Supreme Court reviews law protecting internet firms for the first time

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is hearing its first federal law case, credited with helping create the modern Internet by protecting Google, Twitter, Facebook and other companies from lawsuits over content posted on their sites by others.

On Tuesday, judges are hearing arguments about whether the family of an American college student killed in a Paris attack could sue Google for helping extremists spread their ideas and recruit new recruits.

The case is the court’s first look at section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, passed at the start of the Internet age in 1996, to protect companies from prosecution for information their users post online.

Lower courts have interpreted the law broadly to protect an industry that companies and their allies say has fueled the internet’s skyrocketing growth and facilitated the removal of harmful content.

But critics argue that companies haven’t done enough and that the law shouldn’t block lawsuits over recommendations generated by computer algorithms that point viewers to more content they’re interested in and keep them online longer.

Any weakening of their immunity could have dramatic consequences that could affect every corner of the Internet because websites use algorithms to sort and filter vast amounts of data.

“Recommendation algorithms are what find the needles in humanity’s biggest haystack,” Google lawyers wrote in their keynote to the Supreme Court.

In response, lawyers for the victim’s family questioned the prediction of dire consequences. “On the other hand, it cannot be denied that the materials promoted on social media have in fact caused serious harm,” the lawyers wrote.

The lawsuit was filed by the family of Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old UC Long Beach graduate who spent a semester in Paris studying industrial design. She was killed by Islamic State militants in a series of attacks that left 130 people dead in November 2015.

The Gonzalez family alleges that Google-owned YouTube helped and abetted the Islamic State by recommending its videos to viewers most likely to be interested in them, in violation of federal anti-terrorism law.

The lower courts sided with Google.

A related case, set for trial on Wednesday, involves the 2017 Istanbul nightclub terror attack that killed 39 people and sparked a lawsuit against Twitter, Facebook and Google.

Separate complaints about social media laws passed by Republicans in Florida and Texas are pending in the Supreme Court, but they won’t be debated until the fall, with decisions likely not until the first half of 2024.