ISIS threatens Twitter over blocked accounts

MEMBERS of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have threatened to kill Twitter employees and co-founder, Jack Dorsey, over the social network’s practice of blocking accounts associated with the group.

  In an Arabic post uploaded to the image-sharing site JustPaste.it, the group told Twitter “your virtual war on us will cause a real war on you.” It warned that Dorsey and Twitter employees have “become a target for the soldiers of the Caliphate and supporters scattered among your midst!”

  “You started this failed war … we told you from the beginning it’s not your war, but you didn’t get it and kept closing our accounts on Twitter, but we always come back. But when our lions come and take your breath, you will never come back to life,” the group added.

  Twitter’s terms of service explicitly ban “direct, specific threats of violence against others”, and the company has followed YouTube in proactively shutting down ISIS-related accounts, with the aid of the UK’s counter-terrorism Internet referral unit.

  When the company has identified a user as being associated with ISIS, it moves aggressively to keep them off the social network.

  For instance, the Social Media site took down an account run by Rayat al-Tawheed, who speaks on behalf of mainly UK-origin pro-ISIS fighters. The site further pulled down Tawheed’s replacement account within minutes of its re-launch in September, after sending just three non-offensive tweets.