{"id":1602,"date":"2015-12-26T12:00:11","date_gmt":"2015-12-26T12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/?p=1602"},"modified":"2015-12-26T12:00:11","modified_gmt":"2015-12-26T12:00:11","slug":"closing-access-free-speech-not-joking-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/?p=1602","title":{"rendered":"Closing down access to \u2018free speech\u2019 is not a joking matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

If this were a joke, it would have to start out: \u201cSo, three censors and a Senate committee walk into a bar…\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Except that it\u2019s no joking matter when those calling for private or public censoring of the Internet include the two leading candidates for leader of the Free World, the head of the largest search engine and information company on the planet, and several members of a U.S. Senate committee.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The free flow of information and communication of ideas \u2013 even repugnant ones \u2013 is a hallmark of American democracy. Even \u201chate speech\u201d has constitutional protection when it offends, insults or attacks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The U.S. Supreme Court has a long string of decisions defending speech and speakers that many Americans would like to shut off or shut down. But within a just a few days of each other:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, said in an Op-ed piece for The New York Times that his company and others should create algorithmic \u201ctools to help de-escalate tensions on social media \u2013 sort of like spell-checkers, but for hate and harassment.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton called on Web companies to \u201cdisrupt\u201d terror groups\u2019 ability to use social media for recruitment and communication, to \u201cdeprive jihadists of virtual territory.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 GOP poll leader Donald Trump said at a South Carolina rally that \u201cin certain areas\u201d we should just shut down the Internet.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clinton and Trump took clear aim at the First Amendment. Trump said, \u201cSomebody will say, \u2018Oh freedom of speech, freedom of speech.\u2019 These are foolish people.\u201d And Clinton said, \u201cYou\u2019ll hear all the usual complaints \u2013 freedom of speech. But if we truly are in a war against terrorism and we are truly looking for ways to shut off their funding and shut off the flow of foreign fighters, we have to shut off their means of communicating.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

But as FBI Director James B. Comey said in a program Dec. 9 at the Newseum, the old model of a website \u201cwatering hole\u201d where terror operations and communications were centralized is gone \u2013 replaced by a world-wide, diverse set of points of contact and communication that defy simple counter-terrorist moves.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Schmidt may be on better legal ground with his robotic-powered battle plan, since the First Amendment protects only against government censorship, not the decisions of private companies. Already, in response to Islamic State posts involving savage violence and the beheadings in 2014 of American journalists and others, social media outlets such as Facebook, Google and Twitter have moved to quickly take down such posts as quickly as they are spotted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But should the Google chief\u2019s plan gain any traction, it surely will revive talk of bringing such massively powerful private information companies under the First Amendment \u2013 and thus, their content decisions \u2013 as quasi-governmental entities, much as we view electric, water and other public utilities.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Other Web battlegrounds include the provision of government \u201cback-doors\u201d to encryption of Web messages, and an active proposal in the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee that would require private Internet firms to report suspicious terror activity to government authorities.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Such easy-to-the-eyes tools have major flaws. Critics of giving government the keys to decipher communication say it also will pave the way for skilled terrorists to undermine Web security, and will allow repressive regimes to track down dissidents and thwart press attempts to uncover corruption and human rights violations. Opponents of the Senate legislation requiring private companies to monitor and report is more likely to have two negative effects: Some companies to turn away from current levels of surveillance to avoid liability, or to flood police with all manner of \u201csuspicious\u201d emails so as not to be blamed for missing a critical note.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Left unsaid is what many deem the most-effective counter to terrorist propaganda and to attempts to recruit new advocates: The First Amendment\u2019s guiding principle that the best counter to speech you don\u2019t like is more, not less, speech.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brave people like the Syrian online freedom fighters \u201cRaqqa is being Slaughtered Silently\u201d effectively use news and information gathered at the risk of death from inside their nation to show there\u2019s no \u201cparadise on Earth\u201d in Islamic State-held territory, and to discredit the notion that there\u2019s salvation in harming others.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing \u201cfoolish\u201d in that.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

source : thestarpress.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If this were a joke, it would have to start out: “So, three censors and a Senate committee walk into a bar…” Except that it’s no joking matter when those<\/p>\n

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