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In Internet’s Way : Terrorism, Hate, Child-Pornography and Crime-Facilitating Speech on the Free Highway. Raphael Cohen-Almagor. My contribution. My contribution. content. manner ן. Speaker’s intentions. circumstances. practical test. speech. Relevant Theories. Social Responsibility
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In Internet’s Way:Terrorism, Hate, Child-Pornography and Crime-Facilitating Speech on the Free Highway Raphael Cohen-Almagor
content mannerן Speaker’s intentions circumstances practical test speech
Relevant Theories • Social Responsibility • Moral panic • The "democratic Catch" • Incitement • True threats • Intimidation
The Internet • The Internet contains the best products of humanity
Worse of Humanity Unfortunately, the Internet also contains the worse products of humanity: • Pedophilia • Terror • Racism, Hate speech and Holocaust denial • Crime-facilitating speech
Relevant Factors • History • Culture • Law
Child Pornography • Pornographers are always among the first to recognize and exploit the potential of each new wave of communication technology, from the printing press and early photography to film and video, and now the Internet • Most states prohibit by their criminal law the production, promotion, sale, exhibition, or distribution of photographs or videos of children engaged in any sexual activity
Child Pornography • The internet features of accessibility, privacy and low cost serve to encourage some offences. • Child pornography is often used by offenders to groom children by “normalizing” sexual activity with children and breaking down inhibitions, or to blackmail a child into desired behaviour by threatening to expose their use of pornography. • The saturation of the internet with such material may serve to “normalize” this behaviour and probably makes it easier to objectify children as sexual artifacts. • Pornography is also thought to reinforce a person’s sexual attraction to children
Child Pornography • Social-networking sites have been shown to attract sexual predators looking to take advantage of naïve young people. • Launched in 2004, MySpace has swiftly become one of the biggest hits in the history of the Internet. • Crimes as serious as murder and rape have been linked to teens using the site.
Identity • Child pornographers conceal their true identity by means of proxies, “false flag” addresses, the use of which means that the host site will not be able to identify a visitor’s true IP. • They will never use their own credit card to pay for photos or videos. • Some users succeed in hacking into a pay server, stealing another person’s credit card, but this route is only for the truly ingenious
How Child Pornographers Work? • A person has a collection of several thousand child porn images • He likes to share them • First, he obtains a proxy that conceals his name and location and acquires a new e-mail account under a false name from an anonymous provider, likely in a third world nation: both are easy to do. • With these bogus credentials, he opens an account that permits him to set up a home page on an innocent and aboveboard public server such as angelfire.com,
How Child Pornographers Work? • Unknown to the provider, the person loads how many photos he wants • The site is of no use to anyone as yet, in that nobody is likely to stumble across it by accident • Our generous child-pornographer announces the posting of the series on the Maestro board or one of its counterparts, where the message is read and acknowledged gratefully by other “loli fans” • Duly alerted, consumers then flock to the site advertised, which may be based in any of twenty countries, and the download the pictures. The images will exist at that site only for a few hours before they are removed and the site ceases to exist
How Child Pornographers Work? • The best way to discover child-pornographers activity is by discerning a site that suddenly attracts thousands of hits within a few hours • Sometimes money changes hands and videos are sold, but many sites that demand payment for access are bogus, and anyone gullible enough to pay will, if he is lucky, just lose the price of admission; if he is less fortunate, he will have earned a visit from the police.
Collections • The vast majority of people who post or distribute pictures do so out of non-economic motives • The sense for completion or perfection is particularly marked in child porn collecting. Hobbyists seek unbroken series of the various photo shoots such as KG or Tiny Americans, and they pride themselves on their achievement in seeking out and amassing items.
Encryption • The careful child-pornographers use encryption when they exchange images • Without the key, it is practically impossible to decode the image • Encryption is the best friend of all people involved in illegal activities: Child-pornographers, terrorists and criminals.
September 11, 2001 September 11 and other terrorist operations were facilitated by the Internet.
E-jihad • The term E-jihad refers to the way information technology is applied by groups such as al-Qaeda in order to organize logistics for their campaigns, through the application of email and encrypted files, as well as a means for developing their own strategic intelligence.
September 11, 2001 • Members of Al Qaeda are sending each other thousands of messages in a password-protected section of agreed-upon websites • Sometimes they simply take over legitimate sites • In the wake of September 11, Internet providers shut down several sites associated with Dr. Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, mentor of bin Laden
Haganah (Defence) • Haganah, http://haganah.org/, a US-based pro-Zionist website run by Aaron Weisburd, tracks down jihadi sites and informs their ISPs that they are hosting a terrorist site, which usually ensures it is closed down immediately. Haganah has shut down more than 700 jihadi sites
jihadi websites • Most jihadi websites have several sections. • The most important and largest is usually the religion section, which contains fatwas explaining who can be targeted legitimately. • Quranic references to jihad, the different ways jihad can be expressed, aspects of martyrdom, and online doctrinal consultations with religious sages.
jihadi websites • In the jihad section, would-be recruits are encouraged to join the battle. • Some general advice is given, e.g., the best routes into Iraq, names and locations of sympathetic mosques in neighbouring countries. • Galleries of martyr portraits are accompanied by their last wills and testaments, often in the form of a video
jihadi websites • Most sites have IT section where contributors are urged to share their knowledge and develop new ways of using cyberspace to further the cause of jihad. • The bulletin boards or chat rooms are by far the most popular forums on jihadi websites. • Visitors can add comments or reply to ongoing conversations and debates.
jihadi websites • Many jihadi sites have a women’s section where wives and mothers are urged to support their men in jihad and help them in the psychological battle against what one site described as that disease, the weakness which loves life and hates death.
