CyberLaw Blog

Archive for March, 2010

Court Says Parents Can Block ‘Sexting’ Cases – NYTimes.com

By TAMAR LEWIN, Published: March 17, 2010

In the first federal appeals court opinion dealing with ‘sexting’ — the transmission of sexually explicit photographs by cellphone — a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled Wednesday that parents could block the prosecution of their children on child pornography charges for appearing in photographs found on some classmates’ cellphones.

‘It does not resolve all of the constitutional issues implicated in sexting prosecutions, but it’s a terrific start for civil liberties,’ said Witold Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, who represented the parents.

The case, Miller v. Mitchell, began in 2008 when school officials in Tunkhannock, Pa., discovered seminude and nude photographs of some female students — some as young as 12 or 13 when the photographs were taken — on other students’ cellphones. The officials confiscated the phones and turned them over to the Wyoming County District Attorney’s Office.

The district attorney at the time, George Skumanick Jr., said that students possessing ‘inappropriate images of minors’ could be prosecuted for possession or distribution of child pornography, and sent letters to the parents of the students with the phones — and the parents of students who appeared in the photographs — threatening to prosecute any student who did not participate in an after-school ‘education program.’

The syllabus called for the girls to write a report explaining why they were there, what they had done, and why it was wrong.

‘Participation in the program is voluntary,’ the letter said. ‘Please note, however, charges will be filed against those that do not participate or those that do not successfully complete the program.’

Three families whose daughters were in the photographs refused to participate and instead filed suit to block the charges, which they said would amount to retaliation for that refusal. They said the district attorney’s actions interfered with the girls’ constitutional rights to be photographed and to be free from compelled speech — and with the parents’ rights to direct their children’s upbringing.

In March, the district court temporarily barred the district attorney from initiating any criminal charges against the girls. Wednesday’s opinion came in response to his appeal and upholds the injunction but does not resolve the case.

The unanimous ruling of the judges, Thomas L. Ambro, Michael A. Chagares and Walter K. Stapleton, criticized the district attorney’s reliance on the girls’ presence in the photographs as a basis for the potential charges.

‘Appearing in a photograph provides no evidence as to whether that person possessed or transmitted the photo,’ said the opinion, by Judge Ambro.

FOXNews.com – Terrorists Targeting Children Via Facebook, Twitter

Updated March 15, 2010
Terrorists Targeting Children Via Facebook, Twitter

FOXNews.com

The Internet grew 20 percent uglier last year, with terrorists and racists increasingly turning to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter — and targeting children, finds the 2010 Digital Hate Report.

The 2010 Digital Terror Report from the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Tolerance found a 20% increase in the prevalence of hate-filled Web sites–notably in social media like Facebook and Twitter.

The Internet grew 20 percent uglier last year, with terrorists and racists increasingly turning to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter — and targeting children, finds the 2010 Digital Hate Report.

The CD-ROM report, put out annually by the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Tolerance, aims to assist law enforcement, public officials, educators, parents and the news media to better grasp the scope of hate.

The report, based on some 11,500 problematic Web sites, social networks , chat forums, twitter posts, other Internet postings, found that hate-filled language is increasingly filling social networks. In compiling it, researchers for the Wiesenthal center found such disturbing online content as video footage showing bomb-making instructions and hate games — including one about bombing Haitian earthquake victims.

The report found a 20% increase to 11,500 in hate-filled social networks, Web sites, forums, blogs, Twitter feeds, and so on (up from 10,000 last year). It notes that beyond its role in our social lives, the Internet often acts as the incubator and validator of dangerous conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11 and organ theft.

The lone wolf terrorist, once primarily a domestic extremist character, is now a role heavily promoted by terrorist groups, found the 2010 Digital Hate Report.

