Britain Leading Social Media Fight Against ISIS

Britain is leading the propaganda war against the Islamic State group on social media, the International Development Secretary has said.

During an update to MPs on the military campaign, Priti Patel said: 

"Daesh's propaganda output has fallen by around 75% over the last year and on social media Daesh posts now outnumber the pro-Daesh propaganda six to one. The UK is leading coalition efforts to this."

Islamic State, also known as Daesh, has often used social media as a recruiting tool.

Particularly proficient on Twitter, the group has used hashtags like "#Baghdad_is_liberated" and "#Iraq_is_ liberated" to give details of its operations to its followers.

They also encourage Muslims to post photos and videos on social media to show support.

Ms Patel said the situation in Iraq and Syria would be known as the major humanitarian crises of the age:

"Much progress has been made against Daesh and since 2014 they have lost 62% of territory they once held in Iraq, and 30% in Syria."

"But there remains much more still to be done. Even once Daesh is militarily defeated, we must continue to be wary of its resurgence," she continued.

With 13.5 million people in need of humanitarian support in Syria, Ms Patel said the campaign is the UK's largest response to a humanitarian crisis.

She added that retaking Mosul would be a "bloody blow" to Islamic State, and that it was "impossible" for President Assad to remain in power in Syria giving the atrocities he committed:

"In Iraq this means supporting the government of Iraq to restore order and be accountable to all of its people to meet their needs, and in Syria it means continuing our efforts to deliver a political settlement that enables a transition away from Assad towards a government that serves all the Syrian people."

Later this month, the UN will launch the 2017 humanitarian response plan for Iraq, which estimates that the humanitarian funding requirement for 2017 will be $930.