News / Military
By Howard Altman / Tampa Bay Times / June 30, 2016
PHOTO: An organization described as a public relations arm of the terrorist Islamic State used Twitter pages like this to recruit new members, according to a federal lawsuit. The page had 20,000 followers as of June 2014, the lawsuit says. (Photo from Twitter)
The same social media platforms that carry vacation snapshots and birthday wishes are used by violent extremists such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria to share gruesome videos and even suggestions for how to kill captives.
Now, federal courts are being asked to decide whether companies like Twitter, Facebook and Google bear legal responsibility for acts of violence linked to these posts.
The families of three Americans who were killed by jihadis overseas — one a Tampa law enforcement contractor — have filed lawsuits against the social media giants. They argue that the companies have “rebuffed numerous requests to comply with U.S. law” by providing services to the Islamic State that support “acts of international terrorism.”
The companies deny the allegations in court records and statements to the Tampa Bay Times. Facebook and Google said they take action to remove posts by violent extremists.
The legal actions highlight an ongoing debate about the role of social media platforms in modern communication. The issue is playing out again this week as investigators scour social media for links between ISIS and the attack that killed at least 44 people at the Istanbul airport.
On one side, an expert quoted in the lawsuits says social media companies have the power to cut off violent content and should exercise it more. “This is a business or policy decision,” said Hany Farid, computer science chairman of Dartmouth College and co-developer of a child porn-tracking system.
On the other side, Clearwater social media analyst Rob Guidry said a win for the plaintiffs will stymie investigations by driving violent extremists to the so-called dark web where they cannot be easily tracked.
Said Guidry, “Trying to hold Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks liable is the wrong answer.”
One lawsuit was filed against Twitter earlier this year by the widows of James Damon Creach and Lloyd Fields Jr., who were killed Nov. 9 at a police training center in Amman, Jordan.
Creach was a father of three who enjoyed watching his sons and daughter play baseball in north Tampa when he wasn’t traveling overseas as a law enforcement consultant. Fields was living in Cape Coral at the time of the attack.
Their widows, Tamara Fields and Heather Creach, are seeking monetary damages and an order declaring that Twitter is violating the Anti-Terrorism Act, a law allowing U.S. citizens to seek damages for death or injury caused by international acts of terrorism.
The suit alleges a link between a specific Islamic State Twitter campaign and an attack in Jordan that killed Creach, Fields and two others.
On Nov. 9, 2015, Anwar Abu Zaid appeared at the International Police Training Center in Amman with a Kalashnikov rifle and two handguns in his car, according to the suit.
Abu Zaid, who had recently resigned as a Jordanian police officer, was never searched. After the noon prayer, he shot into a moving truck, killing Creach. Abu Zaid then entered the cafeteria, killing Fields and three others.
The lawsuit notes that Abu Zaid, who did not know his victims, had said he was “was very moved by ISIS’s brutal execution of Jordanian pilot Maaz al-Kassabeh.”
The pilot was burned to death in a cage after an ISIS Twitter campaign sought suggestions for a method of execution. The killers distributed a 22-minute video of the execution.
In their lawsuit, Creach and Fields offer examples of how ISIS recruits, raises funds, terrorizes and spreads propaganda via Twitter, through direct messages as well as recruitment and promotional videos.
“Through its use of Twitter, ISIS has recruited more than 30,000 foreign fighters over the last year, including some 4,500 Westerners and 250 Americans,” according to the suit.
The second lawsuit was filed two weeks ago against the same three social media companies by Reynaldo Gonzalez, the father of a California college student killed in the Nov. 13, 2015, Paris attacks.
Nohemi Gonzalez, a student at California State University at Long Beach, was spending a semester in Paris when she went with friends to visit La Belle Epoque bistro Nov. 13, 2015. She died when jihadis sprayed the restaurant with gunfire. In all, 130 were killed and 368 injured that day in six coordinated attacks across Paris.
The Gonzalez suit says social media networks have enabled ISIS to carry out a number of terrorist attacks, including those in Paris, though no direct examples are provided.
The suit raises a separate allegation against the social media companies — that Twitter, Facebook and Google profit from ISIS business by placing advertisements adjacent to the group’s video postings. Google owns the video site YouTube.
The Islamic State profits, as well, by sharing in the ad revenues, according to the suit.
In its response to the Creach and Fields suit, Twitter argued that the Communications Decency Act of 1996 prevents online service providers from being held liable for content provided by others.
In addition, Twitter said the plaintiffs failed to prove the two men were killed by an act of terror committed by the company, calling any attempt to establish a link “speculation upon speculation.”
Facebook said it contacts law enforcement when it detects any threats on its site and argued that there is no merit to the legal actions.
“There is no place for terrorists or content that promotes or supports terrorism on Facebook, and we work aggressively to remove such content as soon as we become aware of it,” Facebook spokeswoman Genevieve Grdina said in an email to the Times. “This lawsuit is without merit and we will defend ourselves.”
YouTube takes steps to scrub its site of terror-related material, spokesman William Fitzgerald said in an email statement, terminating accounts run by terrorist organizations or those that repeatedly violate policies.”
“YouTube has a strong track record of taking swift action against terrorist content,” Fitzgerald said. “We have clear policies prohibiting terrorist recruitment and content intending to incite violence and quickly remove videos violating these policies when flagged by our users.
Both suits cite experts in calling for greater policing of social media by platform owners. The Gonzalez suit quotes, among other sources, a speech by Hillary Clinton saying that the defendants “have to help us take down these announcements and these appeals.”
But Aaron Mackey, a legal fellow at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization dealing with civil liberties in the digital world, agreed with Twitter that the Communications Decency Act protects social media platforms from liability for what is posted.
The lawsuits, he said, are “a really dangerous path to go down,” adding that there is no difference, legally, between using a phone line or social media platforms to perpetuate criminal or terrorist acts.
The same view is held by Guidry, an Army Reserve colonel with experience in special operations who owns SC2 Corp., a Clearwater company that mines and analyzes social media.
“The reality is that Twitter is about as responsible for what goes on Twitter as a binocular manufacturer is about what can be see through a pair of binoculars,” said Guidry, who has served with U.S. Special Operations Command and other special operations organizations.
“If you try to create a system that polices reality, we all know what comes out of that. Corporations take an active role in deciding what is and what is not permissible.”
Keith Altman, the attorney representing the Gonzalez family, has a different take.
“I understand, when you try to look at it from a greater good,” Altman said. “But if your daughter was sitting in that café when gunshots went off, you might think differently.”
PHOTO 2: Damon Creach, shown with his wife, Heather, was killed in Amman, Jordan. (Facebook)
PHOTO 4: Images from pro-ISIS Twitter feeds, Facebook pages and YouTube videos are named in the lawsuits arguing that the social media platforms bear responsibility for the spread of violence.
PHOTO 6: Images from pro-ISIS Twitter feeds, Facebook pages and YouTube videos are named in the lawsuits arguing that the social media platforms bear responsibility for the spread of violence.
PHOTO 7: An image used by ISIS supporters combines the Twitter logo with the ISIS flag.
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