ISIS has scores of militants, machine guns and now ... a clothing line?
The Islamist militant group has been selling t-shirts, hoodies and even action figures bearing the black and white ISIS flag through Facebook. Now Facebook is trying to block it. (Via Facebook/ Rezji Militant)
According to CNN, most of the pages selling the memorabilia are based in Indonesia, where ISIS has a lot of support.
For its part, Facebook says, "Where hateful content is posted and reported, Facebook removes it and disables accounts of those responsible. Whenever we become aware of possible violations of our terms, we will investigate these instances and take action if violations of our Statements of Rights and Responsibilities take place.” (Via Facebook)
But it seems like an uphill battle for the social media giant.
"They're using Facebook and Twitter and as soon as they pop up, these social networks try to take them down, but it's like whack-a-mole. It just goes to show what type of good marketers they are they're really using social media to their advantage." (Via CNN)
ISIS's use of social media led the Iraqi government to block Facebook and Twitter across the country, and it shut down all internet access in certain regions. (Via Channel 4)
Still, where there's a will there's a way and Bloomberg reports some resourceful Iraqis have found one. They're turning to a smartphone app called FireChat, that lets users in the same area chat without an Internet connection.
On the ground, ISIS militants continue to take cities along the border with Syria as they move east, towards Baghdad.
