Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - A State Supreme Court judge in Buffalo has ruled that a civil lawsuit brought by 5/14 families against social media companies can go forward.
Seven social media platforms are named in the suit, including Meta - the parent company of Facebook and Instagram - Snapchat, Discord, Reddit, Google - owns YouTube - and Amazon - owns Twitch. They tried to dismiss the suit, which contends that confessed Tops shooter Payton Gendron, became radicalized to kill Black people through social media.
This marks the first time a platform could be held liable for a mass shooting.
"This is a precedent setting lawsuit," said attorney Kristen Elmore-Garcia on
WBEN on Tuesday. "And now we have a precedent setting decision. As far as I am aware, this is the first time in the history of our country, that a judge has allowed a lawsuit to proceed against social media companies for their responsibility in racially motivated violence."
In this case, the platforms, acting in unison, called on the judge to dismiss the suit based on U.S. Law Section 230, claiming their content is immune. The judge denied it.
The Tops shooter, the families contend, became addicted to social media, and indoctrinated by white supremacist ideology.
It marks a step forward for the families of the victims. But Elmore-Garca expects an appeal.
"These mega corporations have unlimited time and resources to appeal," she said. She added that she has already seen a statement from Meta and Google that they plan to appeal.
Families, Elmore-Garcia said, are seeking accountability. "These mega corporations allow and purposely design their websites and their products to have negative harmful effects resulting in terrorism on our community, for the sake of profit. We want to see safety changes made to the platforms and some of these algorithms toned down and we want to hit their pocketbooks because we live in a capitalist society and its one of the only things will will cause social change," she said.
