Crandall Melvin Professor of Law Shubha Ghosh spoke with Spectrum 1’s State of Politics on the social media lawsuits now in New York State Supreme Court filed by families of the victims of the Buffalo mass shooting.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court chose not to hold Twitter and Google responsible in a similar lawsuit of promoting or failing to monitor terrorist activities on the platforms. In their decision, SCOTUS did not expand the immunity given to social media platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
For the Buffalo mass shooting suits, Ghosh said ultimately the litigation will come down to the facts of the case which could be very different than the facts in the SCOTUS case.
“Here it seems like one important difference would be that the platforms were used to broadcast the events live and that raises a different set of policies,” Ghosh said.