The Wiesenthal Center uncovered expanded ‘how-to’ posts for terrorists, including binary and laser technology. And even more disturbing, the Center found hate games, including one inviting the user to bomb Haitian earthquake victims, continue to target young people

It’s all part of a trend of terrorists targeting young people, the report indicates, a finding supported by recent news reports. Over the weekend, FoxNews.com reported that the 6-year-old son of a Colorado nursing student who ran off to Europe to join a terrorist murder cell was brainwashed into a hate-filled Islamic fundamentalist zombie, his family said Saturday. Her family said she struck up an Internet friendship with a Colorado radical.

And court records and other documents show that Colleen LaRose — or ‘Jihad Jane’ — may have used YouTube as part of her alleged trail of terrorist activities.

The report was presented at a press conference at the New York Tolerance Center by Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal center, a pioneer in digital hate and terror, and Mark Weitzman, the center’s director of government affairs. Representative Carolyn Maloney joined in the unveiling as well.

The report is used by the FBI, Homeland Security, military officials, hate crime units and joint terrorism taskforces in the U.S. as well as Canada and Europe.

New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney Joins Simon Wiesenthal Center Officials for Release of 2010 Digital Hate Report | Simon Wiesenthal Center

New York, NY – Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) joined, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (R), a pioneer in digital hate and terror, and Mark Weitzman (L), the Center’s Director of Government Affairs for the release of the 2010 Digital Terror & Hate Report ‘The Global Reach’

The following are Congresswomen Maloney’s remarks:

‘I want to congratulate the Simon Wiesenthal Tolerance Center for putting together an extraordinary report again this year.

For more than a decade, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has been tracking the growth of hate on the internet.

And while children are taught that sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can never hurt you – it’s not always true. Terrorism and intolerance start with words, but they grow into actions.

An anti-semitic website spreads hatred and acts as a recruiting tool. Social networking is all about enabling like-minded people to find one another. As Simon Wiesenthal once said: The combination of hatred and technology is the greatest danger threatening mankind.

And Wiesenthal also recognize that Jews are not the only targets of hatred: Victims from more than 20 nations were killed by the Nazis.

Too many Americans are ignorant of the Holocaust and do not know that an enlightened society decided to eliminate Jews from the face of the world. They do not understand how easy it is to demonize a particular ethnic group, and persuade people to destroy them. And we have many lessons to learn from the Holocaust. I have introduced legislation in Congress, the Simon Wiesenthal Holocaust Education Assistance Act, that will teach new generations about the devastation and death that stem from intolerance.

And that is why I admire what the Simon Wiesenthal Center does, and salute you for issuing this report.

The internet joins together billions of people. Ideas can spread like wildfire. And a call to action can be released on twitter or facebook, setting seemingly unrelated people in action. YouTube allows a terrorist’s lonely rant to be seen by thousands.

It can be used to enhance freedom in dictatorships – but it can also be used by advocates of hatred and intolerance.

The Simon Wiesenthal Tolerance Center’s report and educational workshops help law enforcement understand these tools, how they are being used by terrorists and extremists, and how we can beat them at that game.

Jihad Jane – accused of plotting to kill the Swedish cartoonist who caused riots by his depiction of Mohammed – was known for posting increasingly hate-filled screeds on YouTube or elsewhere on the internet – that’s how she came to the attention of law enforcement.

YouTube is this generation’s printing press. Hitler had Mein Kampf. Osama bin Laden has YouTube and the internet.

And these new ways of reaching potential followers have a worldwide reach.

I applaud the Simon Wiesenthal Center for all that it is doing to promote tolerance, and to help law enforcement identify those who are moving beyond speech and are planning attacks.

New tools require new techniques and new skills. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is dedicated to the idea that you can prevent attacks by teaching tolerance and training law enforcement to use the new techniques of tracking the bad guys.

Thank you for all you do.’

