It is well known that ISIS and its supporters use social media to encourage acts of violence, and Twitter appears to be one of its favorite platforms.
Now a woman whose husband was killed when a gunman attacked a Jordanian police training center is suing Twitter for allowing ISIS accounts to thrive on the site. According to the Wall Street Journal, the woman's husband was Lloyd Carl Fields, Jr., an American contractor who was killed in the incident that occurred on November 9.
The court documents explain why he is suing:
[alert size=”alert-block” variation=”alert-info”]“For years, Twitter has knowingly allowed the terrorist group ISIS to use its social network as a means to spread extremist propaganda, raise funds, and recruit new members. This has contributed to the growth of the extremist group and allowed numerous terrorist attacks to be carried out.” [/alert]
The documents also claim that there are currently around 70,000 Twitter accounts linked to ISIS and detail the terrorist group's actions on the platform.
Twitter, for its part, is not completely purging accounts and posts supporting the group, but it has deleted accounts that incited violence. A company spokesperson said that threats of violence and the promotion of terrorism have no place on Twitter, and as with other social media, this is made clear in the rules. Due to the deletions made in 2015, the lives of the company's employees were threatened.
The spokesperson also stated that while the company sympathizes with the widow, it believes the lawsuit is without merit. Social networking sites are protected by law and services like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are not responsible for the actions of their users.
