Another Lawsuit And Another Loss For Plaintiffs Trying To Make Twitter Pay For Terrorism

Legal Issues

from the redefining-'social-media-strategy' dept

This flow of especially pointless lawsuits doesn’t appear be drying up — fed mainly from the (revenue) streams maintained by 1-800-LAW-FIRM and Excolo Law. Neither does the flow of courtroom losses. These two firms are responsible for most of the lawsuits we’ve covered that attempt to hold social media companies responsible for international acts of terrorism.

The legal theory behind the suits is weak. Attempting to avoid Section 230 immunity, the suits posit that the presence of terrorists on social media platforms is a violation of various federal laws targeting terrorist organizations. Section 230 defenses have been raised by Twitter, Facebook, et al, but these usually aren’t addressed by the courts because there’s not enough in the terrorism law-related arguments to keep the suits alive.

According to Eric Goldman — who has snagged the latest dismissal [PDF] — this is the seventh time a federal court has tossed one of these suits. If you’re familiar with the other cases we’ve covered, you know what’s coming. The California federal court’s decision quotes Ninth Circuit precedent from a similar lawsuit that said plaintiffs have to show a direct relationship between social media services’ action and the act of terrorism prompting the lawsuit. In this case, the complaint fails to do so.

In Fields, the Ninth Circuit addressed what is meant by the phrase “by reason of an act of international terrorism.” It began by noting that the “‘by reason of’ language requires a showing of proximate causation.” Fields, 881 F.3d at 744. It rejected the plaintiffs’ contention that “proximate causation is established under the ADA when a defendant’s ‘acts were a substantial factor in the sequence of responsible causation,’ and the injury at issue ‘was reasonably foreseeable or anticipated as a natural consequence.’” Id. Instead, it held that, “to satisfy the ATA’s ‘by reason of’ requirement, a plaintiff must show at least some direct relationship between the injuries that he or she suffered and the defendant’s acts.”4 Id. (emphasis added).

And, although the facts of this case are a little different than the cited decision, the allegations in the plaintiff’s lawsuit undermine its arguments about direct or proximal responsibility.

The instant case is somewhat different from Fields in that, here, Plaintiffs have made one allegation suggesting that Mr. Masharipov’s attack was in one way causally affected by ISIS’s presence on the social platforms. Specifically, Plaintiffs allege that Mr. Masharipov was “radicalized by ISIS’s use of social media.” FAC ¶ 493. However, this conclusory allegation is insufficient to support a plausible claim of proximate causation.

Plaintiffs do not allege that Mr. Masharipov ever saw any specific content on social media related to ISIS. Nor are there even any factual allegations that Mr. Masharipov maintained a Facebook, YouTube, and/or Twitter account. Furthermore, there are allegations in the complaint suggesting that there were other sources of radicalization for Mr. Masharipov. See, e.g., FAC ¶ 337 (alleging that Mr. Masharipov “had previously received military training with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2011”); see also Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678 (stating that, “[w]here a complaint pleads facts that are ‘merely consistent with’ a defendant’s liability, it ‘stops short of the line between possibility and plausibility of “entitlement to relief”’”). Finally, a direct relationship is highly questionable in light of allegations suggestive of intervening or superseding causes – in particular, Plaintiffs have alleged that, after becoming radicalized, Mr. Masharipov would have a “year-long communication and coordination [with] Islamic State emir Abu Shuhada” to carry out the Reina attack. FAC ¶ 334. Moreover, Plaintiffs fail to allege any clear or direct linkage between Defendants’ platforms and the Reina attack.

The allegations under another anti-terrorism law are no better. This argument posits the existence of terrorist-owned accounts is the same thing as providing support for terrorist acts or organizations. The court again finds the allegations don’t approach the legal requirements for liability.

Here, Plaintiffs have failed to allege that Defendants played a major or integral part in ISIS’s terrorist attacks; for example, there are no allegations that ISIS has regularly used Defendants’ platforms to communicate in support of terrorist attacks. Also, for factor (4), i.e., the defendant’s relation to the principal wrongdoer, the Halberstam court indicated that a close relationship or a relationship where the defendant had a position of authority could weigh in favor of substantial assistance. Here, there is no real dispute that the relationship between Defendants and ISIS is an arms’-length one – a market relationship at best. Rather than providing targeted financial support,[…] Defendants provided routine services generally available to members of the public. As to factor (5), i.e., the defendant’s state of mind, the Halberstam court indicated that, where the defendant “showed he was one in spirit” with the principal wrongdoer, id., that could also weigh in favor of substantial assistance. Cf. NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. 886, 920 (1982) (noting that, “[f]or liability to be imposed by reason of association alone, it is necessary to establish that the group itself possessed unlawful goals and that the individual held a specific intent to further those illegal aims”). But here there is no allegation that Defendants have any intent to further ISIS’s terrorism.

The entire suit — including state claims for wrongful death and emotional distress — are dismissed with prejudice. The only thing left for the plaintiffs to do is appeal, and this decision quotes generously from this jurisdiction’s appellate decision in a similar case, which should hopefully deter them from wasting any more of the Ninth Circuit’s time.

Filed Under: cda 230, intermediary liability, material support, section 230, terrorism
Companies: twitter