NZ – New Zealand filters the 'Net(Ars Technica)
New Zealand’s government-run Internet filtering system is now running, and two ISPs are already using the system. Seven thousand websites are on the list, most dealing with child sexual abuse, bestiality, and other illegal content, as classified by the country’s official censors. ISP participation remains voluntary. Currently, Maxnet and Watchdog are confirmed to be using the filter, though other ISPs are said to be interested. The filter uses a BSD Unix-based appliance called WhiteBox from Swedish company Netclean. The government runs the filtering server and maintains the blocklist, which it advertises to ISPs using the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). Because an IP address can host many domains, requests to blocked IP addresses are analyzed by the WhiteBox using deep packet inspection, rather than being blocked outright. If the requests are for non-problematic URLs, they are forwarded on; if they go to a banned site or link, they are blocked, the user’s IP address is logged, and a block message appears on the screen.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

CN – China warns Google to comply with censorship laws (BBC)
China’s top internet official has warned that Google will ‘pay the consequences’ if it continues to go against Chinese law. Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong was speaking at China’s annual legislation session. Google announced in January that it would no longer comply with China’s internet censorship laws. It warned that it may shut down google.cn because of censorship and a hacking attack on the portal. See also Google to shut China search engine (FT). Google has drawn up detailed plans for the closure of its Chinese search engine and is now ‘99.9 per cent’ certain to go ahead as talks over censorship with the Chinese authorities have reached an apparent impasse.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

EU – EDRi sends open letter to Commissioners to oppose Internet blocking (EDRI-gram)
EDRi has written to Commissioners Cecilia Malmström (Home Affairs), Viviane Reding (Justice and Fundamental Rights) and Neelie Kroes (Digital Agenda) about the re-launch of the Commission proposal for a revised Framework Decision on combating the sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children
and child pornography. The Commission made a proposal for the mandatory blocking of websites deemed to contain illegal images of child abuse (‘child pornography’). That measure is, as proven by the remarkably poor accompanying ‘impact assessment’, an example of legislation proposed without evidence and without due regard for human rights. As a measure which superficially sounds like a positive move, it is also an attractive option politically, which creates the temptation to legislate based on impulse rather than on evidence, legality and effectiveness.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

CA – Ontario adds Internet safety to elementary curriculum (The Canadian Press)
Ontario is changing the school curriculum to include Internet safety lessons. The Liberal government has approved changes to the health and physical education curriculum for elementary schools to help children better protect themselves online. Next fall, there will be specific sections in the curriculum for grades 4 and 7 about Internet safety and the potential risks of online activities. There will also be ‘age appropriate’ discussions about online dangers in Grades 1 through 8.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

Online Hate Sites Grow With Social Networks (New York Times)
Terrorists and racists are turning to online social networks and depending less on traditional Web sites, according to a new report on digital terror and hate speech. The report, by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, found a 20 percent increase in the number of hate and terrorist-abetting Web sites, social network pages, chat forums and micro-bloggers over the past year, to a total of 11,500.

March 16, 2010, 9:28 am
Online Hate Sites Grow With Social Networks
By STEVE LOHR

Terrorists and racists are turning to online social networks and depending less on traditional Web sites, according to a new report on digital terror and hate speech.

The report, by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, found a 20 percent increase in the number of hate and terrorist-abetting Web sites, social network pages, chat forums and micro-bloggers over the last year, to a total of 11,500.

“The real growth is where it is for everyone: in social networks,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, an associate dean at the center, a Jewish human rights group, which issued the report on Monday.

Longtime Web sites like Stormfront, which bills itself as a leading site of the “White Nationalist Community,” are still around and active, Rabbi Cooper said. But such sites have become the old-line media of online racism.

The annual report is intended as a “collective snapshot” of the activities of hate groups and terrorists online, Rabbi Cooper said. It is distributed as a CD-ROM, mainly to law enforcement agencies and nonprofit groups, instead of online because it includes terrorist tutorials, like video clips of bomb-making instructions.

“We don’t want to help the bad guys,” Rabbi Cooper explained.

The report is part of the center’s effort to raise awareness about hate groups, and the center urges Web users who encounter hate sites, videos or groups to e-mail links to ireport@wiesenthal.com. The center then contacts Web companies or law enforcement agencies, as appropriate.

