Protecting the First Amendment in the Internet Age

[Commentary] The war on Internet free speech -- spurred by the use of Internet social media by the Islamic State and other radical groups for disseminating propaganda and for recruitment -- is heating up. University of Chicago law professor Eric Posner has now joined their ranks as well, with a more thoughtful (and therefore even more distressing) argument for greater speech curbs.

Terrorist groups, he notes, have become increasingly adept at using Internet social media platforms to “lure young men and women to their mission … without having to risk capture on US soil,” creating a “radicalization echo chamber” that has “given rise to a historic and unprecedented danger from foreign radicalization and recruitment.” Posner then suggests that “there is something we can do to protect people from being infected by the ISIS virus by propagandists”: Do we really want government agents deciding which Internet sites “glorify, express support for, or provide encouragement for ISIS”? That slope is far too slippery for me. Posner suggests that “those who regard free speech as fundamental need to consider whether legal principles that arose centuries ago make sense in the age of Snapchat.” I decline the invitation.

[David G. Post is a Sr. Fellow at the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute]