Twitter suspends account of Hassan Nasrallah’s son

Twitter suspended on Tuesday the account of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s son for violating the rules and conditions of the social media platform.

Jawad Nasrallah, whose account has been suspended several times before as part of Twitter’s campaign to remove users affiliated with Iranian-backed Hezbollah, is known for posting fatwas, or Islamic rulings, on his page.

The US State Department had previously imposed sanctions on Nasrallah, the second eldest son of the Hezbollah leader and father of four, and designated him as a global terrorist.

Outside observers have said that he is a senior commander within the group, but the organization denies he has a military role.

Twitter suspended the accounts of several people with ties to the Palestinian group Hamas earlier this month, a day after Al-Manar, the television station affiliated with Lebanon’s Iran-backed movement Hezbollah, protested that most of its Twitter accounts had been suspended.

Twitter had said that Al-Manar’s accounts were suspended as a result of violations of the rules and conditions of the social media platform. In response, Al-Manar accused the US-based social media platform of giving in to “political pressures.”

“There is no place on Twitter for illegal terrorist organizations and violent extremist groups,” a Twitter spokesperson told AFP.
“Account suspended,” the Arabic-language account @almanarnews, read earlier this month.

The accounts in English, French, and Spanish were also not available, but the Twitter handles of specific television shows seemed to be functioning.

Several US lawmakers had given Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey a deadline until November 1 to remove all accounts that belonged to terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Hezbollah, and individuals associated with those groups.

The US has designated both Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations and applied sanctions on many officials from both the Iran-backed groups.