London: Around 1,000 websites and social media accounts linked to the Islamic State are being shut down every week in the UK as part of the government's efforts to counter the terrorist group's propaganda to entice new recruits from the West to war zones in Syria and Iraq.

Websites, Facebook and Twitter accounts are frequently used by ISIS to promote its propaganda and try and entice new young recruits from the West to war zones in Syria and Iraq.

According to the 'Star on Sunday', latest figures show 55,000 sites hosting extremist material were taken down in 2015.

The Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit a police squad run by Scotland Yard which fights online extremism has removed 140,000 items of propaganda in the past five years and the vast majority was linked to Islamic extremism.

UK security minister John Hayes told the paper: "We have seen an increase in the scale and pace of terrorist communications by groups like ISIS, encouraging vulnerable young people to travel to conflict zones like Syria and Iraq.

"This government takes seriously the threat from online terrorist and extremist propaganda."

Hayes also said Internet service providers and social media companies must do more to ban terrorist material.