Crimbrary

Canadian Law Professors Warn Against Criminalizing Online Glorification of Terrorism
"If someone posts a statement online that 'all real Muslims should engage in military jihad,' should that be enough for police to come knocking?

In a newly published paper, two Canadian law professors are cautioning the government against rushing to criminalize the glorification of terrorism — or 'radicalized boasting' — on the Internet, saying it could undermine freedom of expression and put the country on 'extremely uncertain constitutional terrain.'

Craig Forcese of the University of Ottawa and Kent Roach of the University of Toronto write that the causal link between radicalized speech on the Internet and violence is still very tenuous. Government officials are better off using existing laws to target the most dangerous Internet materials — those that have clearly crossed a criminal line and are designed to further the aims of terrorist groups, whether it be recruiting or inciting, they said."

View the Working Paper