The US Supreme Court will consider a lawsuit about the responsibility of IT corporations for the work of their algorithms
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The U.S. Supreme Court will hold its first hearing in the Gonzalez v. Google case today. The plaintiff is Reynaldo Gonzalez, whose daughter Noemi was among the 130 victims of the November 2015 attacks in Paris and its suburb of Saint-Denis. Back in 2016 Mr. Gonzalez accused Google and other Internet companies in that they allowed members of the Islamic State (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) to spread extremist ideas on social networks, as well as recruit new supporters and receive funding. Litigation between the girl’s father and the company has been going on for six and a half years, and lower authorities have taken the side of Google. However, if the Supreme Court still upholds the plaintiff, then this decision could be life-changing for all Internet companies.
The father of the deceased girl believes that Google is responsible for the fact that YouTube’s algorithms, developed by employees of the company, issued videos from the “Islamic State” to users in the recommendation lists, which is contrary to US laws on combating aiding and terrorism.
Google, in turn, refers to Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Ethics Act of 1996. American law is unequivocal about the responsibility of IT companies for the content posted by users on their sites. In particular, it states that “neither the provider nor the user of an interactive computer service shall be considered by the court as a written or oral supplier of any information that has been provided by another provider of information products.”
It was on the basis of this section that all the lower courts took the side of Google in the dispute with Mr. Gonzalez. However, the plaintiff believes that this law should not apply to algorithms, since they are created by companies, not users of online platforms.
Note that on Wednesday, the judges will begin consideration of a similar lawsuit against Twitter, filed by another family of the victim of the terrorist attack in Paris.
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