Washington Post: Lawmakers want Internet sites to flag ‘terrorist activity’ to law enforcement

The Washington Post: “Social media sites such as Twitter and YouTube would be required to report videos and other content posted by suspected terrorists to federal authorities under legislation approved this past week by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The measure, contained in the 2016 intelligence authorization, which still has to be voted on by the full Senate, is an effort to help intelligence and law enforcement officials detect threats from the Islamic State and other terrorist groups.

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‘The intelligence bill would turn communications service providers into the speech police, while providing them little guidance about what speech they must report to the police,’ said Gregory Nojeim, senior counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology. ‘If it becomes law, their natural tendency will be to err on the side of reporting anything that might be characterized as ‘terrorist activity’ even if it is not. And their duty to report will chill speech on the Internet that relates to terrorism.'” Link to full article.