Twitter Convenes a Team to Prepare for US Capitol Riot Anniversary

Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the storming of the US Capitol, Twitter convened a crew to organize the social networking website to deal with any dangerous content material related to the occasion, the corporate instructed Reuters on Tuesday.

Social media platforms together with Twitter and Facebook had been accused of enabling extremists to organise the siege on January 6, 2021, when supporters of Republican then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol to dam Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.

Twitter mentioned it “convened a cross-functional working group” comprised of members throughout its website integrity and belief and security groups, which is restricted to the anniversary of the assault on the Capitol and can look ahead to dangers equivalent to tweets and accounts that incite violence. The firm didn’t say how many individuals had been on the monitoring crew.

The firm mentioned the hassle expands upon its work to watch the platform round main international occasions, and added it’s going to proceed to watch trending matters and search outcomes for dangerous content material.

A spokesperson for Meta, the corporate beforehand generally known as Facebook, mentioned in a press release on Wednesday: “We’re continuing to actively monitor threats on our platform and will respond accordingly.”

A spokesperson for YouTube, which is owned by Google, said on Wednesday the online video platform had removed tens of thousands of videos for violating its US elections-related policies over the past year, and said it continued to closely monitor for election misinformation on the site.

In March, the chief executives of Twitter, Google, and Facebook, testified in a hearing before Congress and were asked by US lawmakers whether their platforms bore some responsibility for the riot.

Then-Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey was the only executive who answered “sure,” but said the “broader ecosystem” had to be taken into account.

Days after the Capitol riot, Twitter announced a permanent suspension of Trump’s account, citing “the chance of additional incitement of violence.”

“Our method each earlier than and after January 6 has been to take sturdy enforcement motion towards accounts and Tweets that incite violence or have the potential to result in offline hurt,” a Twitter spokesperson mentioned in a press release on Tuesday.

The firm added that over the previous 12 months, it has completely suspended hundreds of accounts for violating its insurance policies towards coordinated dangerous exercise.

© Thomson Reuters 2022