Is Twitter Aiding and Abetting Terrorism? 315
wiredmikey writes with word (and the following extract from a CNN report) that "Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of the Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center, sent a letter to Twitter on Thursday asserting that the company is violating U.S. law by allowing groups such as Hezbollah and al Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab to use its popular online network. ... In her letter, Darshan-Leitner noted that Hezbollah and al-Shabaab are officially designated as terrorist organizations under U.S. law. She also cited a 2010 Supreme Court case — Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project — which upheld a key provision of the Patriot Act prohibiting material support to groups designated as terrorist outfits."
Can't argue that Nitsana is wrong (Score:3, Insightful)
*Can* argue wether that law is overly broad and vague though.
you might as well ask (Score:5, Insightful)
Political logic (Score:4, Insightful)
Phone companies and Internet companies and all companies that enable communications including paper manufacturers and pen manufacturers aid and abet terrorism.
To defeat terrorism, we /must/ defeat all forms of communication at all costs.
Please turn in your legal pads to the dean's bonfire pit right after chapel.
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BMO
Whatever happened to the passport thing? (Score:2, Insightful)
Whatever happened on that Israeli passport fraud? I remember they clones European and US passports, they went to Dubai, killed someone, Interpol was given the evidence to catch them, Mossad head practically confirmed it with a smug 'ooo-yeh' style comment but whatever happened to that?
It seems that Interpol should have had more success catching them by now?
And whatever happened to the attack by Israel against civilian ships in International waters killing 8 unarmed people? We should have them in court by now surely? If they're courts abide by the laws, we should be able to arrest the army commanders involved?
And the time they bombed a UN School? Any arrests?
Or when they shot a little girl in the head several times for walking on the road next to a border post? Prosecutions?
I don't know what this Israeli Law Center is, but perhaps they can help get these crimes (war crimes, piracy, murder, even extensive Israeli terrorism) prosecuted?
Re:Whatever happened to the passport thing? (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't forget that Israeli Jews commonly spit on young girls who aren't dressed "modestly" and call them whores as they walk to school.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/12/american-girl-8-is-target-of-ultra-orthodox-jews-in-israel/1?csp=obinsite [usatoday.com]
I fail to see how Jews are any different from Muslims.
Re:Phones (Score:2, Insightful)
What, you mean like cell phones do?
Cell phones have been used in terrorist attacks. In certain parts of Afghanistan cell phone towers have been shut down with the concept in mind that it's disrupting terrorist communication, now the Taliban forces the cell phone towers to be shut down basically to remind everyone in Afghanistan they're still around.
Throw away phones are just that, one time use, throw away phones. There is no background check to buy one, you simply need cash. As much as there is no real easy way to determine what a throw away phone is being used for, there is no possible way to know what a twitter account is being used for, or for that matter a Facebook account or any other social network account. Hell for all i know, Myspace could be a pool of terrorists networking with glittery animated .gifs. No one else is using it.
It's a slippery slope with what seems to be censorship at the end. Shutting social networks down for the safety of the population doesn't seem to be too outside the realm of some of our government officials.
So how would I comply with this law? (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's suppose I have a web site that lets people post messages to a discussion. How would I go about discovering which of them are "terrorists" according to the US government's definition, so I can exclude them? None of the "terrorist" organizations seem to have posted their membership list online.
Unless I can determine who is a member of any organization, I'll have to consider such laws as "secret laws" designed to trick me into unknowingly committing a crime. And I'll have to consider the legislative body that passed such laws my clear enemy.
One obvious conjecture is that the intent of the law was to punish anyone who hosts a public forum on any topic. After all, it means that any organization can ask one member to join my forum, and then report me to the US government. I see no defense against this other than shutting down all public forums.
Re:Whatever happened to the passport thing? (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't forget that Israeli Jews commonly spit on young girls who aren't dressed "modestly" and call them whores as they walk to school.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/12/american-girl-8-is-target-of-ultra-orthodox-jews-in-israel/1?csp=obinsite [usatoday.com]
I fail to see how Jews are any different from Muslims.
Or the fundamentalist Christians, for that matter.
Re:you might as well (NOT common carriers)... (Score:5, Insightful)
No, actually ISPs are NOT common carriers (yet). They are defined as "information services". Apparently ISPs actually *want* not to be common carriers because it means they can grab more money from customers, shape, throttle and generally violate net neutrality in ways that a common carrier would not be allowed to do.
Apparently ISPs would rather take the risk and be exposed (liable) for what its customers do in exchange for the freedoms (and abuses) that come with NOT being common carriers. But all it might take is an actual terrorist event where an ISP *is* held accountable, for ISPs to retreat back to common carrier status. Of course, they probably figure that they have Congress in their pockets so that that would never happen (i.e. they want their cake and eat it too... they want the protections of common carrier status, its non-liable features, but without the constraints that would limit their revenue generating power)
Freedom is aiding terrorists (Score:5, Insightful)
It should be stamped out ASAP
Great... (Score:5, Insightful)
So, you offer instead to block them from using this service, and drive them underground, where they would be harder to 'monitor'?
At least this way you have an idea what their arguments are for their cause, and can easily offer a counter-argument (to their current or would-be followers). Offering a counter-argument for something you have no knowledge of, and whose members / followers are not readily identified / reached is a challenge to say the least.
