Long Arm of the Law Reaches Out to Innocence of Muslims Filmmaker

Probation violation brings him into federal custody

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, better known as Sam Becile, the filmmaker behind Innocence of Muslims, an anti-Islamic film that sparked protests throughout the Muslim world, was taken into federal custody, likely for violating a probation that includes a prohibition on internet use. Federal authorities began to review Nakoula's probation days after the protests started, bringing him in to talk and even opened an investigation into the film. While he was convicted of credit-card fraud and identity theft, Nakoula was likely also an FBI informant (the feds tend to have quite a few). While Nakoula may seem an unsavory criminal type, the average American could commit as many as three felonies a day, bringing everyone within convenient reach of the law. Anti-anti-Muslim protester Mona Eltahawy, meanwhile, mistook vandalizing private property for free speech and arrest for the former as censorship of the latter.

An important reminder about free speech, and on Reason TV, Remy imagines a world without YouTube, a conduit for Innocence of Muslims, and target of governments looking to look tough on blasphemy (or "hate speech"):