But terrorism makes a great excuse for censorship of all sorts.
I vote with Jefferson: the best way to combat bad ideas is with good ideas:
'Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known & seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men. Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper & sufficient antagonist to error.' (from Notes on Religion, Oct. 1776)
'Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself. She is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.' (from The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, 1786)
If ISIL (et al.) are attracting people through lies and propaganda, then counter with the truth of who they are and what they do. If that's not sufficient, all the censorship crack-downs in the world won't be able to stop them — and the cost will be just as damaging as they have been.
Privatizing censorship in fight against extremism is risk to press freedom – Committee to Protect Journalists
“We’re stepping up our efforts to discredit ISIL’s propaganda, especially online,” President Barack Obama told delegates at the Leaders’ Summit on Countering Violent Extremism last month. The social media counter-offensive comes amid U.N. reports of a 70 percent increase in what it terms “foreign terrorist fighters”–citizens of U.N. member…
