Experts warn US still behind IS in social media fight

New warnings issued by U.S. lawmakers and officials over tactics employed by the Islamic State (IS) on the internet have put renewed focus on the terror outfit's activities.

FBI Director James Comey warned on Thursday that the group was increasingly relying on social media to spread its "poison message," reported The Independent.

This, cybersecurity experts said, showed that the IS remained unchallenged online.

Jeff Bardin, chief intelligence officer at the cyber intelligence firm Treadstone 71, said that the group was leveraging everything that was available on the internet today such as, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, to get their messages out.

A recent report from the Brookings Institution said that at least 46,000 Twitter accounts were being used by IS supporters, although not all of them were active at the same time from September to December 2014.

The State Department has made a new push to monitor the group's activities online. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Richard Stengel said that they were trying to "counteract" them. He admitted that they were a little surprised about how adaptive and sophisticated the terror network was in online media.