Tumblr might be the land of Benedict Cumberbatch gifs and Tom Hiddleston fan fiction, but the social network houses another type of fan it most likely doesn't even want—ISIS supporters.
A 25-year-old from Akron, Ohio was arrested on Thursday after blogging a GIF that featured the names and photos of several members of the military, VICEreports. Terrence J. McNeil reblogged the movable image on September 24, which included information released by the Islamic State Hacking Division. The group was run by Junaid Hussain, a British hacker killed by a US drone strike back in August of this year, who claimed to have hacked the Pentagon server and released the personal information of 100 members of the U.S. military earlier this year.
Along with the GIF, McNeil showed his support for ISIS through a series of Twitter handles including “Lone_Wolfe13.” It is on the social network that officials claim he explicitly voiced his alignment with tweets like “just thinking about getting martyred puts a smile on my face.”
Despite simply sharing the GIF, Special Agent in Charge Stephen Anthony of the FBI’s Cleveland Division maintains that this is not a matter of free speech. “While we aggressively defend First Amendment rights, the individual arrested went far beyond free speech by reposting names and addresses of 100 US service members, all with the intent to have them killed,” he said in a statement.
He added: “There's sometimes a very fine line between speech and conduct. The express call for killings plus specific information about potential victims could justify law enforcement's decision to treat this as a ‘true threat’ and thus a crime."
He should have just stuck with the Sherlock GIFS.
