Legal Internet Use by Terrorists

Steve, I posted a comment a few days ago, but for some reason it did not show up on the page. I don't remember exactly what I wrote (perhaps it is recoverable from the server?), but I will try again here. For the most part I agree with your paper. I do think that regulation would be mostly futile and could also possibly lead us to a slippery slope. Who is deciding what to censor? I do, however, think that clear attempts to instigate violence can be easily identified. But, as David writes above, there can certainly be gray areas. The beauty of an open forum website like youtube is that people can leave comments or post video responses to debunk hate speech, correct misinformation, etc. The problem is that video posters can choose to not allow comments and can block video responses. Do you think that a site like youtube could effectively deal with controversial videos (that might not be inherently violent) by mandating that all comments be allowed and all video responses be linked?

-- MarcRoitman - 10 Dec 2008