ISIL mouthpiece surrenders to Turkish, Kurdish trolls

ISTANBUL

An anonymous user acting as a spokesperson for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Twitter has succumbed in the face of Turkish and Kurdish trolls, announcing that he would close the account.

Islamic State Media, which uses @Dawla_NewsMedia as its Twitter handle, is one of the top social media accounts reporting about the most recent activities of ISIL in Syria and Iraq since April, albeit in broken English.

Boasting over 9,000 followers, including scores of journalists, the user tweeted on June 12 he would stop using @Dawla_NewsMedia and open a new account soon.

“I’m annoyed by some new PKK.YPG.& Turkish Jaheels,” @Dawla_NewsMedia tweeted, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey and the Syrian Kurdish militia organization the People’s Defense Units (YPG). “Jaheel” means “ignorant” in Arabic and is a historical reference to pre-Islamic pagans.



Islamic State Media’s frustration came after hundreds of Turks and Kurds flooded his timeline with tweets, most of them Turkish, asking questions or using obscenities after ISIL took 80 Turks hostage in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

“I will follow you & I will let you know that it is me so we can share the news & keep it nice & pure from the stinky racism & nationalism,” he tweeted, stressing “there is [sic] hundreds of comments and all contain cursing so I can’t reach to answer any questions of Muslims and the good followers.”

Earlier in the day, the same account had tweeted the message several times in two languages – including broken Turkish, which asked his followers not to curse, especially in Turkish.

“When trying to establish the Global Caliphate, getting trolled by Turkish twitter users is the LAST thing you need,” Istanbul-based journalist Alex Christie-Miller tweeted in response.