Islamic State ‘issues death threats’ against Twitter co-founder and employees

Twitter Inc. and law enforcement authorities are investigating alleged threats made by Islamic State militants against the social media network’s co-founder Jack Dorsey and other employees, the company said. Islamic State supporters, in online posts on Sunday, called for attacks against Twitter and its “interests,” including death threats. The declaration was originally posted on justpaste.it and then translated by BuzzFeed. The threat takes issue with Twitter’s attempts to thwart IS’s dissemination of propaganda on the social network. Twitter frequently shuts down any official IS accounts as they pop up.

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.

Post to justpaste.it apparently on behalf of Islamic State

Twitter is one of IS’s main avenues to quickly spread content; it has posted beheading videos on the service and has attempted to recruit new members there, too. In some cases, actual fighters tweet from the front lines of battle in Syria. A recent study showed that as many 46,000 Twitter accounts were used by IS sympathizers during a three-month period last fall. Though Twitter’s official terms of use policy bans “direct, specific threats of violence against others,” the company does not proactively monitor its networks for terrorist activity.