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US Teen Pleads Guilty To Teaching ISIS About Bitcoin Via Twitter

Posted by timothy on from the don't-ever-edit-wikipedia dept.

jfruh writes: Ali Shukri Amin, a 17-year-old from Virginia, has pleaded guilty to charges that he aided ISIS by giving the group advice about using bitcoin. An odd and potentially troubling aspect of the charges is that this all took place in public — he Tweeted out links to an article on his blog about how bitcoin and Darknet could help jihadi groups, making it difficult to say whether he was publishing information protected under free speech or was directly advising the terrorist organization. Free speech qua speech isn't the only relevant charge, though: Amin "also admitted facilitating the travel of another teenager, 18-year-old Reza Niknejad, to Syria to join IS. Amin faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison if convicted."

3 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. Did he tweet... by Nutria · · Score: 2, Interesting

    here's how to use bitcoin, or did he tweet, hey Jihadists, here's how to use bitcoin and evade the NSA ? It makes a big difference.

    (No, I did not RTFA.)

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
  2. Re:Knowledge by Nutria · · Score: 4, Interesting

    At some point, you can't be held for responsible for the intentions of others

    Yes, at some point. There *is* a big grey middle, but the edges are also pretty clear.

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
  3. Re:Mixture by Pentium100 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My grandmother said that you could bitch about the government, though you would not be allowed to do that on TV or radio. Well, at least after Stalin's death.

    Also, I am not saying that the US is the same as Russia (or USSR), but it's getting there. If this continues, then after a few decades, it may become even more of a police state than USSR ever was. After all, the various agencies have spying capabilities that the KGB could only dream about. Automatic tracking of cars by photographing license plates, internet data mining, call data mining (speech recognition beats a guy listening to one conversation at a time).