The effort by the GOP (and some Democrats) to remove protections provided by Section 230 has been considerable over the last few years.
There was finally a case to address this before the Supreme Court.
Republicans surely thought his case would lay the groundwork to remove those protections, but they were wrong.
Not Just Yet
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act does not hold platforms such as Facebook and Twitter accountable for all posts on the sites.
Many believe that with the censoring effort of these platforms, they should lose that protection.
Twitter v. Taamneh sought to hold these platforms responsible for the death of Nawrs Alassaf.
Alassaf was killed in a Turkish nightclub, with the family believing Twitter allowed ISIS to openly recruit on the platform.
They believe that is what ultimately led to the terrorist attack at the club where Alassaf was killed.
The court ruled unanimously against the plaintiff, with Justice Clarence Thomas penning the opinion.
He wrote, “The nexus between defendants and the Reina attack is far removed.
“As alleged by plaintiffs, defendants designed virtual platforms and knowingly failed to do ‘enough’ to remove ISIS-affiliated users and ISIS-related content — out of hundreds of millions of users worldwide and an immense ocean of content — from their platforms.
“Yet, plaintiffs have failed to allege that defendants intentionally provided any substantial aid to the Reina attack or otherwise consciously participated in the Reina attack — much less that defendants so pervasively and systemically assisted ISIS as to render them liable for every ISIS attack. ”
The court found that the allegations “are insufficient to establish that these defendants aided and abetted ISIS in carrying out the relevant attack.”
The only good news is that the court left open the ability to challenge this again in the future with a better case.
Source: New York Times
