Hezbollah slams Twitter for ‘politicized’ suspension of TV channel accounts

The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has slammed the US-based social media website Twitter for its decision to suspend pages related to the group, saying it came under political pressure.

Hezbollah’s TV channel Al Manar said on Saturday that most of its Twitter accounts had been made unavailable.

It accused the Twitter of giving in to “political pressures”, an apparent suggestion that the decision by the US-based social media platform had been influenced by the policies of the government in Washington.

The US government has blacklisted Hezbollah, a popular group in Lebanon with huge political influence, while government officials and lawmakers in Washington have consistently pressured others to cut or restrict their relations with the group despite the fact that it is represented in the Lebanese government and parliament.

Twitter’s decision to suspend accounts run by Al Manar came after a series of protests across Lebanon which led to the resignation of the cabinet led by Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri.

It also comes amid a rise in the popularity of Hezbollah in Lebanon and in other countries in the Middle East, especially after the group managed to successfully help the government in neighboring Syria to win a years-long battle against terrorists.

A Twitter spokesman told the AFP news agency that the social media platform could not allow illegal groups to operate on its website.

However, the same news agency said specific television shows with Twitter names of Al Manar were still available on the platform on Saturday.

The suspension of Al Manar’s accounts on Twitter comes as the website and other US-based social media organizations with vast global audience have repeatedly claimed that they are not influenced by the policies and decisions of the US government.