A federal jury on Monday convicted a onetime student at DePaul University of trying to help the Islamic State in the form of a computer script that helped disseminate the terrorist group’s propaganda.
Prosecutors said Thomas Osadzinski, 22, designed a process that uses a computer script to make Islamic State propaganda, including videos, more conveniently accessed and disseminated by users on the social media platform Telegram, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
The case was believed to be the first of its kind — a terrorism case brought against a U.S.-based defendant involving computer code.
Defense attorney Joshua Herman insisted the case ran up against fundamental questions about free speech, telling jurors in closing arguments Friday that Osadzinski “had a right to watch those videos. He had a right to share those videos.”
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Osadzinski was first charged in November 2019.
