Europol launches task force to hunt down Isis social media 'ringleaders'

Europol has created a new specialist unit tasked with combating Isis' social media propaganda campaign.

The team of officers at the European police agency will attempt to track down key figures responsible for the online campaign, which sees 100,000 pro-Isis tweets pumped out by 45,000 to 50,000 accounts daily.

The group's online propaganda is believed to have played a role in radicalising thousands of Europeans who have travelled to join the group in Syria and Iraq.

The new task force will begin work on July 1, with orders to take down Isis accounts within two hours of them being detected. Europol said that social media firms, which it did not name, were working with them to combat online Isis propaganda, and network analytics will be used to identify the most active accounts.

Wainwright said that targeting each of the thousands of pro-Isis accounts would not be possible, and in any case new ones can easily be set up as soon as one is banned. Instead, the group will aim to identify the ringleaders behind Isis social media operations.

The announcement comes after Talha Asmal, 17, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, became Britain's youngest ever suicide bomber, after Isis announced he blew himself up in an operation in Baiji, northern Iraq.