After repeatedly blocking their accounts, members of the Islamic State reportedly became so furious with Twitter that they threatened its founder and staff for undertaking a "failed war" and said that "your virtual war on us will cause a real war on you."
The threat was initially shared by image-sharing site JustPaste.it but has since been removed. BuzzFeed News was able to translate the threats made by the radical militant group against Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and Twitter employees before the image was removed.
"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," a message written in Arabic and addressed to Dorsey said. "But when our lions come and take your breath, you will never come back to life."
The group called on "individual jihadi" all over the world to target the Twitter company and all of its employees at any given place and time.
Twitter's terms of service make it clear that they will block any account "for any unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities" as well as "direct, specific threats of violence against others." ISIS violated terms just last month by sharing a video that encouraged their followers to initiate attacks on police or military officials in the United States, United Kingdom, and France.
Twitter spokesperson Jim Prosser said that they are still checking whether the threats made were authentic or not. "Our security team is investigating the veracity of these threats with relevant law enforcement officials," he said.
Twitter is not the first social media site to block ISIS accounts. YouTube earlier closed down ISIS accounts and blocked their videos, as the militant group had been using the video-sharing website to promote their propaganda and terror campaign.