A California woman has filed a federal lawsuit against Twitter, alleging that the site has acted as a “tool for spreading extremist propaganda” for the Islamic State, and has contributed to her husband’s death.
“For years, Twitter has knowingly permitted the terrorist group ISIS to use its social network as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds and attracting new recruits,” reads the complaint, filed by Tamara Fields on Wednesday.
“This material support has been instrumental to the rise of ISIS and has enabled it to carry out numerous terrorist attacks,” the complaint adds, including the November death of her husband, Lloyds Fields, Jr., in Jordan. He had been working as a contractor when, along with three others, he was shot and killed by an Islamic State militant in a cafeteria.
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The lawsuit quotes a number of security and technology experts who argue the social network should be doing more to police user content. It also cites a well-known report from the Brookings Institution that suggested Islamic State members commanded as many as 46,000 Twitter accounts in December 2014.
“While we believe the lawsuit is without merit, we are deeply saddened to hear of this family’s terrible loss,” Twitter said in a statement on Wednesday. “Like people around the world, we are horrified by the atrocities perpetrated by extremist groups and their ripple effects on the Internet.”
“Violent threats and the promotion of terrorism deserve no place on Twitter and, like other social networks, our rules make that clear,” the statement added. “We have teams around the world actively investigating reports of rule violations, identifying violating conduct, partnering with organizations countering extremist content online, and working with law enforcement entities when appropriate.”
Twitter has taken some steps to diminish terrorist activity over the last year. It deactivated 10,000 accounts for making “violent threats” in April, and revised its rules to prohibit “hateful conduct” in December.
However, those steps have had limited effect. As a result, the site has attracted negative attention for the conduct of terrorist-friendly users more than once. In November, the international hacking group Anonymous began a vigilante campaign to shut down offending accounts. At last count, it claimed to have shut down more than 20,000,
“We will hunt you, take down your sites, accounts, emails, and expose you,” the group wrote at the time of its announcement. “From now on, no safe place for you online… You will be treated like a virus, and we are the cure.”
The next generation of drone bait. https://t.co/7jkSrLeZfD
— CtrlSec (@CtrlSec) January 14, 2016
That hacking effort was still in motion as of Thursday, with a user called “CtrlSec” posting web addresses for accounts the group was eliminating. It stopped only to “retweet” a picture from one that was allowed to remain, featuring a group of black-hooded children holding automatic weapons and backdropped by a flag for the Islamic State.
The issue has also made its way to Congress. The House in December unanimously passed legislation that would require the Department of Homeland Security to articulate a policy on social media, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has co-authored a bill with Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., that would require social media companies to report suspect activity.
