French EU critic Marine Le Pen is facing a lengthy prison sentence for criticising Europe’s soft stance on ISIS on social media.
Le Pen was officially charged with distributing “violent messages that incite terrorism or pornography or seriously harm human dignity,” despite the fact the images she shared were truthful depictions of Islamic terror.
Futurism reports: This is not the first case of consequences for sharing social media content. Yonatan Tesfaye, a former spokesperson for Ethiopia’s opposition party, was sentenced to more than six years of jail time last May for encouraging terrorist acts on Facebook.
BYPASS THE CENSORS
Sign up to get unfiltered news delivered straight to your inbox.
You can unsubscribe any time. By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use
In the U.K., there is a proposed tax penalty for leaving up violent images or extremist content, forcing companies to take action or pay the price. Additionally, in Russian,sharing certain depictions of Putin is now considered “extremism.” New regulations have already led to arrests.
A NEW PRECEDENT
In this case, Le Pen shared images that were captioned “Daesh is THIS” (Daesh is the Arabic acronym used for ISIS). She shared an image of the beheaded body of American journalist James Foley, which was later taken down after outrage from Foley’s family. She also shared an image of a man being run over by a tank and another of a man being burned alive in a cage.
Le Pen admitted no guilt to AFP, saying “I am being charged for having condemned the horrors of Daesh. In other countries, this would have earned me a medal.”
Legal taken in response to behavior on social media is a relatively new phenomenon. It is unclear whether those who like or retweet these shared images will also face penalties — though it seems unlikely.
Additionally, these charges raise the question of whether U.S. politicians could be convicted of similar crimes. President Trump drew harsh criticism from the U.K. after sharing extremists posts containing violent imagery, but it seems highly improbable that any legal action will be taken.
Le Pen potentially faces up to three years in jail as well as a fine of €75,000 (about $92,000). This could set a new precedent in the West for responding to such social media behavior and, in the future, could theoretically spark further convictions.
