Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The first shots have been fired in a Supreme Court showdown over web platforms, terrorism, and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. On Tuesday and Wednesday, petitioners filed briefs in Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh, a pair of lawsuits blaming platforms for facilitating Islamic State attacks. The court’s final ruling will determine web services’ liability for hosting illegal activity, particularly if they promote it with algorithmic recommendations.
The Supreme Court took up both cases in October: one at the request of a family that’s suing Google and the other as a preemptive defense filed by Twitter. They’re two of the latest in a long string of suits alleging that websites are legally responsible for failing to…
