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Facebook Sued for $1 Billion for Alleged Use of Medium for Terror (bloomberg.com)
A group of Israelis and American lawyers are suing Facebook for a sum of $1 billion in damages for allegedly facilitating deadly Palestinian militant attacks on their loved ones. The application accuses Facebook of helping Hamas militants plot attacks that killed four Americans and wounded one in Israel, the West Bank and Jerusalem. Bloomberg reports:"Facebook has knowingly provided material support and resources to Hamas in the form of Facebook's online social network platform and communication services,â making it liable for the violence against the five Americans, according to the lawsuit sent to Bloomberg by the office of the Israeli lawyer on the case, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., European Union and Israel. The suit said the group used Facebook to share operational and tactical information with members and followers, posting notices of upcoming demonstrations, road closures, Israeli military actions and instructions to operatives to carry out the attacks.
Throw these clowns in jail for a while for filing frivolous lawsuits. Then put them in the town square (of NYC or something) with a vat of tar and a pile of feathers, let passers by apply liberal amounts of each.
https://regmedia.co.uk/2015/07...
Before Facebook, did they used to sue paper and pencil manufacturers for the same thing?
These schmucks are thumbing their noses at the International Criminal Court and UN findings of war crimes, systematic abuses of Palestinians decried by the international community at large, a peace plan based admittedly in LIES, and are constantly ratcheting up attacks on civilian areas while complaining that people there are being radicalized into terror by their very actions. For Israelis to feel they have standing to sue FACEBOOK for FACILITATING TERRORISM?
It takes more than a little chutzpah. It's ridiculous.
Why sue Facebook? Why not sue Islamic institutions? The Catholic Church has faced many lawsuits over sex abuse. Why not sue Islam instead of Facebook? Islam is far more guilty here than Facebook.
I knowingly breath ou carbon dioxide, and I know that some of those CO2 molecules will wind up in plants which will be eaten by members of knows terrorist organizations. /sarcasm
I suppose they also sued the phone company for aiding and abetting also? Maybe the stores where the terrorists bought their burner phones, the electric company for supplying the power they used to charge their phones, the grocery store for feeding them, and the water company for slaking their thirsts....
If Facebook is good for a billion, the cell companies ought to be good for $10B or more. I've seen a dozen pieces on TV about using modified cell phones to trigger IEDs.
I am rooting for Mossad. The world would be a better place w/o Zuckerberg. :)
Should come around, might as well sue FB over all those violent settlers groups inciting violence and planning attacks. but that would be antisemetic some how.
Cellphone manufacturers of the phones used as triggers, trace back the wires to the OEM, the litany of litigation is endless - and has nothing to do with the event that triggered the lawsuit.
This type of campaign targeting speech is being applied a lot wider than just online.
That's what uncensored facebook is doing now!
Except it's those performing ethnic cleansing who are the terrorists.
How else would we know about "Knife" attacks etc. Or the Ethnic Cleansing. How else would we know about that eh?
This is a good point. I would find in favor of Facebook where I on a jury but the more Facebook filters content they don't agree with, the more they might open themselves up for things like this. I would think you'd have to show that they were aware of the communications taking place and chose not to interfere though... or that being aware of it would have been such a trivial thing as to show recklessness on their part.
Ah lawyers... doing what they do best. Looking for a big payout... Are they doing this on their own time? Or is this analogous to browsing porn while at work?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
BLM is now considered a terrorist organization
Regardless of this specific lawsuite, we should ask ourselves, are Facebook and others doing enough to stop terrorists for leveraging their platform?
Consider the great effort by Youtube and others to stop copyright infringements. Both internally and by use of DMCA notice and take-down.
The effort in stopping not only incitement to racial violence but also operational planning of such acts seems meager.
I think lawmakers are almost inherently behind the times on this, and we seem to not have an anti-terror lobby anywhere as strong as the stronger-IP lobby. It would be nice to see Facebook get their act together and do more, setting standards for others to follow and if necessary become law.
Has no one ever heard the term "common carrier"? You don't get to pick and choose what speech you allow on your little safe space AND be free from liability if someone commits crimes or otherwise does "bad things" on your services. This is why telephone companies have been classified as common carriers for nearly a century. If you allow all speech, unfettered, then you're free from liability for what anyone does on your service.
