JK Rowling has revealed that police are involved following a death threat on Twitter after sending her support to Sir Salman Rushdie.
The Harry Potter author, 57, was reacting to the news of Sir Salman's stabbing whilst he was on stage when he was preparing to deliver a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution near Buffalo in New York state on Friday. The Indian-born British author was put on a ventilator in hospital after suffering serious injuries.
According to police, Rushdie was stabbed at least once in the neck and once in the abdomen before being taken to hospital. British-American writer Aatish Taseer wrote on Twitter on Saturday that Sir Salman was "off the ventilator and talking (and joking)" before swiftly deleting the social media post, only for it to be confirmed by the 75-year-old's agent Andrew Wylie.
READ MORE: Sir Salman Rushdie taken off ventilator and speaking following stabbing in US
Wylie also said that Rushdie could lose an eye due to the nerve damage caused by the stabbing, which was allegedly carried out by 24-year-old Hadi Matar. He has pleaded not to charges of attempted murder and assault. Upon hearing the news of the attack, Rowling took to Twitter on Friday to voice her sympathy to her fellow author, saying: "Horrifying news. Feeling very sick right now. Let him be ok."
She took to the social media platform once again on Saturday afternoon, this time tagging Twitter's support account. She had taken a screenshot of a reply to her initial post about Rushdie from a user, which read: "Don't worry you are next."
The screenshot also shared a previous post from the same person who hailed Matar for the attack on Rushdie. Incensed by the threat, Rowling wrote to Twitter: "Any chance of some support?”
The author, who also goes by the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith, thanked her 13.9 million followers in the thread. She commented: "To all sending supportive messages: thank you. Police are involved (were already involved on other threats)."
But her outrage did not stop there. She returned to the social media platform after getting a reply from Twitter which said the death threat had "no violations of the Twitter rules in the content you reported".
Tagging the Twitter support account again, Rowling said: "These are your guidelines, right? Violence: You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people. We also prohibit the glorification of violence... Terrorism/violent extremism: You may not threaten or promote terrorism..."
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