Abstract
American lawmakers and law enforcement officials face a situation with no precedent, no standard operating procedure, and no end in sight: international terrorism. International terrorism has threatened the American way of life for hundreds of years, but the proliferation of terrorist recruitment through social media platforms has heightened the risk and sheer destruction that global terror attacks create. America must take a role in eliminating this new wave of recruitment and the overall war on terrorism; but the lack of accountability of social media companies hinders America’s ability to fight back. This Article explains and argues that holding social media companies criminally and civilly liable for providing social media platforms to known terrorists and terror groups is the most direct and effective method to stifle global terror attacks, and save countless American lives. This Article proposes to explicitly include the provision of a social media platform in 18 U.S.C. § 2339A’s definition of “material support” because the current material support statutes do not adequately prevent terrorists from using social media platforms to further their terroristic aims.
First Page
1181
Recommended Citation
Ronbert
H.
Schwartz,
Laying the Foundation for Social Media Prosecutions Under 18 U.S.C. § 2339B,
48
Loy. U. Chi. L. J.
1181
(2020).
Available at:
https://lawecommons.luc.edu/luclj/vol48/iss4/11