The US Supreme Court decided in favor of Google, Meta, and Twitter on Thursday, saying that the social media juggernauts cannot be held liable for posts that contain content that supports terrorist organizations like the Islamic State (ISIS). A US victim of the 2015 Paris attacks filed two lawsuits, and the family of a victim of the ISIS group’s 2017 attack on an Istanbul nightclub filed the third. The judges pointed out that there was no culpable infringement in the complaints brought against social media corporations.
The terrorist attack victims who sued social media companies requested amendments to Section 230 of the statute, which shields online platforms from all claims resulting from third-party content on their websites. Even if the platform suggests offensive content to its users, the immunity still holds true. In 1996, Section 230 was enacted into law with the intention of protecting American citizens’ right to free expression. However, analysts are increasingly attributing the rise in offensive content on social media sites to the law.
The decision, according to a group that represents US tech companies, is positive
Social media businesses expressed great relief following the ruling on Thursday. They think that without the immunity provided by Section 230, the websites would be vulnerable to legal action over user-posted content. The decision, according to a group that represents US tech companies, is positive. “The court correctly recognized the narrow posture of these cases and declined to rewrite a key tenet of US Internet law, preserving free expression online and a thriving digital economy,” said Matt Schruers, head of the Computer & Communications Industry Association.
Congress is deeply split on the subject and has not updated the regulations to address cutting-edge concerns. To make TikTok, Meta, Twitter, and YouTube accountable for the content that occurs on their platforms, certain US states have introduced legislation. Last year, the Biden administration sided with a family attempting to sue Alphabet Inc.’s Google over a terrorist incident and pushed the US Supreme Court to hold social media corporations responsible for disseminating violent information. But throughout the past three years, the administration has failed to pass any legislation that would enable terrorist victims to sue the biggest social media companies.