Latest in Material Support
This week's arrest of two Hezbollah/IJO agents might best be understood as one small part of a larger, complex policy framework that usually is glimpsed only through the lens of its diplomatic aspects.
A summary of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York's dismissal of two related complaints against Facebook for allowing "terrorist organizations ... to use its social media platform to further their aims."
Now that Donald Trump is president, talk of designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization is heating up. But there's a hitch: this would be illegal.
There are two big questions in these cases: Does CDA § 230 really mean that a social media company is categorically immune from liability for knowingly permitting terrorists to organize and plot on their platforms? And if not, what standard of causation does a plaintiff have to meet in order to hold a social media company liable for an attack by a terrorist group that does some of its organizing online?
The Congressional Research Service has issued a new report on "The Advocacy of Terrorism on the Internet: Freedom of Speech Issues and Material Support Statutes."
With great respect for my friend Bobby, his recent post, Trump's Call for More Aggressive Material Support Prosecutions, overlooks the fact that Donald Trump’s views may well be shared by Secretary Clinton.
Trump's speech on terrorism implied that DOJ is not currently as aggressive as it might and should be when it comes to material support prosecutions. What baloney.
Twitter won a first round yesterday on the question of whether CDA § 230 immunizes the company against civil lawsuits over its provision of service to terrorist groups. Here's the decision from Judge William Orrick of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California:
Last Friday, a federal district court in the Eastern District of Virginia sentenced Joseph Hassan Farrokh, a 29-year-old man from Woodbridge, Virginia, to 102 months in prison for attempting to provide material support to ISIL.
The last few months have seen a spree of lawsuits filed against social media companies for allegedly providing material support to terrorists groups, particularly ISIS, by effectively allowing those groups to use their systems.