The draft bill, which has been sent by the Ministry of the Interior for consultation states that current legal frameworks do not provide sufficient tools to prevent or combat radicalization, which would, in turn prevent incidences of terrorism before any crimes are committed.

The draft bill describes the activities of the Feuerkrieg Division, which was convicted in Estonia for promoting right-wing extremist ideology, as an example of terrorist propaganda being used to recruit new members.

Legal experts believe the proposed bill raises several serious questions, including the risk that the state will engage in thought control and total surveillance.

Legal expert Paloma Krõõt Tupay said the first issue regards legal clarity and certainty.

"People need to understand what actions are punishable. How long are they allowed to view something, or what are they allowed to view? This raises the risk of thought control," said Tupay.

"We have researchers and journalists who study Islamic terrorism, for example—how should they operate? We have the freedom to inform ourselves. It is also unclear how to define a journalist, for example, because nowadays this definition can also include opinion leaders and bloggers," Tupay explained.

Tupay said all attempts at thought control operate in a dangerous area as they aim to control people's attitudes. "Should thoughts be punishable? Up to now, our legal system has judged people on their behavior, not their thoughts. The question here is what kind of society we want to live in—as long as a person's thoughts do not pose a threat to anyone else, control over them should be kept to a minimum," said Tupay.

Tupay pointed out that it is also important to consider how much material is presented to people online due to different algorithms. "When we look at what young people are viewing on the internet today, it's not pretty, but should that be punishable?" said Tupay.

According to the legal expert, it makes no sense for Estonia to deploy large numbers of officials to monitor young people who are viewing content on the internet.

"This would require hiring so many officials that Estonia's tax revenue would not be able to cover the costs. However, without enough officials, the regulation would be ineffective. Therefore, we first ought to assess the extent to which our existing resources are capable of monitoring people who are in high-risk groups and who could already be monitored by the security agencies," said Tupay.

Center MP: Implementing proposed law requires total surveillance

Center Party MP Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvart had a similar take on the matter.

"We must be cautious about all new proposals that lead to additional surveillance of society and, of course, additional punishments. If we read this draft bill, we see a desire to start punishing people for their thoughts. While it has always been a principle of criminal law that punishment is imposed for committing or aiding and abetting a crime, this interpretation is now so broad that it could be used to punish people for their thoughts or simply for watching something," said Kovalenko-Kõlvart.

Kovalenko-Kõlvart pointed out that the interpretation in the draft law regarding how terrorist propaganda will be dealt with is vague and leaves a lot of room for interpretation as to who is considered a terrorist, what propaganda is and what is not, as well as what can be deemed to be right-wing extremist propaganda.

"This could lead to abuse of the law," said the Center MP.

Kovalenko-Kõlvart also pointed out that implement the law, a total surveillance system would have to be put in place.

"It monitors society, for example, what someone is viewing on their computer, what someone is looking at on their smartphone and what is being written to them. But the draft bill does not specify how that monitoring will take place. It only mentions that the workload of law enforcement agencies will increase, and so, we can understand that this means that an additional system will be put in place," said Kovalenko-Kõlvart.

Kovalenko-Kõlvart noted that recently, a number of new provisions have been added to the Penal Code concerning incitement to commit a crime, incitement to commit terrorism or incitement of war.

"We have very specific provisions covering various types of threats. This raises the question of why a new provision is being introduced at the same time as the draft law specifically states that there is no problem with terrorist crimes in Estonia. Yes, these are very turbulent times in the world, but we still need to think twice before adopting various provisions and laws that will result in additional surveillance of what people are viewing on the internet," said Kovalenko-Kõlvart.

Legal scholar: Viewing does not mean approval

Lawyer and legal scholar Carri Ginter said that everyone is able to broaden their horizons and see what kind of nonsense exists – but doing so should not automatically be punishable.

"If a person looks at this channel and thinks that what they see is wrong, how can that be punishable? If I watch something, it does not mean I approve of it," said Ginter.

When it comes to the bigger picture, however, Ginter does not know whether monitoring terrorist propaganda is such a huge problem in Estonia that it warrants being responded to with a ban.

"Most of the time, when a shortcoming is observed in [the existing] legislation, it is simply down to a lack of imagination," said Ginter.

"In most cases, the law already enables us to deal with the existing problems in society. I would be concerned with whether we are able to come up with the next ban and punishment – that's a bit unimaginative," said Ginter.

"It's one thing when a person produces content that is dangerous. But it's another thing when I watch it. I used to watch Russia Today, not because I approve of it, but to see how the enemy thinks," said the lawyer.

One case should not be considered sufficient grounds to change the law, Ginter said.

The Ministry of the Interior is currently gathering feedback on the draft bill. If everything goes according to the officials' plan, the amendments to the Penal Code should come into force after they receive approval by the Riigikogu in the second half of next year.

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