Activist hacking group Anonymous claims to have removed more than 5500 Twitter accounts linked to IS militants.
Following last week's attacks in Paris that left 129 people dead, Anonymous released videos in both French and English warning IS to prepare for its "biggest operation ever".
A collective of hackers known as Operation Paris said it would gather details from Twitter accounts, verify them through a "trusted individual" and would turn the information over to the authorities.
Operation Paris later tweeted that it had taken down more 3800 pro-IS accounts, which quickly climbed to more than 5500.
Technology analyst Trevor Long told SBS social media plays a critical role in how IS communicates with its current members, as well as recruiting new ones.
"They're probably getting into the accounts and learning more about the people running those accounts," he said. "So they'd use that to do other things like shut down other forms of messaging. They could even be shutting down their video messaging system.
"When you lose an account you create a new one, but... you have to tell people about that new account. What Anonymous will be able to do is intercept the communication around that, and that's where you start to make major in-roads in a cyber war like this."
Anonymous also created three guides to encourage the general public to uncover IS accounts. One gives basic information for novice hackers, along with two more describing more detailed hacks.
IS initially responded to the threat by calling Anonymous "idiots", and offered guidance to its followers to avoid cyberattacks.
Operation Paris has since announced that it plans to spam verified IS hashtags with "rickrolls" - hoax videos that fool people into watching the video clip of British singer Rick Astley's 1987 hit "Never Gonna Give You Up".
According to Trevor Long, Anonymous is not a group that should be underestimated.
"The reach of Anonymous is such that they can embarrass IS, and I think that's what Anonymous is seeking to do," he said.
"I think governments around the world will be looking at Anonymous and probably going "hands off on that, let them do their thing" because it will have an impact. It may be small to start with, but over time they'll have a reasonable impact because they're the only ones with the pure skills to fight a cyber war like this."
Previous Anonymous campaigns have targeted everyone from the Church of Scientology to the Australian arm of the Ku Klux Klan.
