“Your virtual war on us will cause a real war on you.”
Yeah, peeps. We hear that supporters of the Islamic State aren’t pleased about being frequently blocked by the microblogging site. So much so that they’ve taken the matter in their own hands by issuing threats. It first appeared on JustPast.it (a site that allows documents to be uploaded anonymously) and it was accompanied by a digitally altered image of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey in the crosshair of a gun/weapon.
The post reads something like:
Your virtual war on us will cause a real war on you. 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 (brave men) come and take your breath, you will never come back to life.
It appears that the ISIS supporters also went on to call on Jihadis around the world to kill Twitter employees and “its interests in any place, people, and buildings, and don’t allow any one of the atheists to survive”.
Here’s the thing, Twitter’s terms of service bar users from posting or publishing “direct, specific threats of violence against others”. Users are also banned from using the service “for any unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities”. Hence, Twitter, like YouTube, often moves quickly to delete posts and suspend accounts that disseminate ISIS videos showing the gruesome executions of hostages.
On top of that, just last month, ISIS used Twitter to post a video suggesting followers launch attacks on police or military officials in the US, the UK, and France.
But Twitter’s not the only social media platform that has effectively clamped down hard on anything that’s ISIS-relate. YouTube has also cooperated with the British government and takes down graphic videos that show the murder of hostages by ISIS, while Facebook deleted videos showing the immolation of Jordanian pilot Muadh al-Kasasbeh.
In any case, a spokesman for Twitter, Jim Prosser, told BuzzFeed News, “Our security team is investigating the veracity of these threats with relevant law enforcement officials.”
Sources: BuzzFeed News, TechCrunch, Lowyat.Net.