You have two ways of heading off potential problems -> allow an open forum where anyone can say whatever they want (no wiretapping necessary) but you have to put up with people saying things you disagree with / hate / consider morally objectionable, or have a closed one, where you have to wiretap the populace to ensure that the opinions / groups you disagree with aren't starting something. An open forum to air grievances / differing opinions, of course, tends to make a government last longer, and costs a lot less than wiretapping everything while providing better results.
Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will scatter; strike the wrong shepherd, however, and a thousand shepherds will rise in his place. Suppression tends to work like that, like ablative armor. It works excellently at first, but through constant use begins to degrade and fail asymptotically. The US is over-quota for shepherds (they've reached their bag limit), so to speak, and are seeing the pendulum swing the other way. Yet, they insist on pushing even harder, apparently unaware of this trade-off effect.
Is Israel really America's daddy? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's routine for the Americans to insist on other countries to do things for them, but they're now tolerating a Israel telling them to do something for Israel's benefit?
Re:Isn't it known that Twitter supports terrorists (Score:4, Insightful)
Keep in mind that this was an Israeli think tank that started this. Israelis, the same folks that seem to think that terrorism isn't an acceptable response to their crimes against humanity, and aren't willing to accept any less radical responses either.
It's worth noting that they're dealing with the Second Intifada, as in not the first one. During which time they could have put this all the bed by behaving like adults and actually addressing the problems, and instead they opted to engage in some pretty sick acts.
Re:Can't argue that Nitsana is wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
You can't argue that the gun isn't to blame for the death of the person who got shot with it in much the same way.
A gun has no will, therefore can have no blame.
Re:Is the air aiding and abetting terrorism? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes Twitter is and can be used for protest and civil disobedience ^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C Terrorism.
Re:Can't argue that Nitsana is wrong (Score:2, Insightful)
They could say that 1 + 1 = 3 and that wouldn't make them right. Corporations aren't people.
That's a Mossad site (Score:0, Insightful)
You know that that website you listed is a Mossad counter-play? Antisemitism has served Israel very well over the years, it's lets them silence criticism as antisemitism. That site is there to be upheld as an example of anti-semitism that Israeli leaders can then use as a poster-child.
It purports to be Islamic while actually being antisemitic, thus establishing the idea that Islam is antisemitic.
You may think Israel is against antisemitism, nothing could be further from the truth! You fell into the trap by quoting that site.
Re:Isn't it known that Twitter supports terrorists (Score:5, Insightful)
To the Right(tm), the world is split into two parts: "good guys" and "bad guys". Every person, every nation and every non-state actor in the world can be placed in one of these two categories. All issues of morality, foreign policy and so on can be answered by identifying who, in the alleged moral dilemma, is the "good guy" and who is the "bad guy".
To the Left(tm), the world is split into two parts: "oppressors" and "oppressed". Every person, every nation and every non-state actor in the world can be placed in one of these two categories. All issues of morality, foreign policy and so on can be answered by identifying who, in the alleged moral dilemma, is the "oppressor" and who is the "oppressed".
Israel is "good guys" and "oppressor", and Palestine is "bad guys" and "oppressed".
Isreal is the one aiding and abetting terrorists (Score:2, Insightful)
Let me get this straight terrorists use a US based platform for communication and Isrealies have the audacity to fuck with what must be a CIA gold mine?
Number one recruiting tool for middle eastern terrorists is Isreal inability to settle their land disputes with the Palestiniens.
Re:I tell you this: (Score:5, Insightful)
You gotta love that kind of reasoning.
Pirates use infrastructure.
Illegal immigrants use infrastructure.
Yep, hawkish application of a scorched earth strategy also applies when it comes to your own GODDAM home. Let's outdo all of the above when it comes to damage done. It's like writing your name on the wall you built with other peoples poo.
Re:Sickening (Score:3, Insightful)
The antisemitism and antizionism (which, for the most part, is really just disguised antisemitism) here is sickening.
If it was any other country in the world (except N. Korea or China perhaps) who did this, the response would be to laugh at them and move on.
I hardly think you would be so harsh on Britain if they told twitter it was violating American laws for letting the IRA plan attacks on civilians.
But because it's Israel doing this, you need to vilify them for it.
Grow the fuck up.
Is that chip on your shoulder getting a little hard to carry yet?
This is Slashdot, a land of Libertarian-to-the-excess. Any organization and/or country which orders a limit on "free speech" or the perception thereof, including white middle class non-denominational American anti-poverty groups or something ridiculously bland and non-offensive like that, would receive the same treatment.
Re:Can't argue that Nitsana is wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Whatever happened to the passport thing? (Score:5, Insightful)
Or the fundamentalist Christians, for that matter.
Religion supports terrorism, it needs to be banned.
Re:Is the air aiding and abetting terrorism? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes Twitter is and can be used for protest and civil disobedience ^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C^C Terrorism.
Civil disobedience is getting arrested for refusing to leave the Mayor's office.
Terrorism is killing the mayor and city council.
Civil disobedience is trespassing on corporate property.
Terrorism is blowing up the house of the CEO, killing her and her family.
Civil disobedience is guerilla theater that gets you arrested for blocking traffic.
Terrorism is flying a plane into the World Trade Center, or a truck bomb at the mall.
Anyone more gifted than the mentally impaired shouldn't be confused about the difference between civil disobedience and terrorism. If what you are doing is resulting in large numbers of other people dying, it isn't likely to be civil disobedience.