ISIS Declares War Against Twitter; Threatens Assassinations For Closing Campaign Accounts

An ISIS-affiliated group has threatened to assassinate Twitter employees that close down their accounts. Users linked to the extremists tweeted a series of messages on Sunday urging 'lone wolves' in the US and Europe to make the firm their target. A specific warning was directed at staff at the Silicon Valley headquarters, warning they would 'bring the war' to San Francisco.

The tweets from the now-suspended account, translated by Vocativ, read: '#TheConceptOfLoneWolfAttacks The time has arrived to respond to Twitter's management by directly attacking their employees and physically assassinating them!! Those who will carry this out are the sleepers cells of death.'

It continued: 'Twitter management should know that if they do not stop their campaign in the virtual world, we will bring the war to them in the real world on the ground.'

The user then directly threatened workers at the Silicon Valley headquarters: 'Every Twitter employee in San Francisco in the United States should bear in mind and watch over himself because on his doorstep there might be a lone wolf assassin waiting'.

And finally, they urged Europe to join the pledge: '#AttackingTwitterEmployees is on the agenda of mujahedeen and lone wolves who are across Europe'.

The social network has been a crucial platform for the jihadis to promote their warped interpretation of Sharia law. The freedom of speech premise that underlies Twitter makes regulation of extremist propaganda almost impossible.

Twitter has bureaus across the world. There are 12 in the US, including the headquarters, and five in Europe. A further two are in Latin America, three in Asia, one in Australia and two in Canada.

A Twitter spokesman said: 'Our security team is investigating the veracity of these threats with relevant law enforcement officials,'

Source: DailyMail UK