Free Speech and Terrorism - Is There A Line?
Sen. Joe Lieberman waded into tough political, social and moral waters today by sending a letter to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, demanding that YouTube take down all videos that he claimed al Qaeda was using to encourage violence and spread propaganda. On the surface – and, actually many layers beyond that – it’s a very reasonable request. Terrorist groups have turned to the Web as their main recruiting and propaganda arm, and there are, no doubt, propaganda films of some sort on YouTube.
This gets tough, however, in two ways: First, determining what exactly is propaganda; and second, figuring out just how much power Google – a non-governmental body – should have over constitutionally guaranteed speech. Free speech battles are never pretty – two landmark modern cases were decided around Hustler Magazine and the raunchy Miami rap group 2 Live Crew – but this one could be the first volley in what is certain to be a long series of battles over free speech on the Internet.
The main problem in this case is determining what is true content from terrorists and what is some idiot spouting off about nothing. I could record a scathing 10-minute indictment of America that supported terrorist groups – but not violence – and post it on YouTube. Now, I can’t recruit terrorists or incite hatred of this country, nor would I ever want to, and since my message didn’t call for violence, it wouldn’t break Google’s usage rules. But, is it terrorist propaganda?
That would be up to Google to decide, and that’s a pretty dangerous thing. Ultimately, YouTube is a private service and can decide what content it makes available. The rub here is how far the government can push it to regulate that content.
In the interest of maintaining a free, open society, free speech is perhaps the most important right granted in the Constitution, and, as I said before, it’s never easy. Properly defending free speech has united the ACLU and the Ku Klux Klan, and it will make more strange bedfellows in the future.
Lieberman is no doubt sincere in his request today, and Google, no doubt, wants nothing to do with propagating terrorism, but none of that can get in the way of everyone involved carefully mediating the interests of free speech – especially on a medium as important as the Internet – into whatever decision is made. The future of our country truly does hang in the balance.
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