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83 Brook. L. Rev. 675 (2017-2018)
Section 230's Liability Shield in the Age of Online Terrorist Recruitment

handle is hein.journals/brklr83 and id is 693 raw text is: Section 230's Liability Shield in the Age of Online Terrorist Recruitment INTRODUCTION From its outset, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)' has relied on social media to amass followers and gain strength.2 While it used to be time-consuming and costly to recruit someone to terror, Twitter, Inc. (Twitter) has provided an avenue through which fighters can upload photos in real time of what they are doing to encourage more people to join their cause.3 Rather than calling on supporters to fight on the front lines, ISIS uses the digital services that have become part of daily life4 to attract followers who will wage jihad at home.5 ISIS propaganda is crafted not just to stir the hearts of potential recruits but also to boost the organization's ghastly brand-to reinforce Westerners' perceptions of the Islamic State and its devotees as ruthless beyond comprehension.6 ISIS also uses social media to highlight the lighter side of life in ISIS.7 One I ISIS is a militant Sunni movement that has conquered territory in western Iraq, eastern Syria, and Libya, from which it has tried to establish the caliphate, claiming exclusive political and theological authority over the world's Muslims. Zachary Laub, The Islamic State, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN REL. (last updated Aug. 10, 2016), http:// www.cfr.org/iraq/islamic-state/pl4811 [https://perma.cc/PPZ2-69HP]. 2 See P.W. Singer & Emerson Brooking, Terror On Twitter How ISIS is Taking War to Social Media-and Social Media is Fighting Back, POPULAR SCI. (Dec. 11, 2015), http://www.popsci.com/terror-on-twitter-how-isis-is-taking-war-to-social-media [https:// perma.cc/9RV5-5AAY]. ISIS is content to crowdsource its social media activity-and its violence-out to individuals with whom it had no concrete ties ... [and] it does so openly in the West's most beloved precincts of the Internet . . . . Brendan I. Koerner, Why ISIS is winning the social media war, WIRED (Apr. 2016), https://www.wired.com/ 2016/03/isis-winning-social-media-war-heres-beat [https://perma.cc/Y7D3-GAB9]; Telegraph Reporters, How Terrorists Are Using Social Media, TELEGRAPH (Nov. 4,2014,4:02 PM), http:// www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/11207681/How-terrorists-are-using-soc ial-media.html [https://perma.cclEX5X-BJDM]. See Bruce Auster, Drawn by Twitter and Trained in Syria, Terrorists Could Turn West, NPR (Feb. 28, 2014), http://www.npr.org/2014/02/28/283999741/drawn-by- twitter-and-trained-in-syria-terrorists-could-turn-west [https://perma.cc/NL6X-MDXP]. Koerner, supra note 2. 6 See Singer & Brooking, supra note 2; see also Koerner, supra note 2. Jihad is a holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty; also: a personal struggle in devotion to Islam especially involving spiritual discipline. Jihad, MERRIAM-WEBSTER, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jihad [https://perma.cc/9ZWN-9B2V]. 6 Koerner, supra note 2. 7 Singer & Brooking, supra note 2. 675

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