Twitter, Facebook move quickly to remove extremists’ posts celebrating truck attack in Nice

Twitter Inc moved swiftly to remove posts from Islamic extremists glorifying a truck attack in Nice, France, watchdog groups said on Friday, in a rare round of praise for a platform that has often struggled to contain violent propaganda.

A spate of violence over the past several months has posed numerous challenges to social media companies. The unfolding military coup in Turkey was marked first by restrictions on social media, internet monitoring groups said, but the crackdown appeared to ease as the events unfolded and numerous citizens broadcast live video on Facebook and sent tweets.

US and French authorities on Friday were still trying to determine whether the Tunisian man who drove a truck into Bastille Day crowds on Thursday, killing 84 people, had ties to Islamic militants.

At least 50 Twitter accounts praising the attacks used the hashtag Nice in Arabic, according to the Counter Extremism Project, a private group that monitors and reports extremist content online.

Many accounts appeared almost immediately after the attack and shared images praising the carnage, the group said.

The pattern was similar to what was seen on Twitter after attacks last year and earlier this year in Paris and Brussels. But Twitter, which once took a purist approach to free speech but has since revised its rules, took action much more quickly this week.

“Twitter moved with swiftness we have not seen before to erase pro-attack tweets within minutes,” Counter Extremism Project said in a statement. “It was the first time Twitter has reacted so efficiently.”