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Social Media, Terrorist Content Prohibitions and the Rule of Law

Stuart Macdonald Orcid Logo

Swansea University Author: Stuart Macdonald Orcid Logo

Abstract

The importance of the rule of law to an effective counterterrorism strategy is widely accepted. Adherence to rule of law values protects both the legitimacy and moral authority of counterterrorism policies and legislation. This paper focuses on tech companies' prohibitions on terrorism-promotin...

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Published: George Washington University 2019
Online Access: https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5746/files/Social%20Media%2C%20Terrorist%20Content%20Prohibitions%2C%20and%20the%20Rule%20of%20Law.pdf
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa51958
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first_indexed 2019-09-19T14:17:30Z
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spelling 2023-03-24T20:56:10.9589855 v2 51958 2019-09-19 Social Media, Terrorist Content Prohibitions and the Rule of Law 933e714a4cc37c3ac12d4edc277f8f98 0000-0002-7483-9023 Stuart Macdonald Stuart Macdonald true false 2019-09-19 LAWD The importance of the rule of law to an effective counterterrorism strategy is widely accepted. Adherence to rule of law values protects both the legitimacy and moral authority of counterterrorism policies and legislation. This paper focuses on tech companies' prohibitions on terrorism-promoting content and evaluates these from the perspective of two specific rule of law values: minimalism and certainty. Drawing on the debates that have surrounded that UK's 'Encouragement of Terrorism' offence, the paper asks two questions. First, do the tech companies' prohibitions encompass indirect, as well as direct, encouragement? And, second, for the prohibitions to apply, must the encouragement of terrorism have been the purpose and/or the likely effect of the relevant content? The answer to neither question is clear from the wording of the prohibitions themselves. The paper argues that, in terms of the values of minimalism and certainty, it is important that the answers to both questions are made explicit. It also suggests how both questions should be answered and provides a proposed reformulation of the companies’ prohibitions on terrorism-promoting content. ResearchReportExternalBody George Washington University Terrorism, counterterrorism, human rights, social media 13 9 2019 2019-09-13 https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5746/files/Social%20Media%2C%20Terrorist%20Content%20Prohibitions%2C%20and%20the%20Rule%20of%20Law.pdf COLLEGE NANME Law COLLEGE CODE LAWD Swansea University 2023-03-24T20:56:10.9589855 2019-09-19T10:50:27.9695464 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Hilary Rodham Clinton School of Law Stuart Macdonald 0000-0002-7483-9023 1 0051958-19092019105137.pdf SocialMedia,TerroristContentProhibitions,andtheRuleofLaw.pdf 2019-09-19T10:51:37.9770000 Output 204681 application/pdf Version of Record true 2019-09-19T00:00:00.0000000 true eng
title Social Media, Terrorist Content Prohibitions and the Rule of Law
spellingShingle Social Media, Terrorist Content Prohibitions and the Rule of Law
Stuart Macdonald
title_short Social Media, Terrorist Content Prohibitions and the Rule of Law
title_full Social Media, Terrorist Content Prohibitions and the Rule of Law
title_fullStr Social Media, Terrorist Content Prohibitions and the Rule of Law
title_full_unstemmed Social Media, Terrorist Content Prohibitions and the Rule of Law
title_sort Social Media, Terrorist Content Prohibitions and the Rule of Law
author_id_str_mv 933e714a4cc37c3ac12d4edc277f8f98
author_id_fullname_str_mv 933e714a4cc37c3ac12d4edc277f8f98_***_Stuart Macdonald
author Stuart Macdonald
author2 Stuart Macdonald
format ResearchReportExternalBody
publishDate 2019
institution Swansea University
publisher George Washington University
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str Hilary Rodham Clinton School of Law{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}Hilary Rodham Clinton School of Law
url https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5746/files/Social%20Media%2C%20Terrorist%20Content%20Prohibitions%2C%20and%20the%20Rule%20of%20Law.pdf
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description The importance of the rule of law to an effective counterterrorism strategy is widely accepted. Adherence to rule of law values protects both the legitimacy and moral authority of counterterrorism policies and legislation. This paper focuses on tech companies' prohibitions on terrorism-promoting content and evaluates these from the perspective of two specific rule of law values: minimalism and certainty. Drawing on the debates that have surrounded that UK's 'Encouragement of Terrorism' offence, the paper asks two questions. First, do the tech companies' prohibitions encompass indirect, as well as direct, encouragement? And, second, for the prohibitions to apply, must the encouragement of terrorism have been the purpose and/or the likely effect of the relevant content? The answer to neither question is clear from the wording of the prohibitions themselves. The paper argues that, in terms of the values of minimalism and certainty, it is important that the answers to both questions are made explicit. It also suggests how both questions should be answered and provides a proposed reformulation of the companies’ prohibitions on terrorism-promoting content.
published_date 2019-09-13T04:04:03Z
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score 11.012678

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