Supreme Court justices searched Wednesday for a way to determine when large social media companies used by terrorists cross the line into aiding and abetting them in their attacks.
Relatives of a person killed in a terrorist attack in Istanbul have sued three large tech companies, arguing they didn’t do enough to keep the terrorists from using the platforms, which fueled the terrorists’ power and reach.Justices sought to figure out how to apply anti-terrorism laws to a world where the internet dominates transactions and communications.
“You have to have a general awareness that you are assisting in illegal or tortious activity,” said Seth Waxman, Twitter’s lawyer. “You had to have provided substantial assistance to an act of international terrorism that injured the plaintiff.” “This should be a jury question, shouldn’t it?” Justice Kagan said. “You’re helping by providing your service to those people.”Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler said that simply using a computer service is too “remote from the act of terrorism.”
The case was the second before the high court this week dealing with tech giants’ liability. On Tuesday, the justices heard a challenge to Google, which owns YouTube. That case was brought by relatives of Nohemi Gonzalez, an American who was killed in Paris in an ISIS attack, who said YouTube was liable for building the Islamic State through its algorithms that promote ISIS content to those who go searching for it.
Eric Schnapper, who represented the victims’ families, said the companies are responsible because they “recommend things … knowing what’s happening.”
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