Families Of Victims In Orlando Nightclub Shooting File Lawsuit Against Top Social Networks
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Three families of victims in the Orlando nightclub massacre have filed a lawsuit against three social networks.
The suit accuses Facebook, Twitter, and Google of "knowingly and recklessly" allowing accounts associated with ISIS to exist. Terrorists used the platforms, according to the court documents, to spread extremist propaganda, raise money, and attract new recruits.
Philadelphia intellectual property attorney Richard Pierce believes it will be a hard case to make in court.
"They want to attach some level of liability as a result of this content being allowed to be posted and then more so that in fact that the social media sites are economically gaining from having this content posted, that there's maybe advertisement associated with it and other types of revenue that's being generated."
But federal law shields social media platforms from liability for the speech of others.
"Their defense is going to be that they are a passive conduit that the content that is ultimately being posted is not their content that it is third party content."
A similar lawsuit was filed in June by the family of a victim of the Paris attack on November 13, 2015.