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Europol pledges to take down ISIL's social media accounts within two hours

Europol has announced that it's setting up a taskforce just to deal with Islamic State's social media accounts. In an interview with The Guardian, director Rob Wainwright pledged that officers would be trying to take down each account within two hours of being discovered. ISIL is believed to control upwards of 50,000 Twitter accounts, and uses that site, as well as Facebook and YouTube, to recruit new followers. In addition, the group uses social media to spread propaganda and issue death threats -- such as the one against Twitter's leadership, including co-founder Jack Dorsey.

The conflict between the various powers and ISIL is the first where social media has played such a prominent role. The USAF has previously revealed that a selfie, taken outside an ISIL base and posted online, had sufficient location information that intelligence specialists could locate the building and destroy it. Europol's new unit will also be charged with tracking down the "ring leaders" behind the campaign, which is believed to have coaxed up to 5,000 Europeans to join the cause.