“The goal is to get the collective genius of the Internet to help combat this problem,” he said.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

Report names 'enemies of the Internet'(CNET)
A report by Reporters Without Borders, which fights for freedom of the press across the world, has cited several nations for their attempts to restrict freedom on the Net. The list of Internet enemies includes what Reporters Without Borders calls ‘the worst violators of freedom of expression on the Net.’ Those nations are Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam. Turkey and Russia are also currently on Reporters Without Borders ‘Under Surveillance’ list. In Russia, the Kremlin has arrested and prosecuted bloggers and censored Web sites that it considers extremist. In Turkey, Web sites that discuss the army, the Kurds and Armenians, and other topics considered taboo are blocked. Further, two democratic countries are on the ‘Under Surveillance’ watch list: Australia, which has been trying to push through an Internet filtering system, and South Korea, which sets up laws that are imposing too many restrictions on Internet users.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

Bianet: Internet Censorship: Turkey “Under Surveillance” of RSF

Reporters Without Borders added Turkey and Russia to the organization’s ‘under surveillance’ list published in the latest report on 12 March. ‘Taboo topics’ for Turkey are quoted as mainly related to Atatürk, the army, minorities and the dignity of the nation.

Erol ÖNDEROĞLU – hukuk@bianet.org
Paris – BİA News Center
15 March 2010, Monday

The international organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has recently added Turkey and Russia to their ‘under surveillance’ list regarding internet censorship. This was announced in a joint press release of RSF Secretary General Jean-François Julliard and Lucie Morillon, head of the New Media Desk.

‘In Turkey, taboo topics mainly deal with Ataturk, the army, issues concerning minorities (notably Kurds and Armenians) and the dignity of the Nation’, RSF indicates.
Ban of YouTube and probable judicial reprisals

The organization warns other countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, Belarus and Thailand, ‘which are also maintaining their ‘under surveillance’ status, but will need to make more progress to avoid getting transferred into the next ‘Enemies of the Internet’ list’.

RSF emphasized that ‘the fight for free access to information is being played out to an ever greater extent on the Internet. In Turkey, several thousand sites have been blocked, thereby triggering a great deal of protest. Bloggers and netizens who express themselves freely on such topics may well face judicial reprisals’.

Enemies of the Internet

RSF describes the internet in Russia as the ‘freest space for sharing information’, ‘aside from the control exercised by the Kremlin on most of its media outlets’. However, RSF draws attention to existing constraints: ‘Yet its independence is being jeopardized by blogger arrests and prosecutions, as well as by blockings of so-called ‘extremist’ websites. The regime’s propaganda is increasingly omnipresent on the Web. There is a real risk that the Internet will be transformed into a tool for political control’.

The following countries are listed as ‘Enemies of the Internet’: Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam.

Assessment of Turkey

According to the European Security and Cooperation Organization (OSCE), Turkey banned access to about 3,700 internet sites mostly for ‘arbitrary and political reasons’. The majority of these sites are of foreign origin, deal with the Kurdish question or aim at homosexual communities.

There is no doubt that the most well known incident in the media is the global video sharing site YouTube. The site has been banned since May 2008 because of videos that allegedly affronted the remembrance of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the modern Turkish nation, and clips that were supposed to constitute an attack of the Turkish nation.

Between March 2007 and June 2008, different courts took a total of 47 decisions related to the access ban of YouTube. The Internet Technology Association (İNETD) applied to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on the grounds of violating the right to freedom of expression. MySpace.com was blocked for the duration of one month in September 2009 by reason of ‘violating copyrights’.

The report furthermore mentions the access bans imposed on Günlük newspaper and istanbul.indymedia.org, trials against Barış Yarkadaş from Gerçek Gündem and Ali Barış Kurt and Mehmet Kökçüoğlu from the Güneşin Çocukları (‘Children of the sun’) website and the punishments handed down to Hacı Boğatekin from gerger.fırat.net and Cumali Badur from Gergerim.com.

Additionally, the report addresses the issue of gazetevatan.com website publishing director Ayiln Duruoğlu and Devrimci Hareket magazine employee Mehmet Yeşiltepe, who were detained for ten months and touches on the hacking of the website of Armenian Agos newspaper by a self-declared admirer of the murderer of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. (EÖ/VK)