Twitter says its platform not responsible for man’s murder by terrorist

An Image used by ISIS supporters combines the Twitter logo with the ISIS flag. (credit: Federal Court documents)

Twitter says US law forbids it from being legally liable for what others write on the micro-blogging service, so it is citing the Communications Decency Act in a bid to stamp out a lawsuit accusing the platform of being a "tool for spreading extremist propaganda" that allegedly led to the murder of a US citizen working in Jordan last year.

In enacting Section 230, Congress unequivocally resolved (PDF) the question whether computer service providers may be held liable for harms arising from content created by third parties. Announcing the policy of the United States to preserve the “free market that presently exists for the Internet . . . unfettered by Federal or State regulation,” 47 U.S.C. § 230(b)(2), Congress broadly immunized entities like Twitter against lawsuits that seek to hold them liable for harmful or unlawful third-party content, including suits alleging that such entities failed to block, remove, or alter such content, id. § 230(c)(1).

The suit concerns a Louisiana woman whose husband, Lloyd "Carl" Fields Jr., was murdered in Jordan last year where he was working as a private contractor. Tamara Fields claims Twitter's platform was a vehicle for terrorists to spew their hatred and plot jihad.

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