Supreme Court hears case on social media companies’ liability

The United States Supreme Court justices seemed to take a moderate position Tuesday during oral arguments in Gonzalez v. Google. Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked if the issue wouldn’t best be dealt with by Congress. Justice Elena Kagan said she and her fellow justices are not experts on the internet. The case weighs the scope of Section 230 in the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Critics say Section 230 allows social media companies to avoid responsibility, while supporters say it protects free speech. Oral argument begins Wednesday in a case against Twitter that has some similarities.

Who brought the case against Google? Nohemi Gonzalez was a 23-year-old college student who died in a 2015 terrorist attack in Paris. The family’s lawyer Eric Schnapper said YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, allowed Islamic State videos on its site and pushed them to interested users. During oral arguments, Justice Clarence Thomas questioned whether the internet would be useful without algorithms that push the content the user is interested in.

Dig deeper: Read Steve West’s report in Liberties for some of the precedent for the case.