I'm honestly shocked it took this long for someone to call these hypocritical companies out on their bullshit, and I support it 100%. They want to be able to control speech, but only speech "they" dislike. That's fine, but when you open up that can of worms, you'd better be ready to make sure you're keeping the walled garden free of ALL vermin (and apply your policies equally, which we all know these scumbags don't) or someone's eventually going to call you out on it.
...so is every tool manufacturer whose products were used to kill others.
On second thought why even sue Facebook? did terror not exist before Zuck made the anti-social network?
Sue the telecoms company for having phone lines that facilitated execution orders No, wait I have it! -Sue God for making human nature full of defects and murderous intent.
This sort of BS needs to be clamped down. Sue these ignorant fuckers for giving a bad name to Jewish Americans and Israelis. Most are decent people and they don't need these morons hurting the public image further.
Phone companies are Common Carriers and thus immune — they don't listen to conversations...
Facebook could've gone that way too, but instead they chose to actively publicize their censorship efforts. Every shutdown of "hate speech" is a result of deliberate action by a human employee of the company. That they allow Hamas-supporting pages to continue to stay up is evidence of their support for terrorism.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
for not smiting the Palestinian people and allowing hem fight back? Wouldn't that mean your god doesn't like you or likes the Palestinians more?
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
the ISPs KNOW criminals use their network for crimes.
the phone companies KNOW criminals make phone calls.
the car manufacturers KNOW criminals use cars for get away vehicles.
the credit card companies KNOW criminals use stolen credit cards.
the shipping companies KNOW criminals ship stolen goods.
the lawyers KNOW they are defending guilty criminals.
the power companies (and battery companies) KNOW criminals need light to commit crimes at night.
the gun manufacturers KNOW criminals use guns to commit crimes.
the politicians KNOW all of this is happening.
If knowing your shit is being misused counts as material support then this lawsuit should be the biggest in history.
For their next trick I assume they'll sue the phone companies for allowing them to have telephone communication, the power companies for providing them electricity (used to plan attacks after dark) and their employers for funding them with paychecks! Normally I'm a little more on the diplomatic side but these kinds frivolous legal actions should get anyone involved in bringing them to court instantly disbarred and then dragged out of the courthouse and heaved out of the door face first.
They are both willing to stab their own in the back all for the sake of money, respect, or power :)
for use of their airplanes as a medium for terror.
Better sue FedEx and Amazon also. And Google, but then, everyone's already suing Google.
for allegedly facilitating deadly Palestinian militant attacks on their loved ones.
Man, those are some hard-core militants that attack their own loved ones!
^^^It isn't flamebait when it's the truth.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Spread the new meme. Maybe this will affect the idiots in HR who refuse to hire job applicants without facebook accounts.
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
I have to admit, I did not deem it possible. If someone had told me, I would have said he is a liar and that this is completely unpossible.
Me, siding with Facebook on something.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
While they're at it, why not sue the inventors of all forms of communication for ww1, 2 and whatever crime comes to mind: I mean you could sue Tim Berners-Lee for this, all cyber heists ever made, all online-mandated murders. He definitely knew people would do good and bad with such a powerful technology. Let's sue God/the Big Bang/Darwin for knowingly envisioning the antics of a being so powerful with his free will for the unethical. Now seriously, grow up and stop blaming society for society - we're all to blame for what makes us rational and justice is no means for correcting something that cannot be controlled without losing something more important.
So I guess it's back to good old BDS for Facebook.
this lawsuit is retarded. They might as well sue the manufacturers of pens and paper for facilitating terrorism too.
This lawsuit is actually brilliant, and it should succeed rather easily.
Here's why. Telecommunication services like Facebook, Google, and the Phone Company, are either classified as common carriers or as media providers. The difference between the two is that the former carries any content someone wishes to transmit, and the latter picks and chooses the content it will transmit.
The former is immune from lawsuits over the content that it carries because it takes no part in deciding what that content is. They are a neutral carrier with no interest in the content. The latter, however, does pick and choose the content that it carries, and because it does so, it is responsible for the outcome of that decision.
So, since Facebook knowingly censors and curates content, controls speech, and otherwise acts as a content provider and not a common carrier (and indeed I am not aware that Facebook is considered by the government to be one), they are responsible for the content they carry, even if they did not themselves put the actual content on the site.
I'm looking forward to the outcome, but I imagine these activist CEOs will have to find a way to shove their agendas down our throats another way.
