Twitter not responsible for rise of IS: US court

New York, Aug 11: A US judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Twitter that accused the micro-blogging site for the rise of the Islamic State (IS) terror group by providing “material support to IS” on its platform. The lawsuit - filed by the family of Lloyd Fields who died in an IS attack in Jordan in 2015 - sought to hold Twitter responsible for the attack, accusing it for letting IS supporters and sympathisers use its social media platform. The complaint alleged widespread fundraising and recruitment through Twitter, attributing 30,000 foreign actors recruited through IS Twitter accounts in 2015 alone, The Verge reported on Thursday.

“Apart from the private ture of Direct Messaging, plaintiffs identify no other way in which their Direct Messaging theory seeks to treat Twitter as anything other than a publisher of information provided by another information content provider,” said the ruling.

Even the private ture of Twitter’s Direct Messaging feature “does not remove the transmission of such messages from the scope of publishing activity under section 230(c)(1),” added the California District Court judge.

Section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act is commonly known as the “Safe Harbor” clause. The clause protects online services from liability for speech published on their network, like a libelous statement in the comments section of a news article. The user who published the comment can still be held responsible but Section 230 prohibits legal action against the website itself, the report added. (IANS)

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