Great Britain Threatens 15 Years in Prison for Repeatedly Watching ‘Terrorist Material’

The UK’s home secretary, Amber Rudd, is the latest bureaucrat to highlight the increased global trend of governments going completely insane. Her latest plan is to threaten the British population with up to 15 years in prison for the crime of watching “terrorist material.” Yes, you read that right.

The Guardian reports:

People who repeatedly view terrorist content online could face up to 15 years behind bars in a move designed to tighten the laws tackling radicalisation the home secretary, Amber Rudd, is to announce on Tuesday.

A new maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment will also apply to terrorists who publish information about members of the armed forces, police and intelligence services for the purposes of preparing acts of terrorism.

The tightening of the law around viewing terrorist material is part of a review of the government’s counter-terrorism strategy following the increasing frequency of terrorist attacks in Britain this year.

“I want to make sure those who view despicable terrorist content online, including jihadi websites, far-right propaganda and bomb-making instructions, face the full force of the law,” said Rudd. “There is currently a gap in the law around material [that] is viewed or streamed from the internet without being permanently downloaded. 

According to the Home Office the updated offence will ensure that only those found to repeatedly view online terrorist material will be guilty of the offence, to safeguard those who click on a link by mistake or who could argue that they did so out of curiosity rather than with criminal intent. A defence of “reasonable excuse” would still be available to academics, journalists or others who may have a legitimate reason to view such material.

The UK is clearly embracing pre-crime here, since it’s clear someone watching terrorist propaganda in the privacy of their own home does not harm anyone else. Thus, this is a victimless crime, and as I’ve maintained on many occasions, I do not believe such a thing exists. If there’s no victim, there’s no crime.

What the UK is arguing here is that watching “terrorist material” increases the likelihood of someone committing a violent terrorist attack in the future. So you’re actually being punished for what you might potentially do in the future. This is pre-crime and it’s totally insane. Beyond that, we can pretty much guarantee that the definition of “terrorist material” will expand over time to whatever politicians don’t want the rabble exposed to.

But it gets worse still. Here’s what Rudd had to say about her government’s demented crusade against technology itself.

Rudd also caused some consternation at the fringe meeting by criticising the tech industry for their “patronising” attitude that “sneered” at politicians who did not always get it right. She claimed it was not necessary for her to understand how end-to-end encryption worked to know that it was helping criminals.

It’d be funny if it weren’t so incredibly sad.

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In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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7 thoughts on “Great Britain Threatens 15 Years in Prison for Repeatedly Watching ‘Terrorist Material’”

  1. … meanwhile another british bureaucrat signs off on another lucrative weapons deal to provide bombs to drop on civilians, let us say the latest victims of daily terrorism; the yeminis.

    So a civilians victimless crime in the uk could now mean 15 years prison, whereas those actually responsible for frequent mass terrorist crimes in numerous countries get to judge those that … only watch terrorist crimes.

    All makes perfect sense if one has no brains, doesn’t it.

    Reply
  2. It all makes complete sense if they are so completely used to getting away with murder–factually, not as a simile–that they have grown unable to even see the irony dripping from their lips. Mass murderers threatening people with years in prison for just viewing that which they routinely approve of each day.

    It is getting to be more and more self-evident how revolutions start, why they are so brutal and how complete the obliteration of the Old Order can be by the time it’s spent itself.

    These people are asking to have their heads mounted on pikes.

    Reply
  3. “Far right”. Notice they said NOTHING about the “far left”. Not hard at all to tell where this is going. You couldn’t pay me enough to live in that hellhole.

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  4. I am just getting sick of it all. Democracy is ending. Democracy is dead when they take away the freedom of the press. !5 years for watching material exploring the views of others. This is taking away the ability to learn about different cultures. The best way to stop terrorism is to watch terrorist video’s Why? Because often these terrorists are complaining about a injustice. If you solve and remedy the injustice then the terrorism ideas die down. But if nobody watches the video’s then they will never feel the pain of the injustice and the injustice continues. The terrorists then get bigger in number and more radical. If this law gets in-acted it will be guaranteed to make terrorism much worse.

    These politicians do not work for the people and this new law proves it. They work for the elite. These Elitist bought politicians tell everybody one thing and do something selfish, power hungry and greedy behind everyone’s back. They like the money and power and are causing these injustices all over the world. They cause terrorist activity all over the world. So now they want to control how the populace think.

    This is a very sad day and marks the beginning of the end.

    Reply
  5. The true terrorists are the cabal of evil criminals that control our banks media and politicians. They constantly commit the most atrocious and evil terrorist acts over the control of oil, ng, banking and other resources in other countries just to feed the greed and increase their power and influence over others.

    Reply

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