Terrorism victims can’t hold Facebook liable for Hamas’ use of the platform

An example of Hamas content on Facebook, from the Force v. Facebook complaint. (credit: Force v. Facebook complaint)

Two lawsuits seeking to hold Facebook responsible for terrorism groups' use of the social media platform have been dismissed by a federal judge.

The plaintiffs in Force v. Facebook, filed last year, are the families and estates of US citizens who were killed by Hamas, a Palestinian organization that is considered a terrorist group by the US government. The plaintiffs group also included one victim who was injured but survived.

They sought $1 billion in damages, claiming (PDF) that by providing social media services to Hamas, Facebook had violated the US Anti-Terrorism Act, which forbids the "provision of material support" to officially designated terrorism groups. The plaintiffs complained that Facebook's approach to expunging Hamas material from the Web was "piecemeal and inconsistent."

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