The Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center said on Sunday that it will move for a rehearing of its action in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the United States against Facebook for providing social media services to terrorist groups such as Hamas.
The motion is based on the dissenting opinion by the senior judge of the court in its rejection of the action last week, upholding a lower-court ruling that the Communication Decency Act provided internet platforms with a sort of blanket immunity. Israel Law Center President Nitsana Darshan-Leitner noted, "It means that the most senior judge in the influential Second Circuit believes the law supports our argument that Facebook, by providing services to the terror groups, might be liable in aiding and abetting the terror attacks. The judge agreed that Facebook's powerful filters and algorithms played an active role in allowing terrorist users to connect with others with the same extremist motivations and assisted them in connecting with the terror groups. In particular, the judge agreed with the contention that Facebook could be held liable for its affirmative role in bringing terrorists together and the CDA did not provide a defense for this."