[liberationtech] What should the "liberation tech" response be to ISIS-related recruiting online?

[Sean Lynch]

On Thu, Jul 2, 2015, 06:18 carlo von lynX <lynX at time.to.get.psyced.org>
wrote:

On Wed, Jul 01, 2015 at 06:00:08PM +0000, Sean Lynch wrote:
> I don't think it's possible to simultaneously enable people to exercise
> freedom of speech on the Internet while preventing the use of the net for
> things we don't agree with. Recruiting for ISIS is just speech, and any
> tools that would enable governments to stop that would also enable them to
> stop other kinds of speech they find inconvenient.

I have two suggestions to make to handle recruitment and
abuse of suicidal radicalized persons:

1. Improve the web to better provide a rational debate on
   all the issues rather than creating rhethorical bubbles
   where the analysis of how evil capitalism and the west
   have become is put in perspective where possible and
   where the consequences of suggested action are especially
   refuted - just because the world is evil doesn't entitle
   you to make it even worse. Currently discussion platforms
   on the web which are suited for rational debate rather
   than populistic blabber are hard to find.

2. Take the criticism seriously. The capitalist west *is*
   destroying the foundations of human life on planet Earth.
   As long as there is no credible political effort to fix
   this, we cannot expect frustrated youth not to radicalize
   against the status quo.

Had we proper democracy, the problem would probably not
manifest itself:

- Yes, the recruiters would enjoy Secrecy of Correspondence
  enabling them to recruit without governments watching.
- But, opposing political movements would not be impeded to
  form, therefore political change would already be happening.
- Thus if we had proper democracy we would already have fixed
  wealth distribution and economic/ecologic sustainability
  instead of wondering how it is possible that although 99,9%
  of Earth population want things differently, the leading 0,1%
  continue to do as they please.
- Therefore the recruiters would not find anyone to recruit
  for stupid kamikaze action happenings.

In other words, terrorism is a problem caused by lack of
democracy. The solution is to fix democracy.


While we would probably disagree on some of the details, I definitely agree
with the overall sentiment that the best way do deal with "bad" uses of the
Internet is to create and improve tools that encourage good uses,
especially uses that improve society. In particular, new and better ways to
measure the effectiveness of policies and interventions would be invaluable.
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