Twitter, Inc., Google, Inc., and Facebook, Inc. are being sued by the father of a victim of the Paris Islamic terrorist attacks in November 2015 on the basis that the companies “provided material support” to the terrorist group The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, better known as ISIS.

Reynaldo Gonzalez, the father of Nohemi Gonzalez, 23, the only American killed in the attacks, filed the suit on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and alleged that the three tech companies “knowingly permitted the terrorist group ISIS to use their social networks as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds and attracting new recruits.”

“Without defendants Twitter, Facebook, and Google (YouTube), the explosive growth of ISIS over the last few years into the most feared terrorist group in the world would not have been possible,” the lawsuit stated according to CBS.

“This material support has been instrumental to the rise of ISIS and has enabled it to carry out numerous terrorist attacks, including the Nov. 13, 2015, attacks in Paris where more than 125 were killed, including Nohemi Gonzalez,” the suit goes on to allege.

In a statement sent to the Associated Press both Facebook and Twitter said the lawsuit was without merit and pointed out that they have policies against allowing extremist material; Twitter added that it has “teams around the world actively investigating reports of rule violations, identifying violating conduct and working with law enforcement entities when appropriate.”

Google declined to comment on the lawsuit specifically, saying only that it has “clear policies prohibiting terrorist recruitment and content intending to incite violence and quickly remove videos violating these policies when flagged by our users.”

Unlikely

All three companies are protected by the Communications Decency Act which does not hold web companies liable for the content that users publish on their platforms.

That said the lawsuit, in this case, is taking a novel approach; as opposed to suing the three tech companies for the material published, it instead is suggesting that by allowing hosted access to begin with the defendants have violated and continue to violate the Anti-Terrorism Act.

“This complaint is not about what ISIS’s messages say,” Ari Kresch, a member of the legal team told AP.  “It is about Google, Twitter, and Facebook allowing ISIS to use their social media networks for recruitment and operations;” of note the complaint also alleges that Google’s YouTube shared revenue with ISIS from ads that ran with its videos.

The chances of the case getting up are unlikely as the suit needs to prove the use of Twitter, Facebook and Google were actually relevant to the Paris terrorist attacks, and from reports, there is no evidence provided other than ISIS accounts appearing on all three services.

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