Anonymous Hackers: "Operation ISIS" Successful in Destroying Hundreds of Islamic State Twitter And Facebook Accounts

Anonymous is a new "online hacking collective", which also calls itself the 'hacktivists.' On Tuesday, it credited its group with closing hundreds of social media accounts which it claimed belonged to Islamic State members.

This was the "Operation ISIS" or #OpISIS campaign. It was an online declaration of cyberwar that was triggered by last month's attack on the French satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo.

It was a blow to ISIS' online propaganda strategy. The militants have abused social media websites, and though they were not too technically sound, they used the social media in order to take on people, make threats and post killings.

It was as recent as Tuesday that the group, calling itself the 'CyberCaliphate' hacked into Newsweek's Twitter account and began to spread the bad news, according to foxnews.com.

According to theHackerNews.com, Anonymous released more than 100 social media accounts that were Islamic militant sites. Anonymous posted the accounts on a Pastebin link, DazedDigital.com reported.

"We will hunt you, take down your sites, accounts, emails and expose you," the group said on YouTube. "From now on, there [will be] no safe place for you online-you will be treated like a virus, and we are the cure. We own the internet."

To be sure, any perceived vulnerability, especially with the threat of exposing identities, would be a major problem for militants to connect with potential recruits. Anonymous, which has staged cyberattacks on governments and businesses, finds itself in the unusual position of positive media coverage. News of the hack was featured on the front page of The Sun, with the headline, "The Digilantes."

The heavy hacking led an ISIS sympathizer to kill members of Anonymous if the group proceeded, according to The Independent.

Who exactly the hackers are is not clear, yet hackers say that they discovered and destroyed nearly 800 Twitter accounts, 12 Facebook pages and over 50 email addresses that have links with the terrorist groups. About 1,500 accounts hackers that belong to the terror groups have been hacked by now.

"We will hunt you, take down your sites, accounts, emails and expose you," the group said on YouTube. "From now on, there [will be] no safe place for you online-you will be treated like a virus, and we are the cure. We own the internet."

Anonymous is a plural, multi-ethnic group that comprises Muslims, Christians and Jews.

"We are students, administrators, workers, clerks, unemployed, rich, poor. We are young, or old, gay or straight. We wear smart clothes or Uggs. We come from all races, countries, religions, and ethnicity. United as one, divided by zero. We are Anonymous."