Sorry no car analogy. But I can imagine the outrage if a gun forum let it's users plot a bombing on an abortion clinic or something. Their would be a call for blood and lawsuits.
love is just extroverted narcissism
And this specific attack is more related to Israeli crimes in the illegally occupied terretories than you might be aware of. Currently FB respects international law and therefore doesn't recognize the Israeli state's control of these lands and therefore refuses requests from Israel to spy on the FB accounts of Palestinians living in these lands. This lawsuit and other attacks by Israel on FB are designed to make FB change its mind on this point. My prediction is that, sadly, given that ultimately only the bottom line and not morality dictates FB's course of action, they will bend over and silently give Israel illegal access to Palestinian FB accounts, these frivolous lawsuits will then miraculously disappear or end in verdicts which are acceptable to FB.
Anything that even hints at criticizing Islam is immediately censored as "hate speech." No matter how innocuous, or true, the criticism may be.
But the same Facebook is just fine with allowing Hamas to use Facebook to plan terror attacks.
I don't know about the merits of the lawsuit, but Facebook's behavior seems suspicious.
If greedy, power hungry anti-constitution law makers push for gun manufacturer liability for shootings then it is fair for facebook to be held liable as well. So logically GM, Toyota, BMW and all the other auto manufacturers should be held liable for vehicular related deaths/injuries and also beer/liquor/wine makers, distributors and retailers are to held for any and all alcohol related accidents, deaths and long term health costs.
It all started with extremist, radical left wing politicians and thank you for the slippery slopes! Gotta' love a good idiocracy!
Of course FB censors, just like the old ladies who ban books at the local library.....
And high school Principals who decide that 'this skirt is 1" too short...'.
In other words, as they please.
Best look into who owns stock.... maybe someone wants terrorist stuff to be unnoticed...
Just like any anti-Hillary stuff gets censored, but anything anti-trump is just not noticed...
Zuckerberg can be replaced by one of his stooges.
What we need is some way, without killing people, of simply eliminating all the data on Facebook's servers and all their backups too. That would be a boon for humanity.
Doing the same for Microsoft would be as well.
The suit said the group used Facebook to share operational and tactical information with members and followers, posting notices of upcoming demonstrations, road closures, Israeli military actions and instructions to operatives to carry out the attacks.
The real news here is... someone found a way to accomplish something with Facebook?!
Zuckerberg can be replaced by one of his stooges.
What we need is some way, without killing people, of simply eliminating all the data on Facebook's servers and all their backups too. That would be a boon for humanity.
Doing the same for Microsoft would be as well.
No doubt they'd just be replaced with something even worse :-(
If Facebook filtered all terrible content there wouldn't be much left.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Unlikely. They don't kill their own.
Where you did what? Took a dump? Farted? Stuck a booger?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Section 230. That is all. But even with that, I bet you that lawmakers will try and work around it and find a way to make social networking services liable for terrorists using their services, unknowingly or not;
OK, I was going to use "Evil" instead of "Good" in my subject line, but I know how Slashdot works and undoubtedly one of God's Chosen People would have modded me down for that (they can be so petty).
So now the people who believe that God has chosen them and will favor them in any dispute against any other people are taking offense that Facebook is not opposing free speech hard enough. Maybe they are even upset that Facebook is not killing Palestinians and evicting Palestinian families out of their own country. (After all, just by living they are taking up space that could be used for Jewish settlement.) What a shock!
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
I think you are losing sight of the fact this isn't a nation suing but individuals that were harmed. Regardless if they are Israeli or in this case Americans too, people shouldn't be murdered no matter what land they are on. Is it alright for ISIS to murder people because it is now their land? What about if an American is murdered in a Native American reservation? The point being is this is a civil matter brought by victims families against people they believe had a hand in the events that led to people they love to be murdered, no matter where they were located.
Sue the Road Department for facilitating every crime which involved the use of a motor vehicle on a road or highway. Those guys aren't going to get away helping terrorists so easily!
Why, in my town they built a road that runs right past the bank, and some bank robbers used it when they held up the branch. Tell me that those road-building bastards aren't complicit!
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
We already have excellent replacements, people just don't want to use them.
ZDnet says Linux Mint 18 is the best desktop, period.
What's not to like. For more info, visit the dailystormer online.
Israeli lawyers, American lawyers, Facebook lawyers.
All same shit.
^^^It isn't flamebait when it's the truth.
