When Does Free Speech on Social Media Cross the Line and Become Terrorism?

Social media usage—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr— by millennials to express their political and social viewpoints has spurned everything from a late night ‘Like’ by a friend to the political upheaval of the Arab Spring. Its impact and reach should not be underestimated, nor can internet postings and pictures be relegated to unimportant drivelings of disaffected dissidents and wannabe terrorists. Today’s message board commenter could be tomorrow’s suicide bomber. How far then should legal protections surrounding the First Amendment extend?

What people say behind the façade of a computer screen either under the blanket of anonymity or signed under their own names is in fact taken very serious by law enforcement authorities. Especially when such espousing and calls for violence are tantamount to support for what is commonly regarded as ‘Terrorist’ related activities.

Take for example the recent FBI arrest on November 12, 2015 of twenty-five year old Ohio hospital worker Terence J. McNeil. Mr. O’Neil was arrested in a criminal complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio for 18 U.S. Code § 373 – Solicitation to commit a crime of violence.

According to court documents, in their description to the New York Times, federal authorities believed that through his postings McNeil moved away from criticism of U.S. policies to criminal acts when he began posting detailed information about military members and calling for them to be murdered. Specifically, McNeil is accused of reposting and retweeting memes and gifs from a group that titles itself the Islamic State Hacking Division, with information that was hacked and leaked which included the names, addresses, photographs and military branches of dozens of American service members, and which stated the following: “Kill them in their own lands, behead them in their own homes, stab them to death as they walk their streets thinking that they are safe.”

Mr. McNeil had a Tumblr blog website whose content has since been removed. The website Gawker, was able to screen shot some of the tweets and pictures associated with his website (as it was still electronically available at the time the Times article and federal press release were issued). McNeil’s posted content ranged from seemingly comical Islamic related religious memes and Simpsons’s jokes to violently suggestive memes advocating for murder. Posts can be seen here.

In a press release, Special Agent-in-Charge Stephen D. Anthony of the FBI’s Cleveland Division said “While we aggressively defend First Amendment rights, the individual arrested went far beyond free speech by reposting names and addresses of 100 U.S. service members, all with the intent to have them killed.”

Mr. McNeil now faces an intense criminal litigation process by the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio. As it is still early in the process, surely free-speech advocates will attempt to use Mr. McNeil’s case as an example of over intrusive federal overreach when it comes to internet free speech. However if the recent Parisian terrorist attacks are any indication, the Islamic State (ISIS) is a skilled communicator at reaching their audience and attracting new members through the use of English-language social media, and the posts of its supporters should not be taken lightly.

However in an ironic foreshadowing post on Tumblr just a few months prior, when another poster asked McNeil if his account was a fair representation of him. “Somewhat about 60%,” McNeil answered. “If it was 100% I would be in jail.”

 

Anthony Christina is a 3L and a Resident Student Blogger for the Journal of Law and International Affairs at the Penn State University Dickinson School of Law.

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Citations to articles & documents are included in the aforementioned underlined hyperlinks.