ISIS Supporters Threaten "Charlie Hedbo style" Attack Against Twitter Employees

Microblogging platform Twitter, Inc. (TWTR) has gained a reputation for going to great lengths to preserve freedom of speech, at times leaving up accounts of hackers, trolls, and those sympathizing with violent terrorist movements. Now its cofounder and employees have found themselves the target of a death threat by supporters of the so-called"Islamic State" who were enraged at the American internet service firm's interference with their efforts to recruit new jihadis on social media.

I. Militant Microblogging

In 2014 Twitter struggled with the issue of the "Islamic State", better known as ISIS. The Sunni extremist militia, which controls territory in parts of Syria and Iraq, increasing took to posting execution photos and video on its news feeds to rally its supporters on Twitter. On the one hand ISIS's vocal presence on the site was damaging to Twitter's image. And ISIS supporters seemed in clear violation of the"Rules" subsection ofTwitter's Terms of Service (ToS), which ban:

According to ABC News, in the last week it has suspended 2,000+ user accounts who appeared to be active ISIS members or sympathizers with the movement. Also suspended were 13 out of 16 of the group's Twitter news feeds.

ISIS has leaned heavily on the social platform to connect with and radicalize both jihadis looking to travel to its territory the Middle East and those looking to carry out so-called "lone wolf" terrorist attacks overseas. The group has supporters in as many as 90 different countries who it communicates with via Twitter, according to intelligence experts.

II. ISIS Murder Threat Targets Twitter Founder and His Employees

Faced with losing a key recruitment tool some ISIS supporters decided to get more aggressive with Twitter. An Arabic language post to Pastebin like anonymous sharing site "JustPasteIt" carried a threatening tirade which lashed out at Twitter cofounder and chairman Jack Dorsey for the account crackdowns.

Alleged supporters of the terrorist group reportedly wrote:

Your virtual war on us will cause a real war on you. How will you protect your employees and supporters, helpless Jack, when their necks officially become a target for the soldiers of the Caliphate?

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ISIS Supporters Threaten "Charlie Hedbo style" Attack Against Twitter Employees