ISIS gives Twitter the jitters with death ‘fatwah’

The so-called Islamic State militants, 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 Pastebin, an anonymous online site often frequented by coders.

The threat 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 to or sympathetic, to the terrorist organisation.

Written in Arabic, the post 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 come and take your breath, you will never come back to life.

The Twitter terms of service expressly forbid users to post "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, its opponents 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 organisation – as India found out when a major pro-ISIS blogger was arrested in Bangalore recently (See: Bengaluru man behind pro-Islamic State tweets arrested).

As the UK's The Guardian points out, 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 newspaper 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 re-launch in September, after sending just three non-offensive tweets."

It also quoted Twitter's Sinéad McSweeney, who told a Lords' committee hearing that it had ''in excess of 100 people'' working 24/7 to examine reports to Twitter across a range of issues.

The BBC reported that since then the group had started trying to use other social media platforms, such as Diaspora, to spread its message instead.

However Diaspora does not enjoy the same level of popularity as Twitter, and so cannot offer the group the same kind of audience.

Sunday's online message (which was also shared on Twitter) called on ISIS sympathisers to attack the social media company and its ''interests".

Responding to the threat, a Twitter spokesman said, ''Our security team is investigating the veracity of these threats with relevant law enforcement officials.''

''Your virtual war on us will cause a real war on you,'' the Islamic State post says, calling for beheadings in response to Twitter's ''campaign to delete accounts''.

The bloodthirsty post said Twitter employees' necks would ''become a target for the soldiers of the Caliphate''.

It told Dorsey to picture his staff being attacked by a jihadist on the way home from a pub - and decapitated.

''Imagine the scene and wait for its occurrence at any moment, and the earliest opportunity!'' it continued.

''For the 'individual jihadi' all over the world, target the Twitter company and its interests in any place, people, and buildings, and don't allow any one of the atheists to survive."

ISIS militants jihadists in Syria and Iraq use Twitter to post propaganda bragging about their military gains and lifestyle under the ''Caliphate'', as well as inciting other extremists to join them.