The Justice Department said Friday that Tweeting support and aide to ISIL is the same as picking up a gun or knife and joining them and they have the prison sentence and lifetime supervised relief to back it up.
DOJ said that a Manassas, Va., teenager, Ali Shukri Amin, 17, has been sentenced to over a dozen years in prison, then monitoring of his Internet activities for a lifetime for using social media, including Twitter, "to provide material support to ISIL."
Amin pled guilty to in June to using Twitter to give advice and encouragement to ISIL, including providing instructions on how to use BitCoin to hide funds. He also used Twitter to help supporters trying to travel to Syria to join ISIL. That included aide to a Virginia 18-year-old who traveled to Syria and has subsequently been charged with conspiring to aide terrorists.
“Today’s sentencing demonstrates that those who use social media as a tool to provide support and resources to ISIL will be identified and prosecuted with no less vigilance than those who travel to take up arms with ISIL,” said U.S. Attorney Dana Boente in announcing the sentencing. "“Amin’s case serves as a reminder of how persistent and pervasive online radicalization has become," added Assistant Director in Charge Andrew McCabe, of the FBI’s Washington field office.
