House Republicans Send Twitter A Letter Urging Them To Ban Hamas

WASHINGTON – Today, Representatives Lee Zeldin (R, NY-1), Doug Lamborn (R, CO-5) and Joe Wilson (R, SC-2), Co-Chairmen of the House Republican Israel Caucus, submitted a 16 member letter urging Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to ban designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) from Twitter and remove all content promoting terrorist activity, including banning senior Hamas officials and associates who use the platform to radicalize individuals to incite violence against Israelis.

Last month, Hamas, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), fired approximately 700 rockets into Israel killing innocent victims, and immediately went to Twitter to celebrate “the heroic resistance.” Furthermore, every year, Hamas uses Twitter to gather mass participation for its “Days of Rage” against Israel.

A signed PDF of the letter is available here.

Full text of the letter is as follows:

Dear Mr. Dorsey,

We write today to express our profound concerns regarding the use of your social media platform by designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). FTOs, including Hamas, use Twitter to advance their hateful ideology and propaganda. Last month, Hamas fired approximately 700 rockets into Israel killing innocent victims. It is imperative that Twitter, a United States Company, bans designated FTOs, removing all content promoting terrorist activity.

Congress has already determined that providing material support, resources, and intangible assistance to a FTO is a federal crime. Furthermore, the Supreme Court has upheld that federal law prohibiting individuals and groups from providing material support to FTOs does not violate the First Amendment.

Over the past several years, Twitter has made some progress by removing terrorist content from groups such ISIS and Hezbollah. However, more needs to be done to eradicate the spread of all terrorist activity by designated FTOs. Hamas follows a comprehensive charter that calls for the murder of every Jew and the destruction of the State of Israel through the covenant of Jihad. Hamas is well known for firing rockets and digging terror tunnels into Israel, murdering and kidnapping Israelis, and using women and children as human shields. Every year, Hamas uses Twitter to gather mass participation for its “Days of Rage” against Israel. Hamas, and other terrorist organizations use Twitter to recruit members, and praise “martyrs” that kill innocent Americans and Israelis. Hamas is recognized as a designated terrorist organization by not only the United States, but the European Union and Canada as well. That is why we also urge you to ban senior Hamas officials and associates from Twitter who radicalize individuals to incite violence against Israelis.

Twitter has a responsibility to stop the spread of terrorism on its site. We hope Twitter will take action without the need for additional Congressional oversight and legislative action.