A woman who lost her husband in an attack by the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group has sued microblogging site, Twitter, for allowing its platform to be used for spreading terrorist ideas.
In a suit filed at a Federal Court in Oakland, Northern California, the plaintiff, whose husband died in an attack in November 2015 in Jordan where he was working as a government contractor at a police training facility, accused Twitter of giving “material support” for ISIS by allowing its platform to be used to spread terrorist propaganda, recruit new members and raise money for operatives.
“Without Twitter, the explosive growth of ISIS over the last few years into the most feared terrorist group in the world would not have been possible,” the lawsuit claimed.
Twitter has however responded to the lawsuit, describing it as lacking in “merit”.
A company spokesperson told AFP it had teams dedicated to monitoring terrorist propaganda on its platform and had deleted thousands of accounts believed to have links with terrorist groups.
“Like people around the world, we are horrified by the atrocities perpetrated by extremist groups and their ripple effects on the Internet,” a Twitter spokesman said in response to an AFP inquiry.
“Violent threats and the promotion of terrorism deserve no place on Twitter and, like other social networks, our rules make that clear.”
The plaintiff is calling for unspecified cash damages and a jury trial.
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