A writer for Slate suggests new limits to free speech to counter ISIS. Law professor Eric Posner argues that ISIS use of the social media is so effective in luring young people to its cause that a law is need to make it a crime to access websites that promote ISIS. (Slate, December 15, 2015, by Eric Posner)
The proposed law could ensnarl those doing legitimate research on ISIS and would violate the First Amendment banning laws that abridge freedom of speech. (Hot Air, December 16, 2015, by Taylor Millard)
While Posner would allow journalists and researchers an exemption from the law, that leaves the rest of us. Steve Watson of Infowars, December 17, 2015, finds it troubling to grant censorship power to the federal government: “Posner would also grant the government the right to determine who does and who does not have ‘press credentials’ and what constitutes a ‘legitimate public commentary’. Handing the federal government both of these powers would be a significant violation of the First Amendment, which prohibits interfering with Americans’ rights to receive and read any political information, and also prohibits infringing on the freedom of the press.”