A vote on whether or not to execute a prisoner was held on Instagram by a group calling itself Iraqiswat. The group posted pictures of prisoners it said were ISIS members with their hands cuffed behind their backs, according to the Daily Express. The simple message was "Kill him or let him go?" Most Instagram users who interacted with the post voted to kill the prisoners, prompting the group to respond "As you wish my followers. We will kill him." More pictures were then uploaded showing the bodies. Researchers from the Henry Jackson Society think tank consider the account and the photographs to be genuine. They judged by the uniform of those claiming to be holding the prisoners that the group is one of the Shiite militias acting in support of the Iraqi military. "I have not seen them asking for a vote on people's fate before and there is no guarantee this guy they have is an IS member," Research Fellow Kyle Orton told the Daily Express. "The militias treat any military-age male who remained under IS rule as a collaborator." Iranian backed Iraqi Shiite militias have committed many atrocities against Sunnis in Iraq, documented by Amnesty International in its report ‘Absolute Impunity: Militia Rule in Iraq.' The pictures were removed by Instagram for violating its community standards.
