Why are Orlando nightclub shooting victims’ families suing Google, Facebook and Twitter?
Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53 in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history
THE Pulse nightclub massacre left 49 dead and 53 more injured after ISIS-inspired Omar Mateen went on a bloody gun rampage at the Orlando club.
It has now emerged the families of three victims are suing Google, Facebook and Twitter – but why?
Why are Orlando night shooting victims' families suing Google, Facebook and Twitter?
The lawsuit was filed by the families of Tevin Crosby, Javier Jorge-Reyes and Juan Ramon Guerrero, who were killed during the massacre.
The three families claim Twitter, Google's YouTube and Facebook "provided the terrorist group ISIS with accounts they use to spread extremist propaganda, raise funds and attract new recruits".
The suit alleges the "material support has been instrumental to the rise of ISIS and has enabled it to carry out or cause to be carried out, numerous terrorist attacks."
It also says they share revenue with ISIS for its content and profit from ISIS postings through advertising revenue.
The families in the case in Michigan, where one of the victims is from, are seeking damages and for the court to rule that the sites have violated the Anti-Terrorism Act in the United States.
The social media companies should be doing more to delete the accounts of members of the Islamic group, also known as ISIS, and detect "replacement" accounts created after previous accounts are deleted, the lawsuit said.
"Most technology experts agree that defendants could and should be doing more to stop ISIS from using its social network," the lawsuit said.
What happens now?
Similar lawsuits in the past have faced an uphill fight because of strong protections in U.S. federal law for the technology industry.
Facebook said on Tuesday there is no place on its service for groups that engage in or support terrorism, and that it takes swift action to remove that content when it is reported.
It said in a statement: "We are committed to providing a service where people feel safe when using Facebook. We sympathize with the victims and their families."
Twitter declined to comment and representatives of Google could not immediately be reached.
The three companies plus Microsoft Corp said this month they would coordinate more to remove extremist content.
A similar lawsuit against Twitter brought by the families of two men killed in Jordan was dismissed in August.
What happened in the attack at Orlando's Pulse gay nightclub?
He pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group in telephone conversations with a 911 operator and a police negotiator before police fatally shot him after the June attack.
Mateen rang his wife two hours into his killing spree.
SWAT teams saved 30 hostages but not before he had killed dozens inside the club, popular with the LGBT community.
Who was Omar Mateen?
Omar Mateen was killed by police during the atrocity and had been known to the FBI since 2013.
US citizen Mateen made emergency 911 calls shortly beforehand in which he stated his allegiance to Islamic State.
The 29-year-old self-confessed “Soldier of God” spent approximately 50 minutes on the phone with police negotiators over the course of three separate calls between shooting sprees.
Released following a ruling by a US judge, the calls reveal the delusional gunman identified himself to police by saying: “You are speaking to the person who pledges allegiance to the Islamic State."
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