Detroit judge tosses survivors’ lawsuits against Facebook, Google, Twitter

A federal judge in Detroit has dismissed a lawsuit filed against three social media companies by survivors of some of the 49 people killed in a Florida nightclub shooting. The lawsuit was filed in Michigan because one of the victims was from Saginaw. The families accused Twitter, Google, and Facebook of providing a platform that the shooter used to view videos posted by ISIS. They say that radicalized him to the point of carrying out the massacre. But U.S. District Judge David Lawson dismissed the case. He ruled there was no coordination between the social media companies and ISIS or the shooter. And he said the companies had no prior knowledge the shootings would occur. An attorney for the families says they will challenge the decision in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. He says there will also be more lawsuits filed in other venues.