Litigation
Nov. 30, 2016
Judge tosses Twitter suit over terror attack
The plaintiff could not overcome protections of the Communications Decency Act.
Daily Journal Staff Writer
A widow's claim that Twitter Inc. was complicit in the ISIS-inspired terrorist attack that killed her husband was dismissed again Friday by a San Francisco federal judge.
Plaintiff Tamara Fields' husband, Lloyd, was shot and killed by a local police officer in Jordan while working as a U.S. government contractor in November 2015. Shortly after, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
Noting ISIS' heavy use of social media platforms like Twitter for communication and recruitment, Fields claimed that Twitter provided material support to the group, essentially facilitating her husband's death.
The complaint defines material support as "any property, tangible or intangible, or service," including "communications equipment." Fields v. Twitter Inc., 16-CV213 (N.D. Cal., filed Jan. 13, 2016).
U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick previously dismissed the complaint with leave to amend because the claims were barred by the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which protects publishers like Twitter from being held liable for content posted by its users.
In the amended complaint, the plaintiff attempted to avoid the act's protections by reframing their claims, Orrick wrote. The amended version asserts that Twitter had provided ISIS material support not by permitting the use of its social network, "but by furnishing ISIS with accounts in the first place."
Despite the "careful repleading," Orrick dismissed the case again on Friday. He wrote that the amended complaint "suffers from the same fatal infirmities as the first" in its failure to circumvent the protections granted by the act.
"[N]o amount of careful pleading can change the fact that, in substance, plaintiffs aim to hold Twitter liable as a publisher or speaker of ISIS's hateful rhetoric, and that such liability is barred by the CDA," Orrick wrote.
Orrick wrote that he conferred with Fields' attorney, Lawrence Fisher of Bursor & Fisher PA, who said Fields had no desire to file another amended complaint. Fisher did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
Twitter was represented by a team of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP attorneys headed by Mark D. Flanagan, partner-in-charge of the firm's Palo Alto office. Flanagan did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
steven_crighton@dailyjournal.com
Steven Crighton
steven_crighton@dailyjournal.com
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