Google's latest legal opponents: Shooting victims' families – and a cheesed-off ex-manager Families of the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, earlier this year are suing Google for failing to take down online materials they say influenced the killer. The complaint, filed in the US Eastern Michigan District Court on Monday, claims the internet advertising titan – plus Facebook and Twitter – …
Facebook, Google, et al partially to blame for future terrorist events? I can see the liability risk measures going in only one direction given their drive to offer government-proof services and near-monopolistic presences. How high does that risk have to go before they decide its too hot to handle? With corporate greed being a very powerful force, it'll probably have to rise to 100%, which by definition would be too late.
@Doctor Syntax,
And how did the terrorists get to the scene? Sue the local highway authority.
Somewhat different. The local highway authority doesn't go out of their way to prevent the local cops policing that highway.
Now, if the highway authority did stop the cops accessing their roads, then they would then be morally responsible for policing it in their place.
Google, Facebook, Apple, etc are in that position, but seemingly aren't doing a very good job of policing usage (dodgy content remains), and indeed are fighting hard to deny that they have a responsibility to police anything at all whilst trying even harder to ensure that no one else can do it for them. Just like a private turnpike operator who deliberately allows gangs of yobs to get onto the road, cause harm and distress to other road users, and then refuse to accept that they could be done anything to prevent this.
Not a defendable position for a road operator, shouldn't be a defendable position for a cloud / services provider.
> "Google, Facebook, Apple, etc are in that position, but seemingly aren't doing a very good job of policing usage"
Let's extrapolate that further shall we?
If the tech companies are guilty, then perhaps the ATF should be held accountable, as they aren't doing enough about policing usage of the firearms.
Police can be held liable, as they didn't do enough policing to prevent the terrorists from driving along the roads to get to the nightclubs.
Vehicle manufacturers didn't do enough to prevent terrorists from purchasing one of their vehicles.
Libraries can get in trouble, as they would have copies of newspapers detailing atrocities from the past, thus giving terrorists ideas on how to perform their next attacks.
Ultimately, if this goes ahead, it could end up as a good thing. "Terror" related materials will have to be yanked from circulation, leading to an Internet devoid of religious claptrap. After all, there have been many lone-wolf style Christian terrorists bombing planned parenthood centres, and murdering innocent people in the name of their sky daddy.
If the tech companies are guilty, then perhaps the ATF should be held accountable, as they aren't doing enough about policing usage of the firearms.
Police can be held liable, as they didn't do enough policing to prevent the terrorists from driving along the roads to get to the nightclubs.
Hmmm, well if one is dissatisfied by the level of effectiveness of one's government agencies, one has the opportunity to go along and complain about it to one's congressman / senator / whatever, and vote for someone else if they don't do something about it. The difference between the police and, say, Google is that the police / law enforcement agencies / politicians are ultimately answerable to the electorate, whereas Google are trying to be answerable to no-one, are utterly opaque about what measures (if any) they do take, are fiducially responsible to their shareholders to spend as little as possible doing it (thereby raising the suspicion that actually they do very little), and are busily trying to appear to be "customer friendly" by being spook-proof with the side effect that no-one else can do it for them.
Vehicle manufacturers didn't do enough to prevent terrorists from purchasing one of their vehicles.
No, but vehicle registration is a governmental matter, and I dare say that vehicle dealerships notify the local relevant authority when they sell a vehicle. Or at least, that's what happens in a lot of countries.
Libraries can get in trouble, as they would have copies of newspapers detailing atrocities from the past, thus giving terrorists ideas on how to perform their next attacks.
A public library is highly unlikely to hold any material saying that previous atrocities were a good idea... Besides, anyone can go into a library and check up on what's on the shelves. Can't go doing that on Google, etc.
What you haven't worked out is that highways, postal services, etc. are infrastructure. So, in effect, are Google etc. At some point you have to stop and think what duty of care do operators of infrastructure have?
Should they police in detail who gets to use them and how; should, for instance, the water undertaking decide that only non-terrorists get anything coming out of their taps?
Or should their duty of care be limited to ensuring that the system runs smoothly and delivers what its users ask?
And if you think the former could you please present us with a detailed plan of how it should be done because I'm sure the rest of us would like to be enlightened. Your detailed plan should explain how it would avoid the situation where Facebook caught flack for taking down that iconic image of the napalm girl that was so influential in its day. Using algorithms to deal with the complexities of human culture might be a tad more difficult than you think.
The difference between the police and, say, Google is that the police / law enforcement agencies / politicians are ultimately answerable to the electorate...
Ho ho, ha ha!! Did you forget to mark the sarcasm tag on your post? Because that was hilarious! Oh, what, you were actually serious?
I'm amazed that noone's thought of that yet, especially if he used the Florida Turnpike Enterprise's roads or the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority's (which he very well may have done, SR 408 (Toll) has an exit onto Orange Avenue right by ORMC, about a block up the street from Pulse, and SR 528 pretty much links up with I-95) and even more so if he violated tolls and didn't get pulled over for it.
It'd be interesting to check out what TRIMS, OOCEA's internal database, had on his license plate.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
