Access Now

But there is an inherent problem in insisting that social networks, either legally or morally, are responsible for policing terrorism. Even if Twitter could build such a tool (and it’s really not clear that it could) and reliably whack every single terrorist mole that pops up on the network, it’s asking Twitter to decide who’s a terrorist.

What can Twitter do? It can collaborate with groups like CtrlSec and the government to more quickly identify and shut down accounts. And it can establish still better rules to make clear the kind of behavior that is and isn’t allowed on the network. But giving Twitter engineers the responsibility to decide who’s a terrorist is putting power where it doesn’t belong.