Irrelevant when discussing the post above.
I am rooting for Mossad. The world would be a better place w/o Zuckerberg. :)
It'd be an even better place without Mossad.
The answer is for a service like Facebook not to censor at all. One is supposed to be 18 or over to use the service, and controls should exist so that people can self censor. Who cares what a terrorist group says if you didn't sign up to read it? Even if they paid to spam, their opinions don't bug me at all. I'm very confident in my own opinions, ask anyone that knows me. Actions cause harm, words do not.
Of course FB decided to censor to suite their master's agenda. So in this case they could in my opinion be held liable. I'm going to question whether or not the suit should be one sided though, as I know a bit about the worlds largest prison and believe that Palestine has some grounds for lawsuits and damages themselves. The UN has had several findings against Israel, so who's court are we going to allow to rule exactly? I am skeptical that Israel would allow non-friendly courts to preside over the case.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
The problem is that Israel continually fails to accept responsibility for her actions.
It's always someone else causing the problem - Palestinians, Arabs, Anti-semites, Facebook.... But NEVER little Israel and her terrorist policies.
How long are they going to keep playing this card?
The sad thing is that while Israel is busy pointing its finger at everyone else, innocent people are dying.
Israel is the shame of the earth.
Don't forget the governments and other corporations too.
Just wipe ALL the data and start from scratch with much stricter controls.
This may or may not have been a horrible war crime, but it was not an Act of Terror. There is a fairly clear definition: civilians must be the targets (not bystanders) of calculated (not accidental or mistaken) violence for the purpose of intimidation or coercion or instilling fear.
Hamas has uses ambulances to transport troops and ammunition. They also use children for suicide attacks — a common practice by Islamists in Palestine and world-wide. Children are also used as human shields — because it works on impressionable useful idiots like yourself. Whether the women, who stepped out, were innocent, or were about to throw a tank-disabling bomb under the tracks, may not have been obvious.
But, again whether the IDF soldier had justifiable suspicions in his shooting of the family, or committed a war crime, it was not an act of terror.
And I did ask for three examples — certainly, a country labeled "terrorist" by detractors would have at least three acts of terror to its name...
Hamas averages dozens of such acts every year — their whole strategy is based on targeting Israeli civilians, because they are impotent at targeting IDF. And yet, you'd like to pretend, Israel is "worse" or "just as bad". Fail.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Typical propaganda and typical Anti-Semetic bullshit.
Anti-Israeli != antisemitic. If you think Israeli = Jewish (ethnically or religiously), you might want to take a look around (assuming you're in Israel). If you think all the non-Jewish Israelis should be kicked out or stripped of their citizenship, you are without exception racist. You would think we would have learned that racism never bodes well for Jews. Hamas is a cancerous organization, yes, but Netanyahu and his Likud buddies are treading on ICC thin ice too. Just because Hamas is worse does not make others better.
And as for support for Palestine, fine, and dandy, but you should know, that they are REALLY not very nice to all kinds of people, who aren't just like them.
Palestinian != Muslim != Jewish hating Muslim. Are you saying that Palestinian Christians and Jews hate Christians and Jews but love Muslim terrorists? Palestine is majority muslim, and Israel is majority Jewish, sure, but, assuming you're Jewish, take a stroll into East Jerusalem and see how many of those Jew-hating non-Israelis in identity limbo treat you like crap. Count them. And count the number of people who treat you like a person. Sure Palestinians have a long way to go on a number of fronts (women, gays, etc. etc.) but don't go throwing stones just yet -- the fully liberated woman and gay pride parades are not welcomed with open arms by everyone in Israel either.
I will NEVER understand why any Jew is a liberal.
It's tough to get out of the box and realize that everyone, including conservatives, is wrong some of the time, I know. Feel free to stay in it and close the lid -- but only if you don't bother the rest of us.
Why didn't they sue The Internet? It's bigger and has more money.
:T:R:A:N:S:
that just means zdnet are fucking idiots.
the reason people don't want to use them is they AREN'T excellent replacements, they are shit replacements that are much harder for people to use, and allow them to do much less. Until people developing desktop Linux get this through their obviously think skulls, desktop Linux has NO future.
^^^THIS.
Someone who gets it. Of course, that's anathema to the likes of Netanyahu who just wants to continue to suck on the teat of US military aid.to continue his racist policies.
The only way to get serious negotiations going is to end that unconditional aid.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.