Twitter terrorist claim overview:ย
- Who: The United States Supreme Court ruled that Twitter, Facebook and Google were not responsible for aiding and abetting an attack from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. ย
- Why: A pair of lawsuits, which were blocked, claimed that the social media platforms aided and abetted two terrorist attacks.
- Where: The ruling came from the United States Supreme Court related to ISIS actions in Turkey.
The United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Twitter, Facebook and Google were not responsible for aiding and abetting an attack from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria on the Reina Nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey. A second lawsuit against Google related to coordinated attacks killing 130 people in Paris, France, was also blocked.
โNone of plaintiffsโ allegations suggest that defendants culpably โassociate[d themselves] withโ the Reina attack, โparticipate[d] in it as something that [they] wishe[d] to bring about,โ or sought โby [their] action to make it succeed,โ the ruling, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, stated in the Twitter Inc. v. Taamneh, et al., opinion.
The creation of social media networks are no more responsible for the attacks than those who created cell phones, email or the internet, Thomas wrote in the Supreme Court Twitter ruling.
The plaintiffs in the case did not provide reasons that the social media networks would be involved in the nightclub attack nor did they show proof that the relationship with ISIS was more than the normal relationship with any social media user, according to the Supreme Court Twitter ruling.
Google not responsible for ISIS videos before Paris attack that killed 130, ruling says
The Supreme Court also ruled that Google was not responsible for a Paris, France, set of coordinated attacks that killed 130, according to a separate ruling in Reynoldo Gonzalez, et al, petitioners v. Google LLC.
Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old American, was killed in the attacks and the lawsuit had claimed that Google had benefited from a profit-sharing agreement with ISIS related to videos posted to its account. The ruling noted that much of the Google case fell under the Twitter terrorist ruling.
Twitter is currently facing a class action lawsuit stating that it secretly used users telephone numbers and email addresses for advertising and marketing.
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