Use of Internet by Terrorists • Providing Information (English, Arabic, other languages, according to the audience) • Seeking Legitimacy • Propaganda – use of cameras, chat rooms; • Socialization and motivation - use chatrooms to create virtual community, and motivate people to take violent actions against the West. • Seeking support
Use of Internet by Terrorists • Spreading tactics – the first beheading in Iraq showed on the Internet motivated copy-cat actions in other countries. Beheading is not part of the culture and tradition in Thailand. The Internet facilitated this knowledge and idea. • Instructions and online manuals • Planning of activities and coordination • Training how to build bombs – significant but not as the uses of propaganda and motivation.
Use of Internet by Terrorists • Facilitation – like us, terrorists use the Internet to organize their travel, to communicate, to find information. • Most fund raising is done person to person – going to an individual and ask for money. Some Internet sites were used to raise money, but this is not a prevalent phenomenon. • Recruitment – a little bit. Not significant • Cyber-terrorism
Inaugural Poem/ Maya Angelou • There is a true yearning to respond toThe singing River and the wise Rock. • So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the JewThe African and Native American, the Sioux,The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the GreekThe Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheikh,The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher,The privileged, the homeless, the Teacher.They hear. They all hearThe speaking of the Tree. • Today, the first and last of every TreeSpeaks to humankind. Come to me, here beside the River. 20 January 1993 For Bill Clinton
Racism • More than 60,000 racist and hateful sites
From Speech to Action • Two Aryan supremacists, Benjamin Smith and Richard Baumhammers who in 1999 and 2000 respectively went on racially motivated shooting sprees after being exposed to Internet racial propaganda. Smith regularly visited the World Church of the Creator website, a notorious racist and hateful organization. • He said: "It wasn't really 'til I got on the Internet, read some literature of these groups that… it really all came together.“
The Zundelsite • “Women Dined and Danced in Auschwitz” • No gas chambers ever existed • People died in WWII, some were Germans, some Jews
Racism & Holocaust Denial • In Canada, the Zundelsite and other hateful sites were shut down. • Is law the appropriate way to fight against such speech? • Education? • What about accessing such material in libraries and schools? • The importance of historical context
Historical Context and National Boundaries • Yahoo! maintained auction sites via which third parties offered, among other items, Nazi memorabilia for sale. • In 2000, anti-hate campaigners based in France commenced legal proceedings against Yahoo!, alleging violation of French penal laws prohibiting the public display of Nazi “uniforms, insignia or emblems” within French borders. • The Supreme Court of Paris asserted jurisdiction over Yahoo! because its auction sites could be accessed in France; • the court ruled that the US company must “take such measures as will dissuade and render impossible” access to auction sites selling Nazi paraphernalia and any other sites containing pro-Nazi propaganda, and awarded civil damages to the organizations that instigated the action
The Council of Europe • The Council of Europe has adopted a measure that would criminalize Internet hate speech, including hyperlinks to pages that contain offensive content. • The provision, which was passed in 2002 by the council's decision-making body (the Committee of Ministers), updates the 2001 European Convention on Cybercrime.
The Council of Europe • Specifically, the amendment bans "any written material, any image or any other representation of ideas or theories, which advocates, promotes or incites hatred, discrimination or violence, against any individual or group of individuals, based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, as well as religion if used as pretext for any of these factors."
American Legal Boundaries • True Threats, intimidation • Incitement to murder • How the Internet is used to scare people? • Case law
UNITED STATES v. BAKER University of Michigan student Jake Baker posts a story on alt.sex.stories website describing the torture, rape and murder of a woman in his dorm.
U of M alum living in Russia finds story on daughter’s computer, alum contacts university officials. Investigation is launched. UNITED STATES v. BAKER University of Michigan student Jake Baker posts a story on alt.sex.stories website describing the torture, rape and murder of a woman in his dorm.
U of M alum living in Russia finds story on daughter’s computer, alum contacts university officials. Investigation is launched. Officials discover email relationship with Al Gonda describing shared fantasy of sex and torture. UNITED STATES v. BAKER University of Michigan student Jake Baker posts a story on alt.sex.stories website describing the torture, rape and murder of a woman in his dorm.
U of M alum living in Russia finds story on daughter’s computer, alum contacts university officials. Investigation is launched. Officials discover email relationship with Al Gonda describing shared fantasy of sex and torture. Jake Baker is arrested and charged with making threats to another U of M student. Baker spends 29 days in jail. UNITED STATES v. BAKER University of Michigan student Jake Baker posts a story on alt.sex.stories website describing the torture, rape and murder of a woman in his dorm.
UNITED STATES v. BAKER The government charged Baker with five counts of violating 18 U.S.C. §875 (c) - Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce and communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
USA v. Baker and Gonda • 2 to 1 decision for Baker: The essence of “True Threats””
Legal Boundaries • True Threats, intimidation • Malicious content, when it knowingly and intentionally communicates a credible threat will not be tolerated.
