The justices in case involving Google LLC's video-sharing platform YouTube sidestepped making a ruling on a bid to weaken a U.S. law calledof the Communications Decency Act that safeguards internet companies from lawsuits for content posted by users. The justices in a second ruling shielded Twitter Inc from litigation seeking to apply a federal law called the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Section 230 provides safeguards for "interactive computer services" by ensuring they cannot be treated for legal purposes as the "publisher or speaker" of information provided by users. The Istanbul massacre on Jan. 1, 2017, killed Alassaf and 38 others. His relatives accused Twitter of aiding and abetting the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attack, by failing to police the platform for the group's accounts or posts in violation of the Anti-Terrorism Act, which enables Americans to recover damages related to "an act of international terrorism."
The case hinged on whether the family's claims sufficiently alleged that the company knowingly provided "substantial assistance" to an "act of international terrorism" that would allow the relatives to maintain their suit and seek damages under the anti-terrorism law.