On 18 May 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its decision on Twitter, Inc v. Taamneh, dismissed claims that Facebook, Twitter, and Google knowingly assisted an ISIS attack on the Reina nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey in 2017.
 
Considering the plaintiff’s allegations, the Court found that the social media companies did not provide active assistance to ISIS through their platforms and sorting-tool algorithms. The Court determined that the companies “at most allegedly stood back and watched” when they failed to remove content and stop ISIS from using their services.

But did the Court mischaracterize the companies’ alleged assistance as omissions? Marc argues that social media companies carry out continuous acts by hosting content and providing services through their platforms. He also argues that automatic functions carried out by algorithms should be attributable as acts to the companies that operate them.
 
Read Marc’s analysis of Twitter, Inc. v. Taamneh on the Transnational Litigation Blog.