Twitter, Whose Side Are You On? Anonymous Accounts Suspended for #OpISIS

The loose collective of hacktivists, Anonymous, has said that several of its Twitter accounts involved in the online operation against Daesh have been taken down along with 125,000 accounts linked to the Islamist group amid a major push to prevent terrorists from using social networks to spread their message and recruit new fighters.

"In the last few months we've had literally dozens of accounts suspended," a member of Anonymous told RT. "My account went down without notification. I never received an e-mail or anything from Twitter. And about two hours later it came back."

Those users, who received notifications from the microblogging service, reported that their accounts were suspended due to violations of the rules.

"We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service," Public Policy and Communications manager Ian Plunkett said in an official response.

?This is hardly what hacktivists wanted to hear.

?Twitter user WauchulaGhost credited Anonymous members, groups affiliated with the collective and other users – and not Twitter's team – with suspending 125,000 accounts, which spread Daesh-related propaganda.

"You do realize if we all stopped reporting terrorist accounts and graphic images, Twitter would be FLOODED with terrorists," WauchulaGhost observed in a message to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The user also urged the social network to stop suspending accounts that take part in #OpISIS, an initiative aimed at identifying and removing accounts affiliated with Daesh.

?The hacktivist, who spoke to RT, confirmed that the #OpISIS efforts have paid off.

"Literally thousands of accounts are going down. It used to be that the accounts were coming right back. I can see now that in the end more accounts aren't coming back, and we are actually slowing them down. The size of the accounts has shrunken, and I think they are losing grip on what they are doing," he said.

Daesh has succeeded in using social media platforms, including Twitter, for its purposes, spreading slick images, professionally edited videos and catchy slogans to expand their support base. In response, Anonymous launched #OpISIS.