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back to article Families of men slain by ISIS gunman told: No, you can't sue Twitter

A lawsuit claiming Twitter provided "material support" to medieval terror bastards ISIS has been shut down by a California court. The suit was brought by the families of defense contractors Lloyd "Carl" Fields, Jr and James Damon Creach, who were both teaching newbie cops at a police training center in Jordan when they were …

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  1. tfewster
    Trollface

    I'm torn on this one...

    ...Yes, they're a common carrier, with no responsibility for content; Yes, they respond to complaints ASAP; Yes, it's sue-happy Americans looking for someone to blame. But, on the other hand, I'd love to see Twitter get clobbered .

    6 10 Reply
    1. Oengus
      Reply Icon

      Re: I'm torn on this one...

      I'd love to see Twitter get clobbered

      I also would love to see Twitter get clobbered but this is not the correct method or justification. The only reason that the families (probably urged by greedy lawyers) sued Twitter is because Twitter has money in the US. No one else even remotely connected to the ISIS terrorists (except maybe facebook) has any money in the US.

      12 0 Reply
      1. a_yank_lurker
        Reply Icon

        Re: I'm torn on this one...

        Twitter is a sleazy operation but they are not responsible for the posts of users and how others react to them. If this suit were to stand, social media sites would sued into oblivion.

        10 0 Reply
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I'm torn on this one...

          I would like to see Uber get clobbered too, but I wouldn't support them getting sued because a suicide bomber took an Uber to the airport.

          6 0 Reply
        2. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I'm torn on this one...

          If this suit were to stand, social media sites would sued into oblivion.

          That. You see, THAT's why I'm torn. I don't actually see a downside here :).

          8 3 Reply
        3. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I'm torn on this one...

          >> ...social media sites would sued into oblivion.

          Is that a bad thing...???

          2 2 Reply
          1. Anonymous Coward
            Reply Icon
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: I'm torn on this one...

            No, is not a bad thing. It is a glorious thang!

            1 0 Reply
  2. Martin Summers Silver badge

    Lashing out and going after Twitter was never going to provide them with the justice and consolation they wanted. I can understand why they've felt this way and have absolute sympathy with them, but common sense can go out of the window with very emotive matters like this. It would be like suing a news outlet for reporting the latest atrocity which is actually what these groups want to spread fear.

    8 0 Reply
    1. Captain DaFt
      Reply Icon

      But then again...

      "It would be like suing a news outlet for reporting the latest atrocity which is actually what these groups want to spread fear."

      That actually might be a better case for a lawsuit.

      If the headline for these atrocities was always something like:

      "Middle Eastern Thugs At It Again", instead of

      ">Publicity hungry fear mongers< Threaten US With Fresh Atrocities!"

      I'm almost positive the attacks would dwindle.

      But that wouldn't suit the needs of our Leaders in their campaign to whittle away our Freedoms, would it?

      11 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      no sympathy

      This is nothing but an attempt to cash in on the deaths of their "loved" ones.

      5 2 Reply
      1. Kurt Meyer
        Reply Icon

        Re: no sympathy

        I regret missing the press conference where the survivors exclaimed "It's not about the money."

        Fuck them. In the ass. With a chainsaw.

        Oh, and "Contractors", lets call a spade a spade. "Mercenaries" has served to describe that role for centuries.

        9 2 Reply
        1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
          Reply Icon

          Re: no sympathy

          And while we're at it, let's reverse renaming the 'Ministry of War' into 'Ministry of Defense'.

          2 0 Reply
  3. codejunky Silver badge

    Hmm

    Not far off going after the phone company because ISIS use mobiles. It is a shame for the families but they should not have been given the hope of blaming Twitter for the actions of ISIS

    4 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Eh

    Aren't these the same US courts who went after Mega and other content hosts arguing they were responsible for the content on their servers and a reactive removal policy was not sufficient?

    5 2 Reply
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Freedom of speech

    One of the problems which our current society has to face is the growing "I" mentality. People who believe the world should center around them and what others feel, well.. that's not as important.

    Freedom of speech is and always should be absolute. Meaning so much that it doesn't matter if you actually agree with the speaker or oppose all of his ideas with a passion. The freedom to speak your mind should apply to all of us. "Free to speak your mind as long as we agree", isn't freedom.

    I get the impression that some people seem to forget this part.

    3 1 Reply
    1. MrRimmerSIR!
      Reply Icon

      Re: Freedom of speech

      An absolute, eh? If some nasty internet troll took it upon himself to post naked pictures of your daughter or wife, and wrote about raping them would your principles still stand?

      1 1 Reply
  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If Twitter regularly censor its (or "the") content, then I think a failure to censor ISIS propaganda is indeed Twitter's fault. I think it comes down to if Twitter is to be regarded as the postal service, phone service, etc, or if it indeed curates its content in any way.

    For some odd reason I have this feeling that most internet companies value money a lot more than doing the right thing.

    0 2 Reply
  7. PapaD

    Failing to censor

    Is not the same as trying to censor but struggling to keep up with the sheer amount of 'whack-a-mole' accounts that pop up as soon as you shut one down.

    The fact that they make an attempt to remove accounts promoting or linked to terrorism is enough to make any lawsuit like this a waste of time. They don't have to be 100% successful, they just need to show that they are trying to be.

    Mega could have used the same justification if they were making reasonable attempts to remove copyrighted material, even if they weren't massively successful at doing so.

    2 0 Reply
    1. anonymous boring coward Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Failing to censor

      "Mega could have used the same justification if they were making reasonable attempts to remove copyrighted material, even if they weren't massively successful at doing so."

      Reasonable attempts according to whom?

      0 0 Reply
  8. J.G.Harston Silver badge

    The turrists phoned each other to organise the bombing, SUE THE PHONE COMPANY!!!!!!!111!!!

    The turrists posted each other letters to organise the bombing, SUE THE POST OFFICEE!!!!!

    The turrists spoke to each other to organise the bombing, SUE HUMEN LABNGUAGE!!!!

    1 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      turrist? Turist?

      0 0 Reply

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