CyberLaw Blog

Archive for the ‘extreme speech’ Category

Extremist websites skyrocketing, says Interpol: “(BBC)
The sharp growth in extremist websites is making recruitment much easier for al-Qaeda, according to Interpol head Ronald Noble. ‘The threat is global, it is virtual and it is on our doorsteps,’ he said. Mr Noble told a conference of police chiefs in Paris there were 12 sites in 1998 and 4,500 by 2006. He said tackling radicalisation had been made far harder by the internet because many of the activities involved were not criminal. Increasingly, he said, the individuals targeted were young and vulnerable and from middle-class backgrounds. A researcher at the London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation told the BBC that the number of radical websites was now far higher than the figure given by Interpol.

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(Via QuickLinks Update.)

INTERPOL media release
21 September 2010

Preventing Internet radicalization of youth requires global police network, INTERPOL Chief tells police summit Secretary General warns of threat posed by ’skyrocketing’ number of extremist websites…

The International Association of Chiefs of Police summit heard Secretary General Noble (pictured left, top photo) warn of the increasing radicalization of the youth by extremists exploiting the Internet. The head of INTERPOL spoke alongside IACP President Michael Carroll and the Director of the French National Police, Frédéric Péchenard.

PARIS, France – An international gathering of senior police officials focusing on terrorism and the prevention of the radicalization of youth has heard the head of INTERPOL describe the era of the Internet as easing the path to radicalization, which he said was a global threat that only international police networks could fully address.

Speaking at the two-day International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) summit (21-22 September) in Paris – alongside IACP President Michael Carroll and the Director of the French National Police, Frédéric Péchenard – INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said that terrorist recruiters exploited the web to their full advantage as they targeted young, middle class vulnerable individuals who were usually not ‘on the radar of law enforcement’.

“The advent of the Internet has made the process of radicalization easier to achieve and the process of combating it that much more difficult, because many of the behaviors associated with it are not in and of themselves criminal,” said Secretary General Noble.

“The threat is global; it is virtual; and it is on our doorsteps,” said the head of INTERPOL, pointing to the ‘skyrocketing’ number of extremist websites, from 12 in 1998 to 4,500 just eight years later.

Mr Noble said that preventing radicalization required police to use international police networks, and that in this respect INTERPOL was uniquely placed to support police worldwide as a network of law enforcement agencies from 188 member countries, linking police worldwide via its I-24/7 global police communications system, global databases and network of National Central Bureaus, so as to empower front-line officers with access to the information they need to establish the links between terrorism and other criminal activities.

With INTERPOL having created its database of stolen and lost travel documents (SLTD) in response to the threat posed by terrorists using fraudulent passports to plan or carry out attacks, the world police body’s chief said that with more than 22 million records submitted by more than 150 countries, the database was the only global repository of its kind.

The police summit also heard that through INTERPOL’s global network of anti-terrorist specialists, that more than 120 member countries contribute data on active terrorist groups through INTERPOL’s Fusion Task Force, its primary counter-terrorism initiative. The registry includes close to 10,000 names of wanted or suspected terrorists.

“It is only through INTERPOL’s network that this type of information can be disseminated quickly throughout the world in order for law enforcement to effectively counter the virtual base of operations which extremists exploit on the Internet,” said Mr Noble.

The two-day IACP summit, which also brings under its umbrella FRANCOPOL, the association representing the international French-speaking police community, will review the issue of youth in terrorist and radical activities, recruitment methods by terrorist recruiters, as well as the role of law enforcement in de-radicalization programmes and prevention strategies.

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.’

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.)

UK.gov moves to block Hamas kids site: “

Incites hatred, says MP

The Home Office is considering blocking a childrens’ website run by the Palestinian group Hamas following suggestions it incites hatred of Jews.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Directgov battles terrorism with report-a-website page: “

Watch out YouTube

The Home Office has launched a page for people to report online extremism and terror-related content.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Police unit formed to take down websites suspected of breaking terror laws: “A police unit has been created to force the take-down of web pages which break the UK’s terrorism laws. The Government has set up a web page through which the public can tell the police about pages that they think are illegal.”

Note the Report terrorist, violent extremist and hate material online pages run by the Home Office. Note further the related Home Office pages: Reporting hate, extremism and terrorism online

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) said that it had created a new unit to act on reports from the public and to look for material that might break the Terrorism Act. The team is part of its Prevent Delivery Unit which deals with counter-terrorism.

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Written material saved from censor’s big black pen – for now: “

Lords suicide debate saves the day

Censorship of written material is off the agenda – for now: and for that we may need to thank Lord Falconer’s intense interest in suicide.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Simon Sheppard guilty of race hate crime (From York Press): “Simon Sheppard guilty of race hate crime

10:30am Friday 9th January 2009
By Mark Stead

A SELBY man has been found guilty of waging a campaign of ‘obnoxious and abhorrent’ race hate against Jews and other minority groups, before fleeing to America.

Simon Sheppard is now set to face justice after being convicted of a string of race crimes following a lengthy probe which discovered he had been involved in the publication and distribution of a leaflet likening notorious Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz to a holiday resort.

The 51-year-old, of Brook Street, was found guilty of 11 race-related offences last July, but by then he and another man – Stephen Whittle, 41, of Preston, who was convicted of five similar crimes – had absconded to the US. They are currently in the hands of the American immigration authorities.

A jury in their original trial was unable to reach a verdict on a further seven charges against Sheppard, after which the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided to have a retrial on six of these.

A Leeds Crown Court jury yesterday found Sheppard guilty on five of the charges, with the allegations in the two trials all concerning publishing racially inflammatory material, distributing racially inflammatory material or possessing racially inflammatory material with a view to distribution under the Public Order Act 1986.

The investigation began when a complaint about a leaflet called ‘Tales of the Holohoax’ was reported to police in 2004 after being pushed through the door of a Blackpool synagogue. It was subsequently traced back to a post office box in Hull registered to Sheppard.

‘People are entitled to hold racist and extreme opinions which others may find unpleasant and obnoxious,’ said reviewing lawyer Mari Reid, of the CPS’ Counter Terrorism Division, which deals with race hate crimes.

‘What they are not entitled to do is to publish or distribute these opinions to the public in a threatening, abusive or insulting manner, either intending to stir up racial hatred or in circumstances where it is likely racial hatred will be stirred up.

‘The vast majority of the material in this case concerned Jewish people, but there was also material relating to black, Asian and non-white people generally, all described in derogatory terms using offensive language.

‘As well as printed leaflets, there was evidence of Simon Sheppard controlling websites which featured racist material, some of it written by Whittle, under the pen name of Luke O’Farrell.’

Sheppard and Whittle, who denied the charges, will be sentenced in March.

Two jailed for online racism after US turned down asylum bid: “

Freedom of speech claim denied

Two British men who tried to claim political asylum in the US were jailed today for using the internet to incite racial hatred.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)