Are hacktivists helping in the Cyber Fight against ISIS?


Hacktivist group Anonymous has reportedly begun leaking personal information of those suspected of working with ISIS in response to Friday's attacks in Paris. (Video via YouTube / Daark Vador)

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Anonymous says this is "the most important operation ever carried out" against the terror group.

One Twitter user tweeted they had taken down 5,500 Twitter accounts of suspected terrorists.

Anonymous already has one user who regularly tweets handles of accounts supposedly linked to ISIS.

Foreign Policy reports hacktivists claimed to take down "149 Islamic State-linked websites and flagged roughly 101,000 Twitter accounts and 5,900 propaganda videos" just this year. But how effective is that?

ISIS has spread its propaganda through the Internet and social media accounts.

Charlie Winter, a researcher at counterextremism organization Quilliam Foundation, told The Independent in February taking those accounts down helps in stopping the spread of propaganda. (Video via Legatum Institute)

But new accounts can pop up in the place of old ones. (Video via Twitter)

And a cybersecurity expert told The Christian Science Monitor hacktivism efforts work best when coupled with government officials or law enforcement who can "go out and make arrests."

No government officials have said publicly they're working with hacktivists to fight ISIS after the most recent attack in Paris.

To see our video on "How ISIS' Twitter Army Could Be Used Against It," click here.

The video includes an image from Getty Images. 

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