Iraq: Islamic State, clearly frustrated by Twitter constantly pulling down its accounts, has issued a death threat to Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey and other employees of the social media site. The threat, which was first reported by Buzzfeed, is accompanied by an image of Dorsey, altered to show his face in the crosshairs of a gun. It was posted on the site Pastebin, an anonymous online site often frequented by coders.
The threat reportedly reads, “Your virtual war on us will cause a real war on you”, an apparent reference to the fact that Twitter keeps taking down accounts belonging or sympathetic, to the terrorist organisation. According to the Buzzfeed report, the post, which is written in Arabic, says:
“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.
The Twitter terms of service expressly forbids users to “direct, specific threats of violence against others.” It has been exceptionally active against Islamic State, which is highly dependent on social media to disseminate its propaganda, including slick productions of execution videos of foreign journalists, fighters and aid workers. Islamic State uses YouTube to upload the videos and Twitter to disseminate them widely. Social media is also used as a recruitment tool by the organization.
As pointed out in this Guardian column, Islamic State “is the first terrorist group whose members have grown up using computers, and the group has demonstrated a high level of sophistication both in the way it produces its propaganda videos and in how it expertly exploits social media networks to ensure they attract a large following.
Another report in the Guardian revealed that “one account run by Rayat al-Tawheed, who speaks on behalf of mainly UK-origin pro-Isis fighters, had a replacement account taken down by Twitter within just a few minutes of its relaunch” in September, after sending just three non-offensive tweets.”
However Diaspora is not Twitter, and does not enjoy the same level of popularity, and so cannot offer the group the same kind of audience which probably explains the death threats. Sunday’s online message (which was also shared on Twitter) called on ISIS sympathizers to attack the social media company and its “interests”, the Buzzfeed report said. Responding to the threat, a Twitter spokesman said, “Our security team is investigating the veracity of these threats with relevant law enforcement officials”.
Bureau Report
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