Twitter Suspends Al-Shabaab's English Language Account

Who would have thought those nasty little Islamist terrorists in Somalia, al-Shabaab, would have several Twitter accounts, with one in English to boot. Surely Western technology and social media would be considered un-Islamic, but I guess not when they can use it to disseminate information to their jihadist followers, including photos of dead infidels. One of those photos along with threats to kill Kenyan hostages, however, prompted Twitter to shutter the English account @HSMPress, although the Arabic and Somali-language ones are still functioning, and they just opened another @HSMPress_ account.

The Twitter account of Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents was suspended Friday, days after they posted photographs of a French commando they killed and threatened to execute Kenyan hostages.

A message from Twitter on the English-language @HSMPress account read that the account had “been suspended,” without elaborating.

However, the Shebab’s Somali- and Arabic-language accounts continue to operate, and the extremists used their Arabic account to denounce the suspension as censorship.

“This is new evidence of the freedom of expression in the West,” the message read.

On Wednesday the Shebab used the account to release a link to a video of several Kenyan hostages they said they will execute within three weeks if the Kenyan government does not release prisoners held on terrorism charges.

Earlier this month they posted graphic photographs of a French soldier killed during a failed bid to release a French agent whom the Shebab had held for more than three years. They later used Twitter to announce the hostage's execution.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault denounced the publication of the photographs as a “particularly odious display.”

Twitter warns that accounts can be suspended if they violate its rules, which include the publishing of “direct, specific threats of violence against others,” according to regulations posted on its website.

Users are also blocked if they use Twitter “for any unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities.”

Last year the Shebab used the account -- which was opened in December 2011, and most recently had more than 20,000 followers -- for a series of exchanges with Kenya’s army spokesman, taunting the Kenyans after they invaded southern Somalia to attack the Islamists.

Complaining about censorship? What a joke.

But they'll keep popping back up until they are eradicated, if that's at all possible. It will be the Islamist extremists and the roaches that will survive a nuclear war.

I do wonder, though, who really is running their Twitter accounts. Probably someone based in the U.K.

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