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Twitter, Facebook and Google being sued amidst claims they knowingly ‘aided Paris attacks’
TheNextWeb ^ | 16 June, 2016 | Bryan Clark

Posted on 06/17/2016 7:39:32 AM PDT by DrJeff

Reynaldo Gonzalez’s daughter, Nohemi, was among the 130 killed when religious extremists attacked Paris last year. Now, he’s suing Twitter, Facebook and Google for facilitating the spread of “extremist propaganda” after alleging the trio “knowingly permitted” ISIS to recruit, raise money and spread its message across each of the respective platforms.

According to court documents:

“For years, [the companies] have knowingly permitted the terrorist group ISIS to use their social networks as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds and attracting new recruits.

This material support has been instrumental to the rise of ISIS, and has enabled it to carry out numerous terrorist attacks, including the 13 November 2015 attacks in Paris, where more than 125 were killed, including Nohemi Gonzalez.”

Gonzalez goes on to allege that without Twitter, Facebook and Google-owned YouTube, religious extremists would not have the infrastructure to get their message to the masses.

Lawsuits like this are especially troubling, as each company goes to great lengths to police its ranks and remove offending content.

Having a team of moderators capable of viewing hundreds of millions of collective pieces of new content a day is a task that even large companies can, and do, struggle with. It’s a statistical impossibility to maintain that any company of this size can review — or even find — all instances of offensive content.

For now, we’re stuck with random manual review, user flagging offensive content and artificial intelligence that scans — and often finds — content that requires human moderation.

As AI continues to improve, you’ll see fewer instances of extremism and other offensive content. For now, think of it as the price of admission to an open Web.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: france; paris; terrorism; twitter
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To: Boogieman
If the company can show they acted in good faith, and simply didn’t have the necessary resources to catch everything, they should win the suit. The only sites that really need to be worried are ones where terrorist-related stuff is being reported, but nothing is ever done about it.

That appears to be the heart of the case and the exact case the plaintiff is prepared to make.

“For years, [the companies] have knowingly permitted the terrorist group ISIS to use their social networks as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds and attracting new recruits.

21 posted on 06/17/2016 8:53:28 AM PDT by TheDon (BO must be replaced immediately for the good of the nation and the world!)
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To: DrJeff

In view of this trio’s current pro-islam and anti-homosexual censorship I think this guys got good chance of winning his case. I hope he breaks them.


22 posted on 06/17/2016 9:17:04 AM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again,")
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To: TheDon

Right, but “knowingly” is the key there. If a website does it “unknowingly”, then you might have a case for negligence, but you’d get a far smaller judgement for negligence than intentional malfeasance.


23 posted on 06/17/2016 9:42:48 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: DrJeff

Hope he makes them hemorrhage money.
Everything jihadists say and on the internet is “hate speech.”
The big techies are aiding and abetting terrorism.
Look for it to get worse when the UN takes over the internet.


24 posted on 06/17/2016 10:49:37 AM PDT by mumblypeg (Make America Sane Again.)
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To: Boogieman
Agreed. That is the case the plaintiffs are claiming.

“For years, [the companies] have knowingly permitted the terrorist group ISIS to use their social networks as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds and attracting new recruits.

25 posted on 06/17/2016 12:59:25 PM PDT by TheDon (BO must be replaced immediately for the good of the nation and the world!)
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