There is no doubt in my mind that Lieberman’s request to YouTube was meant to be a shot across the bow of the U.S. Constitution. A harbinger, if you will, of the coming all-out assault on the First Amendment.
The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act [II] or S.1959, is the Senate version of one of the most pernicious pieces of legislature since the Patriot Act to ever slither its way out of the U.S. House of Representatives.
I knew this day was coming. I had just lost track of its progress in the Senate over the past 3 or 4 months. Lieberman thinks we're not paying attention because of the primaries. If you ask the original bill’s author in the House, Rep. Jane Harmon (D-CA), if the VRHTPA passes muster regarding the Constitution, she’ll no doubt say that every consideration was taken in accordance of the Bill of Rights.
But I’ve come to the sad conclusion that the congresswoman is either being disingenuous or she really doesn’t know what freedoms the Bill of Rights affords Americans.
This putrid piece of legislation calls for a commission titled the National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Ideologically Based Violence (SEC. 899C) that to me sounds more like a Star Chamber complete with 12 Privy Counsellors serving for the life of the commission, than it does a committee investigating terrorist threats from within. The council will be endowed with arbitrary powers to discern and decide which materials on the internet constitute terrorist activities or potential terrorist activities. If the latter part of that last sentence gets your spidey-senses all a’ tingly... you’re not alone.
Lieberman’s request to Google is a prelude.
From the website FCW.com:
The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee today asked Google, the parent company of the popular online video-sharing site, YouTube, to "immediately remove content produced by Islamist terrorist organizations" from YouTube and prevent similar content from reappearing. However, the company immediately refused to comply with his request.
Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) made the request in a letter to Eric Schmidt, the chairman of the board and chief executive officer at Google, in which he said that YouTube "unwittingly, permits Islamist terrorist groups to maintain an active, pervasive and amplified voice despite military setbacks or successful operations by the law enforcement and intelligence communities."
Lieberman asked the company not only to remove existing content but also identify changes that Google plans to make to YouTube’s community guidelines and explain how it plans to enforce the guidelines. Lieberman said removing such content should be "a straightforward task since so many of the Islamist terrorist organizations brand their material with logos or icons identifying their provenance."
I think YouTube deserves props for their quick refusal; reportedly within hours of receiving Lieberman’s request. In a statement, Google said that taking those actions was not a simple task and refused to remove all videos mentioning or featuring these groups without consideration of whether the videos were legal, nonviolent or non-hate speech videos.
"While we respect and understand his views, YouTube encourages free speech and defends everyone's right to express unpopular points of view," the company said. "We believe that YouTube is a richer and more relevant platform for users precisely because it hosts a diverse range of views, and rather than stifle debate, we allow our users to view all acceptable content and make up their own minds."
YouTube’s reply thanked Lieberman for alerting the company last week of several videos that violated the company’s community guidelines, and that the videos in question have been removed. But, it went on to say that...
"... most of the videos, which did not contain violent or hate speech content, were not removed because they do not violate our Community Guidelines."
According to YouTube’s community guidelines, flagrant hate speech is prohibited. They expressly request that users not post videos that show people getting injured or humiliated in an attack. Users themselves are urged to flag inappropriate videos, which may or may not be removed from the site after review by company staff.
Lieberman’s letter comes after his committee released a report, "Violent Islamist Extremism, the Internet and the Homegrown Terrorist Threat," (pdf) on May 8 that said chatrooms, message boards and Web sites can play critical roles in recruitment, indoctrination into violent Islamist theology, linking radicalized individuals and providing information to independent terrorists unaffiliated with organizations. The report also said the government needs to develop a plan to counter terrorist groups' increasing reliance on the Internet.
However, whatever federal strategy is developed may face scrutiny from critics who say the committee’s May 8 report unfairly singled out Muslims as possible extremists, in addition to civil libertarians and privacy advocates concerned with protecting free speech and Internet freedom.
The senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, John Morris, said Lieberman’s request was a practical impossibility. Forcing sites like YouTube to prescreen content would radically change public usage of the internet in general.
"The government can’t get involved in suppressing videos if the content is not illegal," Morris said, explaining that such a policy would likely face stiff opposition from advocates of First Amendment rights.
Here's Lieberman's letter to Google.
Yeah, not to mention We the people. Listen, nobody I know wants to see terrorists use the internet to train or plot terrorist attacks. But, we need to draw a line in the sand and pseudo-right-wing reactionaries like Joe Lieberman and Jane Harmon need not cross it. It was because of the phone calls and emails from the left blogosphere that this bill has languished this long. And, now, it’s time to begin anew.
It looks like it's up to us to either stop this altogether or get Lieberman and Collins to scale it back. Please contact members of the committee by email or handwritten letter (preferred) here.
Or contact by phone.
Democratic Staff: 202-224-2627 -- fax: 202-228-3792
Republican Staff: 202-224-4751 -- fax: 202-224-9603
Peace