(Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday refused to clear the way for victims of attacks by militant groups to hold social media companies liable under a federal anti-terrorism law for failing to prevent the groups from using their platforms, handing another victory Twitter Inc.
The judges, in a unanimous decision, reversed a lower court’s decision that had revived a lawsuit against Twitter by American relatives of Nawras Alassaf, a Jordanian man killed in a 2017 attack during New Year’s celebrations in an Istanbul nightclub claimed by Islamic State militants. group.
The case was one of two the Supreme Court weighed in its current term aimed at holding internet companies accountable for controversial content posted by users ̵
1; an issue of growing concern to the public and US lawmakers.The justices on Thursday, in a similar case against Google LLC-owned YouTube, part of Alphabet Inc., sidestepped the ruling on an attempt to limit a federal law that shields Internet companies from lawsuits over content posted by their users — called Section 230 of Communications Decency Act.
That case involved a lawsuit filed by the family of Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old college student from California who was fatally shot in an Islamic State attack in Paris in 2015, over a lower court’s decision to dismiss their lawsuit.
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