BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — A major ruling happened in the nation's capital, that may impact families in Western New York, whose loved ones were murdered in a racist act of hatred one year ago.
Earlier Thursday, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Twitter does not have to face allegations that it fueled terrorist acts, by allowing posts from "ISIS" on the page.
7 News' Pheben Kassahun sat down with a lawyer representing the families of the Jefferson 10, to see how Thursday's ruling could impact the cases they're trying to bring against major social media companies, in the wake of the Tops attack.
Results just coming out today of the supreme court rulings but SCOTUS did not really decide much if anything.
That is because the arguments that the Gonzales side put forth for the Gonzalez v. Google LLC case states that for the most part they were insufficient.
See also: Twitter, Inc. v. Taamneh
Law Office John V. Elmore attorney and partner, Kristen Elmore-Garcia Esq. said, "The allegations there were that terrorists who carried out the attacks and ultimately killed the American college student were radicalized through YouTube's content algorithm. Not only that, but that YouTube profited and shared revenue through advertisements displayed on ISIS propaganda videos."
Kristen Elmore-Garcia Esquire said that part of this is relevant to us in Buffalo regarding Section 230: The Communications Decency Act, which was formed in 1994.
Why do you think they did not address that issue?
"I think partially, why the Supreme Court didn't address the issue, one is because there were issues with the pleadings in the case. The arguments that the Gonzalez attorneys put forth really weren't fleshed out. They actually said they failed to state a claim for which relief could be granted," Elmore-Garcia said.
Section 230 is a very complicated issue when it applies to modern internet usage, Elmore-Garcia said.
That is because the 1994 Act is used a lot differently Thursday. Back then, it was used mainly as a message board well before content algorithm.
"Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act means that social media websites can't get in trouble, essentially, for content posted on those websites. So, third party content, the stuff that you and I would post on those websites. However, what made the Twitter and the Gonzalez case unique was that they were arguing that it was not just the content on YouTube, but it was that algorithm that was really encouraging and feeding the content to its users causing radicalizations," she added.
That is basically what happened in Buffalo. the YouTube content algorithm recommended more extreme, more graphic content.
John V. Elmore's Law Office represents families who suffered losses from 5-14.
"The defendant in the Tops case, the actual criminal defendant himself and his attorneys themselves said that he was radicalized by what he saw online, that he believed what he saw online," she explained.
The Buffalo-based law office filed earlier this month that social media is really a dangerous product and that there are ways to design it to be safer so it doesn't produce such extreme results.
As for Section 230, Elmore-Garcia said it is now up to congress to update the act to fit today's society.
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