[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19799]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        SOCIAL MEDIA, A TOOL OF FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, terrorists have used Twitter to 
convert thousands of young American minds and recruit new jihadists for 
ISIS.
  Federal law prohibits giving aid or helping a designated foreign 
terrorist organization. These FTOs use Twitter, an American company, as 
a tool, and no one is adequately stopping them.
  Why are American companies and the U.S. Government allowing social 
media platforms to be hijacked by terrorists? Some say shutting down 
terrorists' social media accounts would be violating free speech. That 
is nonsense. They are wrong. The United States Supreme Court has 
already ruled there are no constitutional protections for foreign 
terrorist organizations to incite violence. Allowing terrorists to wage 
their cyber war with America has helped radicalize thousands of foreign 
fighters and raise millions of dollars online.
  Today, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed my bill, co-
authored by my friend, Mr. Connolly from Virginia, the Combat Terrorist 
Use of Social Media Act. This bill requires the administration to come 
up with a comprehensive strategy to counter terrorists' cyber war and 
use of social media.
  Private American companies should not be operating as the war 
propaganda mouthpiece of designated foreign terrorist organizations 
like ISIS.
  And that is just the way it is.

                          ____________________