(New York, NY) – The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) today applauded reports that social media companies Facebook and Twitter had suspended accounts connected to the terror group Hamas and issued the following statement, attributable to CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace and President Frances F. Townsend: 

“Actions by Facebook and Twitter to delete Hamas accounts are welcome news and hopefully reflect a new determination to combat the misuse of social media platforms by terror groups. Reports indicate Facebook closed down Hamas's official page and Twitter took down accounts associated with Hamas’s military wing.

“The ability of these terror groups to propagandize, recruit, and incite to violence is critical to their survival. In order to overcome the ideology that feeds hate, intolerance, and violence, we must combat attempts by these groups to dominate the narrative being fed through the Internet and on social media platforms.   

“Since its founding in September 2014, CEP has raised the alarm before the U.S. Congress and other public venues about the dangers posed by extremists having unfettered access to social media platforms to recruit and incite to violence. Since October 2014, we have identified and reported hundreds of extremist accounts to Twitter through #CEPDigitalDisruption, our rigorous research and crowdsourcing campaign.

“While the actions of Facebook and Twitter are noteworthy, we continue to be concerned that there is nothing standing in the way of Hamas re-establishing these accounts quickly. Facebook and Twitter must develop a more systematic process for recognizing accounts belonging to Hamas, as well as other extremist groups, and take them down as soon as they appear.”