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The gunman, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people and
wounded 53 in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S.
history, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group
before police fatally shot him after the June attack, officials
said.
The lawsuit was filed on Monday in Detroit federal court by the
families of Tevin Crosby, Javier Jorge-Reyes and Juan Ramon
Guerrero, who were killed during the massacre.
Similar lawsuits in the past have faced an uphill fight because
of strong protections in U.S. federal law for the technology
industry.
The three families claim Twitter, Google's YouTube and Facebook
"provided the terrorist group ISIS with accounts they use to
spread extremist propaganda, raise funds and attract new
recruits."
The suit alleges the "material support has been instrumental to
the rise of ISIS and has enabled it to carry out or cause to be
carried out, numerous terrorist attacks."
Facebook said on Tuesday there is no place on its service for
groups that engage in or support terrorism, and that it takes
swift action to remove that content when it is reported.
"We are committed to providing a service where people feel safe
when using Facebook," it said in a statement. "We sympathize
with the victims and their families."
Twitter declined to comment. In August, the company said it had
suspended 360,000 accounts since mid-2015 for violating policies
related to promotion of terrorism.
Representatives of Google could not immediately be reached.
The three companies plus Microsoft Corp said this month they
would coordinate more to remove extremist content, sharing
digital "fingerprints" with each other.
Technology companies are protected from many lawsuits under
Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which
says website operators are not liable for content posted by
others.
Monday's lawsuit claims that the companies create unique content
by combining ISIS postings with advertisements to target the
viewer. It also says they share revenue with ISIS for its
content and profit from ISIS postings through advertising
revenue.
The families in the case in Michigan, where one of the victims
is from, are seeking damages and for the court to rule that the
sites have violated the Anti-Terrorism Act in the United States.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee and David Ingram in
New York; Editing by Scott Malone and Andrew Hay)
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