Supreme Court takes up a divisive issue: Should tech companies have immunity over problematic user content?
The Supreme Court agreed to hear a case alleging YouTube helped aid and abet the killing of a U.S. woman, Nohemi Gonzalez, in the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris.
The Supreme Court on Monday stepped into the politically divisive issue of whether tech companies should have immunity over problematic content posted by users, agreeing to hear a case alleging that YouTube helped aid and abet the killing of an American woman in the 2015 Islamic State terrorist attacks in Paris.
The family of Nohemi Gonzalez, one of 130 people killed in a series of linked attacks carried out by the militant Muslim group, argued that YouTube’s active role in recommending videos overcomes the liability shield for internet companies that Congress imposed in 1996 as part of the Communications Decency Act.
Nohemi Gonzalez.Cal State via FacebookThe provision, Section 230 of the act, says internet companies are not liable for content posted by users. It has come under heavy scrutiny from the right and left in recent years, with conservatives claiming that companies are inappropriately censoring content and liberals saying that social media companies are spreading dangerous right-wing rhetoric. The provision leaves it to companies to decide whether certain content should be removed and does not require them to be politically neutral.
Gonzalez was a 23-year-old college student studying in France when she was killed while dining at a restaurant during the wave of attacks, which also targeted the Bataclan concert hall.
Her family is seeking to sue Google-owned YouTube for allegedly allowing ISIS to spread its message. The lawsuit targets YouTube’s use of algorithms to suggest videos for users based on content they have previously viewed. YouTube’s active role goes beyond the kind of conduct that Congress intended to protect with Section 230, the family’s lawyers allege. They say in court papers that the company “knowingly permitted ISIS to post on YouTube hundreds of radicalizing videos inciting violence” that helped the group recruit supporters, some of whom then conducted terrorist attacks. YouTube’s video recommendations were key to helping spread ISIS’s message, the lawyers say. The plaintiffs do not allege that YouTube had any direct role in the killing.
Rating: 5