More than 1.2 million subscriptions were removed from Twitter. Encouraging terrorist activity between mid 2015 till the close of 2017 was cited as the reason.
The data was revealed at a regional convention held in Jakarta aimed at combating terrorist activity in the country. Senior delegates from many countries in South East Asia received the news positively. All in attendance unanimously appreciated the social media powerhouse’s initiative.
The country is a vibrant hub for twitter activity – Indonesia has the fifth largest number of twitter subscriptions in the world.
Online platforms like Twitter are a growing influence in today’s digital space. This implies a greater level of responsibility for the company towards the public on the one hand and an increased commitment to collaborate with official agencies on the other.
The move comes at a crucial time when citizens in some of the countries in the Pacific belt feel the acute need for more incisive mitigation measures that can nip terrorist activity related incidents in the bud.
Unfortunately, a lot of terrorist activity related knowledge transfer happens across Twitter and other digital platforms. Procedural training is given on tasks such as creating explosives, procuring relevant supplies and gathering intelligence. This was one of the issues addressed at the convention.
Terrorist activity seriously compromises public safety. There is a strong tendency to use Twitter and other online portals towards this end. Curbing this tendency requires extensive collaboration between private social media organizations and official, government based agencies. The recently concluded counter-terrorism meeting is a bold step in this direction.