Pro-ISIS tweets earned this American teen eleven years in prison

Ali Shukri Amin has never engaged in any kind of violent terrorism, but the 17-year-old American did operate a Twitter account that not only supported ISIS, but taught its 4,000 Twitter followers how to send money to the terrorist group using Bitcoin. Obviously this isn’t the kind of thing that’s going to make him popular with his fellow Americans, but does the Virginia teenager really deserve eleven years in prison? 

An American teenager was sentenced to 11 years in prison today for providing material support to terrorism. But Ali Shukri Amin, just 17 years old, never committed violence in the name of radical Islamic terrorism. His crime was running a Twitter account that celebrated the terrorist group and taught others how to send money through Bitcoin. Amin ran a Twitter account called @Amreekiwitness with roughly 4,000 followers before it was shut down. The account regularly posted positive tweets about ISIS and included tutorials on how to send money to them by using Bitcoin. The Virginia teenager also helped instruct one teenage ISIS recruit on how to get to Syria to fight for the terrorist organization. “ISIL continues to use social media to send their violent and hateful message around the world in an attempt to radicalize, recruit and incite youth and others to support their cause,” John Carlin, Assistant Attorney General for National Security said in a statement. “More and more, their propaganda is seeping into our communities and reaching those who are most vulnerable.”