Twitter Apologizes For Closing Hamas Account After Mistaking It For Parody

“We mistook the genocidal rhetoric of the account in question for an over-the-top parody.”

San Francisco, May 9 – Micro-blogging media giant Twitter announced today it had apologized and reinstated the account of the Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip and engages in routine terrorism, following the erroneous suspension of that account, whose radical tone and content caused the company to suspect an impostor had attempted to caricature the group to make it appear extreme.

A spokesperson for Twitter posted a message this morning that Hamas’s English-language account could now resume its activity as before, and stated that the company regretted the error.

“Twitter makes diligent efforts to protect its users from impersonation,” the spokesperson tweeted. “Sometimes, our vigor in maintaining the authenticity of our users exceeds what is absolutely necessary, as in this case, in which we mistook the genocidal rhetoric of the account in question for an over-the-top parody of Hamas. Upon further investigation, we discovered we had shut down a legitimate account of the terrorist group, and immediately reversed the suspension. We apologize for rushing to judgment, and will review our procedures to improve the accuracy of our determinations as to which accounts are real and which impersonations.”

Hamas resumed its Twitter messaging as soon as it received word of the account’s restoration. “The Zionists have again failed to suppress the Resistance,” it stated. “We thank our friends at Twitter for listening to reason and reinstating the account.” Further tweets promised bloody retribution against the Jews and demanded immediate removal of all restrictions Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip to prevent weapons smuggling and manufacture.

The episode occurs on the heels of an incident in which Twitter has closed multiple accounts that, in the company’s assessment, might confuse users into thinking genuine, when in fact the account uses the name of the person, group, or institution for comic or satirical purposes. The most prominent example of the last several days involved at least one parody account mocking congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; most if not all of the closed accounts appear to make light of figures or institutions on the left side of the political spectrum.

Experts predict more such episodes. “It’s not getting any easier to tell the satirical from the actual,” observed a blue-check-verified media analyst by the name of Hugh Jass. “No simple algorithm can distinguish parody from sincerity, and even a live person reviewing the material might misjudge it. Heck, even journalists with supposedly vast experience in vetting their sources can miss the obvious.”

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