The Facebook and Twitter accounts of Iran-backed Islamic political party and militant group Hezbollah from Lebanon was terminated without any notice on Saturday.
The organisation took to Telegram, the encrypted messaging application to announce that its social media accounts were closed without warning, stating it was "part of the propaganda campaign against the resistance due to the important role of the organisation's information apparatus in various areas", as per the Times of Israel.
Both Facebook and Twitter declined to offer a comment or any reason for why they decided to block the accounts.
Internet users were however redirected to other pages associated with Hezbollah, indicating that not all of their digital presence was erased.
While the companies have previously blocked pages belonging to the Iran-backed terror group, the shutting down of the accounts came after recent threats by Israeli officials to take legal action against social media companies for hosting the accounts of terror groups, the report said.
Earlier this month, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey warning the company could face prosecution in Israel if it does not block accounts belonging to Hezbollah and Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Although no such warning was issued to Facebook, it seems like the company closed the accounts so as to avoid any action, affecting its already tainted reputation.
Erdan had claimed that unlike other social media companies, Twitter in many cases had declined to remove content posted by terrorist groups. Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked had also threatened Twitter with a legal action over the social media giant's alleged refusal to crack down on posts by terror operatives.
The blocking of the Hezbollah accounts come a day after the terror group released new footage on social media from the 2006 border attack on Israeli soldiers that sparked the Second Lebanon War.
[With inputs from IANS]
