14 DAY TRIAL // Continuing their effort to reveal social media accounts of militants and supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) rebel group, Anonymous hacktivists have compiled a list of more than 26,000 Twitter handles of people believed to be connected to the extremist group.
Earlier this month, a member of the CtrlSec outfit activating under the online alias XRSone made public a list with 9,200 Twitter accounts of ISIS supporters, with the end goal of limiting ISIS’ means of spreading propaganda and recruiting new members.
Almost half of the accounts are suspended
The latest collection of profiles is available on XRSone’s website, with information on the Twitter ID, screen name, number of followers, the date when the account was created, and current status (active or suspended).
The hacktivist says that the list contains only 10,408 active accounts, as the rest of them have already been suspended. The reason for including all of them in one place is for a better perspective on how large the problem is.
“Looking through these accounts you will see complete disregard for human life. There are no civil liberties or freedom, there is no justice. ISIS is waging a digital war, this war is not fought with bullets or won with air strikes. This war uses the corruption of ideals for ammunition,” he says in a blog post.
ISIS members rely on multiple accounts for communication
XRSone said that these accounts should be deactivated and that he would not stop making them available to the public until they are expunged from the social media platform.
The trouble with ISIS members is that they constantly set up several Twitter profiles, all interconnected through followers, as a fallback measure in case one of them is suspended.
Thus, when one profile is taken down, a new one takes its place, ensuring continued communication. This would make finding the new profiles a permanent mission and would mean a constant cleaning activity for Twitter.