Facebook has shutdown the profile of Al-Qaeda’s leader Osama Bin Laden, after a security expert raised the issue with the website’s US owners.
Reports says, Osama bin Laden had a Facebook profile and Facebook page named “The leader of the Mujahideen, Osama bin Laden”, and according to the reports, he was using it as a platform to give speeches to Islamic militants and show them videos.
In regards to the decision, Andrew Noyes a Facebook spokesman said that the company was unable to determine if the Osama’s profile was fake or real. He also added:
“People often attempt to register fake accounts under the name of famous or infamous people, and we have a number of technical measures designed to prevent this behavior,”
Noyes on Fox News said:
“Sometimes these fakes do get through, but there is no evidence to suggest that the account in question or the other dozens of people who have tried to present themselves as Osama Bin Laden have any relation to the terrorist. As is our standard practice, we have disabled the account,”
He also said, the account became active less than a month ago, but had already attracted nearly 1,000 extremists, and although the language used was Arabic, messages in English had started to appear.
Internet terror expert and author Neil Doyle said:
“Bin Laden, via his supporters, is clearly taunting his pursuers.”
Since 2001, Osama and his organization have been major targets of the United States’ War on Terror. There is a 16 million pound reward for his capture, and he along with other Al-Qaeda leaders are believed to be hiding near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.