ISIS supporters have posted a message online threatening Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey as well as other employees at the social media company.
The message, written in Arabic and uploaded on Sunday to image- and text-sharing site JustPaste.it, expresses anger at the company’s blocking of accounts associated with ISIS.
Translated by BuzzFeed, the message, which included an image of Dorsey in crosshairs (below), said, “Your virtual war on us will cause a real war on you.”
It continued: “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.”
Twitter bans posts that include threats of violence against others, and also prohibits people using the service for “unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities,” according to its terms of service.
If it spots a violation of its policies, or is notified by other users of a transgression, the company moves swiftly to block the offending account.
It’s not the first time Twitter employees have faced death threats from ISIS or associated groups. Back in October, CEO Dick Costolo said in an interview that its practice of removing ISIS or ISIS-linked accounts had led to threats to his life, and those of his employees.
“After regularly suspending their accounts, which we’ve been doing, some folks affiliated with the organization used Twitter to declare that the employees of Twitter and the management of Twitter should be assassinated,” Costolo said at the time. “That’s a jarring thing for anyone to have to deal with. And I’ve spent a lot of time talking to the company about it.”
Twitter spokesperson Jim Prosser told BuzzFeed, “Our security team is investigating the veracity of these threats with relevant law enforcement officials.”
