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91_HB0787eng HB0787 Engrossed LRB9102215RCcs 1 AN ACT to amend the Criminal Code of 1961 by adding 2 Section 16D-5.5. 3 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, 4 represented in the General Assembly: 5 Section 5. The Criminal Code of 1961 is amended by 6 adding Section 16D-5.5 as follows: 7 (720 ILCS 5/16D-5.5 new) 8 Sec. 16D-5.5. Computerized dissemination of information 9 in furtherance of gang-related activity. 10 (a) A person who, by use of the Internet or on-line 11 service, disseminates in a form accessible to persons any 12 verbal, written, or pictorial items or imagery utilized by a 13 criminal street gang and distributed in furtherance of the 14 activities of the criminal street gang including, but not 15 limited to, recruiting or aiding in the recruitment of 16 criminal street gang members, communications between criminal 17 street gang members, or communications from criminal street 18 gang members to the general public offering gang-related 19 goods or services for sale, including controlled substances, 20 commits the offense of computerized dissemination of 21 information in furtherance of gang-related activity. 22 (b) Defenses. It is not a violation of this Section to: 23 (1) Disseminate gang-related data communication 24 between law enforcement agencies or law enforcement 25 officers; 26 (2) Disseminate gang-related information for 27 purposes of law enforcement, including posting of Web 28 pages by law enforcement agencies or law enforcement 29 officers to inform the public of the existence of imagery 30 of specified criminal street gangs; or 31 (3) Disseminate gang-related information for HB0787 Engrossed -2- LRB9102215RCcs 1 purposes of news gathering and news publication. 2 (c) Sentence. Computerized dissemination of information 3 in furtherance of gang-related activity is a Class 4 felony. 4 (d) Definitions. For purposes of this Section: 5 (1) "Criminal street gang" and "gang-related" have 6 the meanings ascribed to them in Section 10 of the 7 Illinois Streetgang Terrorism Omnibus Prevention Act. 8 (2) "Internet" includes the World Wide Web, 9 electronic mail, message board, chat area, a newsgroup 10 posting, or Internet file transfer.