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Twitter argues before Supreme Court that letting ISIS use platform not the same as aiding and abetting terror
Attorneys from Twitter and the Justice Department argued that specific knowledge of terror activity from certain accounts should be needed for liability
ADVERTISEMENTBy Ronn Blitzer | Fox News Februry 22, 2023:
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Does allowing a terrorist organization like ISIS use Twitter make the social media giant liable for terrorist acts that were aided by the use of the platform? That was the question before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, as Twitter and the Department of Justice insisted that it does not.
The case was brought by the family of Nawras Alassaf, one of the 39 people killed in a shooting at the Reina nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey on Jan. 1, 2017. ISIS took responsibility for the attack, and Alassaf’s family claim that Twitter and other social media companies should be held responsible for not taking proactive measures to take down ISIS accounts and posts that contributed to terrorism.
ADVERTISEMENTThe oral arguments focused on the language of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which says that “liability may be asserted as to any person who aids and abets, by knowingly providing substantial assistance” to a person who commits an act of international terrorism. The key words that the justices and attorneys took a magnifying glass to were “knowingly” and “substantial.”
On the element of substantiality, Justice Sonia Sotomayor boiled it down: “You knew that ISIS was using your platform. But on substantiality there’s a question of how much it helped ISIS, which is different from how much you helped them.”
Supreme Court hearing arguments in tech free speech cases Video
As for as knowledge, Twitter attorney Seth Waxman appeared to agree with Justice Clarence Thomas that a social media company does not necessarily have to know what or where a specific terror attack would be, just that they would “have to have a general awareness” that they were “assisting in overall illegal or tortious activities.”
Waxman also argued that it is not enough to know that a terrorist organization is using Twitter, because even a terrorist organization can engage in non-criminal activities. They would have to know, he argued, about specific accounts and posts that were contributing to terrorism.
He also argued that when it comes to substantiality, it is not enough to simply provide the same services that it provides to everyone else.
“As a matter of law, a court should conclude …that the failure to do more to remove content in the context of a service that is generally and widely provided to anybody who complies with the policies … does not amount to the knowing provision of substantial assistance,” Waxman said.
ADVERTISEMENTIn contrast, he gave a hypothetical where Twitter could be found liable for having more specific knowledge and failing to act.
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