Islamic State fanatics threaten to kill Twitter staff

ISLAMIC State supporters have threatened to kill employees of Twitter if they don’t stop closing down their accounts.

FILE - This undated file image posted on Aug. 27, 2014, by the Raqqa Media Center of the Islamic State group, a Syrian opposition group, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows a fighter of the Islamic State group waving their flag from inside a captured government fighter jet following the battle for the Tabqa air base, in Raqqa. Secretary of State John Kerry is to travel to the Middle East this week, with stops in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, to try to line up support for a coalition to take on the extremist Islamic State group. His trip follows Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s visit on Monday to Turkey to make the same case to Ankara, a regional heavyweight. Kerry will hold talks with officials from Jordan, Turkey and Egypt, as well as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf nations. (AP Photo/Raqqa Media Center of the Islamic State group, File)

ISLAMIC State supporters have threatened to kill staff working for Twitter if they keep on closing down its accounts.

Twitter has been used by the extremist group to post gruesome pictures, videos of executions and threats.

But in recent weeks the social media site has begun a concerted effort to shut down accounts that spread propaganda for the group.

In response IS fanatics have threatened to target employees of the San Francisco-based company.

Twisted message ... A masked child re-enacted the murder of James Foley with the picture posted to Twitter. Picture: Twitter

“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,” @DAWLAMOON wrote, Economic Policy Journal translated.

Another message translated by Vocativ read: “#The_Concept_of_Lone_Wolf_Attacks Twitter management should know that if they do not stop their campaign in the virtual world, we will the bring the war to them in the real world on the ground.”

In recent months Twitter has been used extensively by IS, particularly by jihadists travelling from the West to fight for the group in Syria and Iraq.

Posting propaganda ... Britain Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, 24, who is suspected of being the masked assassin who beheaded American journalist James Foley. Picture: Twitter

Britain Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, 24, who is suspected of being the masked assassin who beheaded American journalist James Foley, posted a picture of himself holding a severed head with the caption: “Chillin’ with my homie or what’s left of him.”

According to the Independent, IS supporters have tried to get round the Twitter censorship by slightly changing usernames and opening new accounts.