Khilafah.is, an unofficial IS website, which was used to publish "an alternative narrative of the events happening in IQ & SY"1 has been shut down.
The hosting, reportedly paid for with bitcoin and which was provided by yourserver.se, was today terminated and the domain name, an Icelandic tld, was cancelled by the .is domain regulator ISNIC. YourServer.se commented that:
"with respect to our terms and conditions our strict policy is that using services of yourserver.se for any illegal activities is strictly prohibited and we guarantee you that our team is putting all reasonable efforts in order to ensure this"
Khilafah.is reportedly hosted IS documents, audio and video, including a video of John Cantlie, an IS hostage. This is the second time John Catlie has been kidnapped, having previously been abducted by the Free Syrian Army but rescued.
This is not the first time that IS and IS supporters have been linked to using bitcoin to fund their operations. In July, 2014, a paper titled Bitcoin and the Charity of Violent Physical Struggle outlined how supporters might use Bitcoin to send money to "mujahid or suspected mujahid without the kafir governments ruling today immediately being aware."
A twitter account, @QA_AF, is now seeking bitcoin to assist in paying server costs although the donation address2 is yet to receive any bitcoin donations.
Source – http://www.rferl.org/content/extremists-bitcoin-isis-media-funding/26635157.html
Iraq and Syria. ↩