The federal government should have a program for registered Muslim volunteers to help fight terror in cyberspace, a California congressman suggested on Thursday.
“There are many millions of Muslims and people from Muslim countries, Christians and Yazidis and others, who understand the culture, who would like to be engaging,” Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman said during a hearing at the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “We need to give them the tools and the encouragement. I’m not aware of any effort that said … not just if you see something, say something, but dedicate five hours a week of your time.”
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Sherman was speaking particularly in reference to Twitter, but also to user interactions on the Internet more broadly. He added that there should be a program for American Muslims to make it clear to federal authorities that they are trying to help.
“The other thing that’s missing here is if you look at my Web browser and you see that I visited Islamic, terrorist chatrooms, I probably don’t go on the no-fly list, I’m a member of this committee,” Sherman said. “We need a system by which people can register that they are on our side, that they are trying to engage the terrorists, even provide a copy of what they are doing to some agency of government, so that they feel free — because I assume that any Muslim-American who engaged creatively, one-on-one in a chatroom, would say some things that a prosecutor could put him in jail for.”
Sherman said as an example, “You’ve got to start with the idea of saying, ‘Gee, I understand that maybe you’re thinking of going to Syria and killing lots of people. I know where you’re coming from, but have you thought about this.’ That might be an effective argument, but it might also get you in front of a jury.”
“There’s no organized way for someone who wants to volunteer in this cyberwar to make sure that they don’t go to jail,” Sherman complained.
The remarks came in the context of a hearing on the Islamic State’s “virtual caliphate.” Members expressed bipartisan agreement that more needed to be done to counter terrorism in cyberspace.
“The pace of the cyberbombs as we sometimes call them … that we’re dropping on ISIS’ virtual sanctuary to take out these websites is like our campaign on its physical territory,” Chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., said in remarks earlier in the hearing. “It is slow and is inadequate to this task.”
Royce concurred that the federal government’s effort was insufficient and needed to evolve.
“Our public diplomacy efforts on electronic media, and social media, have been pretty much a bust. Dysfunctional, in the analysis of former State Department personnel,” he added. “At a basic level, key questions remain, including the type of message that would be most effective in the face of this virulent ideology.”
