DHAKA: A Europe-wide police team is being formed to track and block social media accounts linked to Islamic State (IS).

A recent US study found there were at least 46,000 accounts on Twitter linked to the militant group, many of which help to recruit new IS members, reports the BBC.

The European police agency Europol will now work with unnamed social media companies to track the accounts.

They aim to get new accounts closed down within two hours of them being set up.

Europol believes up to 5,000 EU citizens, including people from the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, have traveled to territories controlled by IS.

Rob Wainwright, Europol’s director, told that the remit of the new team, which starts its work on July 1, would be to “identify the ringleaders online”.

But, he said, tracking all IS-linked social media accounts was too big a task.

Analysts at the Brookings Institution in Washington say the number of IS-linked Twitter accounts could even be as high as 90,000.

BDST: 1059 HRS, JUNE 22, 2015
BD/