How the White House plans to stop ISIS from tweeting

[Blue_Tires]

The White House wants to stop terrorists from tweeting.

As part of its plan to counter violent extremism throughout the world, the Obama administration is looking to blunt the impact that groups like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have on social media.

Working with foreign nations and private companies, the administration will launch campaigns to counter terrorist groups’ online propaganda, which have become a critical tool in their arsenal to spread their message and horrify people around the globe.


“The U.S. government, in partnership with foreign governments, civil society, and the private sector, is working to weaken the legitimacy and resonance of violent extremist messaging and narratives, including through social media,” the White House said in a fact sheet on Wednesday.
In one effort, the government is organizing multiple “technology camps” to work with companies and community groups “to develop digital content that discredits violent extremist narratives and amplifies positive alternatives,” the White House said.

Additionally, the administration is putting a new focus on countering the extremist groups’ online messages by designating a new special envoy charged with discrediting them and launching a “digital communications hub” to focus specifically on ISIS’s messaging.

Terrorist groups like ISIS have been tremendously successful in spreading their message on websites such as Twitter and YouTube, which have helped launch their message to a global audience. Images of beheadings, masked men holding guns and similar scenes have helped to make the terror group a household name.

Social media websites have come under some pressure to do more to block those groups.

One letter currently circulating around Capitol Hill calls on Twitter to adopt new internal policies so that it treats posts endorsing terrorism like child pornography or pirated content.

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/233193-white-house-aims-to-silence-terrorists-online

[Fred Sanders]

1. But how will they stop Fox from helping ISIS?

[jberryhill]

2. "posts endorsing terrorism"

Umm... and they are going to provide a definition of "terrorism" which is unambiguously clear to the people who are going to have to implement such a policy?

This is how Congress intends to get into the business of deciding what things people will be allowed to say.

[Fred Sanders]

3. Yes. Done. Watch one of Obama's speeches for the clear definition...it is complex, but clear.

[Blue_Tires]

4. Twitter already has the "power" to decide what you can say on their platform...

[jberryhill]

6. Nothing wrong with that

That's an entirely separate issue from the OP's suggestion of having CONGRESS decide what Twitter can allow on their platform.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

5. Twitter is self-policing, and the Admin will shoot themselves in the foot if they do this.

Show me a pro-ISIS tweet, and I'll show you 2,000 tweets ridiculing the original tweet, excoriating ISIS. Whenever aggregated power decides to "reach out to the youth", etc, it always looks ham-fisted, whether it's a government or a corporation posting the tweets. The court of Twitter public opinion is much more effective with dealing with asswipes.

[Marr]

8. Agreed. /nt

[Fumesucker]

12. Sounds a lot like DU

Say something really stupid and get hammered into the ground like tent peg, happens on a daily basis if not hourly..

[calimary]

7. Didn't Anonymous recently declare their own "campaign" against ISIS?

THAT one could cause them some problems perhaps.

[Cha]

9. That's right.. Good!

Hundreds of ISIS social media accounts shut down

http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/10/technology/anonymous-isis-hack-twitter/

[Cha]

10. Good on them.. mahalo Blue

[bigtree]

11. I remember when every message bin-Laden put out was echoed in detail

...by President George Bush in speeches leading up to his reelection.

'...regulation for thee, but not for me'

[LittleBlue]

13. How stupid... or is it?

By treating this information as dangerous, Obama is unwittingly giving their ranting great weight. The effect will be similar to banning a book. People who never before considered them credible will suddenly read their content merely because the US is trying to ban it.

Surely Obama knows this. It doesn't make sense. Unless of course the real purpose of this has nothing to do with ISIS, and more to do with propaganda and controlling the flow of free information.

Our era feels like that tipping point where new fascism either succeeds or it fails.