A new anti-terrorism bill would allow the government to take away vital tax exemptions from nonprofit news outlets and media organizations.

A bigger article about the motivations and implications of the bill originally discussed here. The bill has passed the House and is “likely to make its way to the Senate floor in another form soon.”

Funding terrorism is already illegal, but the new bill would let the government avoid the red tape required for criminal prosecutions or official terrorist designations.

You might think actionable support of terrorism is limited to intentional, direct contributions to terror groups. You’d be mistaken. Existing laws on material support for terrorism have long been criticized for their overbreadth and potential for abuse, not only against free speech but also against humanitarian aid providers. A recent letter from 135 rights organizations opposing the bill highlighted efforts to revoke the tax-exempt status of, or otherwise retaliate against, pro-Palestine student groups.

. . .

The letter also highlighted that “material support” for terrorist groups — both a federal and state crime — can include “writing and distributing publications supporting the organization.” It did not elaborate on what would be considered support, potentially chilling any reporting that does not unequivocally condemn Hamas or unilaterally support Israel.

. . .

If there is any doubt about the nonprofit bill’s backers’ intentions, consider that five of its House sponsors also signed onto a letter to the Internal Revenue Service asking how it defines antisemitism and insinuating that the IRS should deny tax-exempt status to nonprofits that “promote conduct that is counter to public policy,” even if they’re not accused of supporting terrorism at all.

  • Justice@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    8·
    6 months ago

    “No one cares about hypocrisy” Yes yes but always worth pointing it out when it’s so blatant

    “Money is speech” is essentially how SCOTUS sees corporations and individuals (legally) bribing politicians

    But money is NOT speech if given to groups associated with those on the arbitrary list of terrorists the state department cooks up. You know it isn’t speech because the first amendment would allow anyone to donate to any organization regardless of designation by the state as it would be covered under free speech.

    Cool and fun thing there. If it benefits politicians directly = acceptable free speech. If it potentially harms or questions US foreign policy (or often doesn’t, just added arbitrarily to the list as punishment) = can’t do that, and it’s illegal. Cool

    Additionally, churches are non-profit, including the “mega churches” which aren’t churches but rather just scams to funnel personal funding to micro celebrity demons.

    I don’t have much issue with a legitimate religious organization collecting tithes/donations to maintain a place of worship and provide compensation to the people giving sermons, etc.

    I do have a major problem when the leaders of these churches are

    1. stealing all those funds for themselves (some of them personally own private jets!) but more importantly for this article

    2)THEY EXPLICITLY TELL THEIR FLOCK (or whatever wording) TO VOTE FOR A SPECIFIC POLITICIAN BECAUSE THAT PERSON IS, WHATEVER, PRO ISRAEL, ANTI-TAXING THEIR ILLEGAL NON-PROFIT, etc.

    There’s videos recently of one of these guys, and this has been going on for decades don’t worry, talking about flying to DC to push for more pro Israel legislation (how the fuck the US could be more pro Israel is a mystery to me). He’s saying explicitly to vote for Trump because it’s good for Israel and will move us closer to their insane idea of Armageddon and all that shit. I don’t care about it being Trump, because Biden is the same on the issue, but the hypocrisy and blatant abuse, accepted by everyone apparently with any power to end it (cough IRS) is right out in the open. If they wanna fully strip non profits of funding for being “political” go ahead and target the most political ones first… those insane right wing, “Jews have horns” evangelical churches. Then we can talk. But of course the people pushing such legislation either belong to those churches or get paid enough to look the other way because taking those churches down would presumably harm fundraising for pro-Israel politicians and harm overall actual support like voting which they count on. (And yes I know some black churches have also historically called on their members to vote a certain way, usually for the Democrat whoever it is. Maybe churches shouldn’t be in the business of doing this at all is the cop out. My real opinion is the demonic mega church leaders are legitimately evil. The black churches, most of them from what I’ve seen, are pretty based. So, “some things are good and some things are bad” but for hypocrisy sake, fine, no one can endorse specific politicians at religious places OR they have to pay taxes. Seems easy)