Judge Dismisses Case Against Social Media After Club Rampage
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed against Facebook, Google and Twitter by families of patrons killed in the 2016 Orlando nightclub massacre.
April 02, 2018 at 12:07 PM
3 minute read
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed against Facebook, Google and Twitter by families of patrons killed in the 2016 Orlando nightclub massacre.
In his ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge David Lawson found no legal merit for the case filed in December 2016 in Detroit by the families of Tevin Crosby, Juan Ramon Guerrero Jr., Javier Jorge-Reyes and others. They claimed gunman Omar Mateen was radicalized by propaganda found through social media.
“There are many conclusions that can be drawn from the facts alleged in the amended complaint about the ethics and moral responsibility of those maintaining social media sites, including the defendants,” Lawson wrote. “But because the plaintiffs have not pleaded facts that plausibly establish legal claims for which relief can be granted, the court will grant the motion and dismiss the case.”
Lawson concluded the complaint offered no facts suggesting the videos and other messages “had anything at all directly to do with the shooting, other than that the principles espoused in them motivated Mateen to carry out the dreadful act.” During the June 2016 rampage that killed 49 at Pulse nightclub, Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in telephone conversations with a 911 operator and a police negotiator. He was killed in a shootout with SWAT team members after a three-hour standoff.
A similar lawsuit against Twitter was dismissed in 2016 and affirmed two months ago by a federal appeals court. In that case, a federal judge in San Francisco agreed with Twitter that the company cannot be held liable because federal law protects service providers that merely offer platforms for speech, without creating the speech itself.
Lawson said the judges in that case were “confronting strikingly similar allegations” and found no “causal connection” between Twitter accounts and a terrorist attack. In his ruling, Lawson wrote that plaintiffs similarly failed to show that defendants “engaged in conduct subjecting them to liability for Mateen's terrorist act.”
“Although certain organizations, most notably banks, occasionally have been found liable under these federal statutes for aiding international terrorists … there is not a single case in which social media providers have been held responsible,” he wrote. “And in several other cases, attempts to make out such a case have failed.”
Jeff Karoub reports for the Associated Press.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllAfter Miami Arrest, Top Real Estate Broker Brothers Facing Sex Crimes Charges
US Judge Throws Out Sale of Infowars to The Onion. But That's Not the End of the Road for Sandy Hook Families
4 minute read3 Incidents Lead to Charges Against the Alexander Brothers; Cousin Remains at Large
3 minute readAmid Growing Litigation Volume, Don't Expect UnitedHealthcare to Change Its Stripes After CEO's Killing
6 minute readTrending Stories
- 1A Tech-Enabled Approach to Professional Development Is the Path Forward for Young Lawyers
- 2Trying to Reason With Hurricane Season: Mediating First Party Property Insurance Claims
- 3People in the News—Dec. 12, 2024—Pietragallo Gordon, Fox Rothschild
- 4Recent Decisions from the United States District Court for the Eastern District
- 5SoundCloud GC Takes Legal Reins of Condé Nast at Tumultuous Time
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250