Family members of victims who died during the Pulse nightclub attack have filed a lawsuit against Twitter, Facebook and Google, saying that the companies have provided material support to Islamic State terrorists.

Pulse relatives: ISIS used Twitter, Facebook, Google to grow

Lawsuit claims ISIS has made money with internet videos

RELATED: The attack at Pulse nightclub: Pictures, stories, interactive timeline

READ LAWSUIT IN NEW WINDOW: Read the lawsuit (PDF)

Twitter, Facebook and Google — the defendants in the case — are being accused of allowing ISIS to have accounts on their sites, among other things, in the suit filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan.



"For years, Defendants have knowingly and recklessly provided the terrorist group ISIS with accounts to use its social networks as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds, and attracting new recruits. This 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, including the June 12, 2016, attack in Orlando where 53 were injured and 49 were killed ...," the plaintiffs stated in the 51-page court document.

The plaintiffs stated that without the use of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube (which was bought by Google in 2006), ISIS would not have been able to grow as it did by recruiting followers.

They also claim that the companies profit from ISIS by placing ads on the terror group's social media posts.

"Videos that are approved generate revenue for both the poster and for Google. Therefore, according to its terms, if there are ads associated with a YouTube video, the video has been approved by Google, Google is earning revenue from each view of that video, and Google is sharing revenue with the poster," the lawsuit stated.

At least one Central Florida attorney we talked to said the lawsuit probably won't go through.

“Google and Facebook (and Twitter) are supposed to be protected by part of a federal law called the Communications Decency Act,” said attorney Wade Vose, who has practiced and studied government/constitutional law for more than 10 years in Central Florida.

“I think there’s a lot of evidence that the Pulse Nightclub shooter was influenced by videos and other postings made by ISIS," Vose said. "The question is going to be whether a court is ultimately going to allow them to be held liable for allowing that content on to their sites.”

The lawsuit cites examples of the importance of social media to ISIS, such as when the terrorist group posts promotional training videos or when a Saudi Arabian suicide bomber joined ISIS in Syria and tweeted her intent to become a martyr.

And Omar Mateen, the Pulse nightclub shooter who killed 49 people and wounded dozens, posted messages on Facebook before and during the attack, such as this one: "The real Muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west."

The lawsuit stated that ISIS has numerous accounts on the internet sites, and once one account is taken down, a new one comes up.

YouTube, Facebook and Twitter each have policies against people or groups posting violence or hate speech.

This station has reached out to the internet giants, and while Facebook has replied, Twitter and Google have not yet responded to interview requests.

“They have the ability to really find and flag this content instantaneously, so there should be no excuses,” said Jacob Engels, a digital media consultant at Cloud Metrics.

Engels believes the lawsuit is not frivolous, adding social media companies can and should do more to censor ISIS-related content.

“I think if these companies are going to censor people for politically incorrect posts and content, then they have an obligation to stop terrorists' content and propaganda from radicalizing people," Engels said. "That’s far more important than an off-color tweet that somebody might make that is offensive but it’s not deadly.”

Facebook Corporate Communications Manager Genevieve Grdina told News 13 over the phone that the company does not allow terrorist content, or known terrorists, on its social media site and removes those types of content or accounts.

“We are committed to providing a service where people feel safe when using Facebook. Our Community Standards make clear that there is no place on Facebook for groups that engage in terrorist activity or for content that expresses support for such activity, and we take swift action to remove this content when it’s reported to us. We sympathize with the victims and their families,” a Facebook spokesperson stated in an email to this station.

Grdina also stated that the lawyer for this case, Keith L. Altman, is also the attorney for the plainiffs in the ongoing lawsuit Gonzalez v. Twitter. That case is similar to the one that the Pulse-victims' families have filed.

This station is awaiting a reply from Altman.



Grdina provided this station with two links to law articles about another similar case. In that case, called Fields vs. Twitter, an American government contractor's widow sued the social media company after her husband was murdered in Jordan. She stated that Twitter helped serve as a venue for terrorist groups to promote their content, according to an Ars Technica blog.

However, the judge dismissed that case.

“I think it might be the first of many to come," attorney Vose said. "Obviously, the emotions are raw here in the Central Florida about this issue and folks are looking for different people to blame. I can see how folks would want to look at the platforms that were used to get out this information and potentially hold them liable.”

Some legal experts have stated that the Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is used by social media companies to protect themselves from similar lawsuits.

Section 230 states, "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."



The plaintiffs listed in the court document are:

Earl Crosby, individually, and as

successor-in-interest of the estate of his son

Tevin Eugene Crosby; Lisa

Crosby (mother); Shenetra Parker-Harris (sister); hon.

Chavis Crosby (brother)

Celia Ruiz, individually, and as

successor-in-interest of the estate of her brother

Juan Ramon Guerrero, Jr.;

Juan Ramon Guerrero (father); Maya

Guerrero (mother); Aryam Guerrero (sister);

Osvaldo Vazquez (brother);

Yazmin Reyes, individually, and as

successor-in-interest of the estate of her brother

Javier Jorge-Reyes; Pedro Jorge

Diaz (father); Iris Reyes Santiago (mother); Pedro

Jorge Reyes (brother); Gabriel Jorge Reyes (brother);

And Liz M. Jorge-Reyes (sister);

