Meta, Twitter, Microsoft petition the court to review the lawsuit against technology algorithms

In a petition filed with the US Supreme Court on technology algorithms, businesses argue that excluding AI-driven tools from federal legal protections would cause changes. far-reaching for the open Internet.

Lawsuit against technology algorithms

The story originates from the event that Nohemi Gonzalez – a female design student in the US was killed in a terrorist attack in Paris in November 2015. Her family filed a lawsuit against Google in San Francisco state court. They argued that the company violated US anti-terrorism laws and demanded compensation.

The victim’s father also sued Facebook and Twitter. In the lawsuit, Gonzalez alleges that these social media platforms “intentionally allow” IS groups to spread and spread extremist ideology, raise funds and recruit recruits to fight for them through networks. this community.

Against this background, a petition to review the lawsuit related to technology algorithms, including the participation of large technology companies such as Meta, Twitter and Microsoft, has been submitted to the US Supreme Court.

There are also some of Big Tech’s most vocal critics, like the Yelp app and the international digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation. Besides, there is the Reddit community network and the volunteer group that runs Reddit.

In court filings, companies, organizations and individuals said section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is important to the basic functioning of the web. Section 230 is used to protect all websites – not just social media platforms – from third-party content lawsuits.

The companies argue that section 230 prevents lawsuits like that of the Nohemi Gonzallez family, according to CNN .

The New York Times has just reported that the US Supreme Court is ready to review the rules of the case in February 2023.

What do the Big Tech say?

In their filing, community network Reddit and moderators argue: The ruling allowing litigation against the tech industry’s algorithms could lead to more lawsuits in the future. Someone can resist even non-algorithmic forms and potentially target even individual Internet users.

Yelp Apps, a longtime Google rival, says its business depends on providing relevant reviews to users. As such, rulings that create liability for algorithms could disrupt core Yelp functions. Also, can effectively force Yelp to stop managing all reviews.

Twitter argues that section 230 ensures platforms can moderate content to provide the most relevant data to users amid the massive amount of information being added to the Internet every day.

“Many services will face liability for virtually all third-party content they host,” Meta wrote in the filing.

Microsoft also said that technology platforms could be sued because their recommendation algorithms would endanger GitHub, a vast online repository of code used by millions of programmers.

According to New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, if their petitions are not considered, social platforms could either remove much of the third-party content or no longer provide large amounts of content. user content on their platform.

“In any situation, the valuable freedom of speech will disappear,” the center said.