Terrorist activity on Google-owned service?

Online free speech issues have made many headlines of late, from China to MySpace. But one area that hasn't been discussed as much lately is online activity by terrorists.

USA Today reported this week that Al-Qaeda supporters are using Orkut, "a popular, worldwide Internet service owned by Google, to rally support for Osama bin Laden, share videos and Web links promoting terrorism and recruit non-Arabic-speaking Westerners, according to terrorism experts and a survey of the sites."

Although it's difficult to imagine that a terrorist organization would outline its next attack on the Web, the site could still become a test case at the legal intersection of free speech, national security and jurisdictional boundaries in cyberspace.

Blog community response:

"People chat and whinge and threaten and gossip in online communities the same way they do in real life--more so, in fact, as retribution is less likely. The 'Osama' community has at most 2,000 members, out of perhaps 13 million in the Orkut community. That's not many anti-Americans when you think about it!"
--Laurel Papworth

"The First Amendment doesn't apply to Al-Qaeda sympathizers if they are located outside the U.S. or are more importantly non-U.S. citizens. If they are located within the U.S., then Google would be powering terrorism on our own soil. Basically, there is no legitimate reason for Google to allow such content on Orkut."
--Technosight

"Google's social networking tool is the current actor in the ongoing drama of terrorism online. The article is uneven tonally. It likes to use 'community' in scare-quotes. There's the classic haunted internet emphasis on the corruption of children."
--Infocult