the IDF’s tweets “potentially problematic” and kvetched in a tweet that Twitter isn’t “doing anything about it.”
War might violate Twitter's terms of service, but it's not doing anything about @IDFSpokesperson http://t.co/W4VVHLxu
— BuzzFeed Tech (@fwd) November 15, 2012
Politico picked up the thread with this post:
Twitter silent on IDF's Gaza tweets http://t.co/voZameRc via @POLITICO
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) November 15, 2012
While BuzzFeed made a passing mention of Hamas’ “aggressive posts,” Politico was far more concerned with Twitter’s silence on the IDF’s tweets. Threats from a terrorist organization? No biggie. An IDF warning to terrorist operatives? TOS violation!!11!!
The Daily insisted the IDF had not only violated Twitter’s terms of service, but the Geneva Conventions which forbid “outrages upon personal dignity.” Aww, did the poor widdle terrorists get their feelings all hurted by a tweet as they were raining rockets down on Israel?
The IDF, @idfspokesperson , clearly violated Twitter's terms of service by making threats. http://t.co/jPKaomRb
— David Knowles (@writerknowles) November 15, 2012
No mention by The Daily of Hamas’ clear, specific threat to continue terrorizing Israelis, natch.
If Hamas operatives ever get sick of churning out revolting anti-Israel propaganda, looks like some in the media will happily take over for them.
Update:
Twitchy readers brought this post to the attention of The Daily’s David Knowles. Now he would like Twitter to “consider” suspending Al Qassam’s account.
Twitter should also consider suspending the account of @AlqassamBrigade for violating terms of service.
— David Knowles (@writerknowles) November 16, 2012
No word on whether Knowles feels Hamas has violated the Geneva Conventions.
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