Copeland v. Twitter, Inc.

352 F. Supp. 3d 965
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedNovember 29, 2018
DocketCase No. 17-cv-05851-WHO
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 352 F. Supp. 3d 965 (Copeland v. Twitter, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Copeland v. Twitter, Inc., 352 F. Supp. 3d 965 (N.D. Cal. 2018).

Opinion

JASTA's statement of purpose explains:

The purpose of this Act is to provide civil litigants with the broadest possible basis, consistent with the Constitution of the United States, to seek relief against persons, entities, and foreign countries, wherever acting and wherever they may be found, that have provided material support, directly or indirectly, to foreign organizations or persons that engage in terrorist activities against the United States.

JASTA § 2(b).

DISCUSSION

I. DIRECT LIABILITY UNDER ATA

Defendants argue that under the Ninth Circuit's Fields opinion Copeland's allegations do not and cannot plausibly allege proximate cause as required to state a claim under § 2333(a) because they cannot allege a direct relationship between defendants' services and the Nice Attack. In Fields , the Ninth Circuit affirmed my decision dismissing a similar claim asserted under the ATA for lack of proximate cause. The panel explained that proximate cause under the ATA required a "direct relationship" between the defendant's conduct and the injury, and that Fields failed to plead that direct relationship based on "Twitter's provision of communication equipment to ISIS, in the form of Twitter accounts and direct messaging services." Fields , 881 F.3d at 749. The Ninth Circuit noted that because Fields pleaded "no facts indicating that Abu Zaid's attack was in any way impacted, helped by, or the result of ISIS's presence on the social network," Fields could not state her claim. Id. at 750.

Copeland argues, first, that Fields was wrongly decided by the Ninth Circuit (citing to out-of-circuit cases adopting different causation standards) and, second, that Fields did not address JASTA, which fundamentally altered the landscape. On the first argument, I will follow the binding precedent of Fields and the "direct" proximate cause standard. On the second argument, I agree with the numerous decisions that have concluded that JASTA did not address or undermine Fields's conclusion regarding the proximate cause required for direct liability. Instead, JASTA simply added a new cause of action under § 2333(d) for aiding and abetting secondary liability. See, e.g., Gonzalez v. Google, Inc. , 335 F.Supp.3d 1156 (N.D. Cal. 2018) ( Gonzalez II ); Gonzalez v. Google, Inc. , 282 F.Supp.3d 1150 (N.D. Cal. 2017) ( Gonzalez I ); Crosby v. Twitter, Inc. , 303 F.Supp.3d 564 (E.D. Mich. 2018) ; Force v. Facebook, Inc. , 304 F.Supp.3d 315 (E.D.N.Y. 2018).

More narrowly, Copeland asserts that in Fields the Ninth Circuit noted that:

the allegations in the SAC do not support a plausible inference of proximate causation between Twitter's provision of accounts to ISIS and the deaths of Fields and Creach. Plaintiffs allege no connection between the shooter, Abu Zaid, and Twitter. There are no facts indicating that Abu Zaid's attack was in any way impacted, helped by, or the result of ISI's presence on the social network.

Fields , 881 F.3d at 750. She claims that she made those allegations here. That is not true. As in Fields , there are no facts that ISIS communicated to Bouhlel or that Bouhlel expressed any connection to ISIS prior to the attack through any medium, must less use of defendants' platforms. Further, while she identifies ISIS materials that were viewed by Bouhlel prior to the attack, none of those materials were allegedly seen or hosted on defendants'

*974platforms. For example, she does not allege that the calls by ISIS to use vehicles in attacks, much less attacks in France, were present on any of defendants' platforms. The only specific allegation regarding Bouhlel's use of defendants' services is that an accomplice sent him a message through Facebook to encourage the attack. FAC ¶ 376. But that is not an alleged communication from ISIS to Bouhlel. Nor is there any evidence that Facebook both knew of that one message and failed to remove or otherwise act on it.

The general allegations that Bouhlel was "radicalized" because of the ISIS content on defendants' sites are no different from the allegations made and rejected by the Ninth Circuit in Fields , and in Gonzalez II , Pennie , Crosby . A direct connection has not been alleged to plausibly plead proximate cause between ISIS's use of defendants' platforms and the Nice Attack.3 Plaintiff's direct liability claims under § 2333(a) are DISMISSED with prejudice.

II. SECONDARY LIABILITY

Plaintiff argues that liability has nonetheless been adequately alleged under Section 2333(d) for aiding and abetting.4 Defendants disagree because Section 2333(d) requires provision of assistance to the person, here Bouhlel, and not ISIS in general. No allegations have been or could be pleaded to show that. Materially similar claims to plaintiff's failed in part for the same reason in Taamneh , 343 F.Supp.3d at 915-16, 2018 WL 5729232, at *10 and Crosby , 303 F.Supp.3d at 574.

Even if Copeland only needed to allege facts showing that defendants aided and abetted ISIS or ISIS terrorist attacks in general, there are no plausible allegations *975that this attack was carried out by ISIS. Instead, the facts as alleged show that ISIS took credit after the attack. Absent evidence that ISIS itself planned or carried out the attack, facts that ISIS sought to "generally radicalize" individuals and promoted terrorists attacks similar to the one Bouhlel carried out are insufficient. See Crosby , 303 F.Supp.3d 564.

Finally, even if these hurdles could be overcome, the "proper legal framework for how [aiding and abetting] liability should function" under the ATA is as identified in Halberstam v. Welch

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Related

Angel Colon v. Twitter, Inc.
14 F.4th 1213 (Eleventh Circuit, 2021)
Crosby v. Twitter, Inc.
921 F.3d 617 (Sixth Circuit, 2019)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
352 F. Supp. 3d 965, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/copeland-v-twitter-inc-cand-2018.