[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15514-15515]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          HASHTAG: TERRORISTS

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, what do @HSMPress, @Alqassam Brigade, 
and @almanarnews all have in common? Here's a hint: HASHTAG: 
TERRORISTS.

[[Page 15515]]

  That's right: foreign terrorist organizations like al-Shabaab, Hamas, 
and Hezbollah all use an American company--Twitter--to recruit other 
extremists. They spread their anti-American propaganda and preach 
violence and murder.
  Hamas has over 42,000 followers. Their tweets have included 
everything from calls for jihad attacks to a ``new Holocaust.'' Isn't 
that lovely?
  Mr. Speaker, the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that 
when there is a ``broader strategy to promote terrorism,'' foreign 
terrorist organizations are not protected under free speech rights.
  We should be doing everything we can to disarm our enemy, whether 
that means freezing their bank accounts or freezing their Twitter 
accounts. Allowing foreign terrorist organizations to freely operate on 
Twitter is enabling the enemy. The FBI and Twitter must recognize 
sooner, rather than later, that social media is a tool for the outlaw 
terrorists, and it has to stop.
  And that's just the way it is.

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