Over a dozen survivors of the Pulse nightclub shooting of 2016 are suing Facebook, Twitter, and Google for what they say is “aiding and abetting” the terror group ISIS.
The suit, filed on Wednesday by 16 survivors in an Orlando federal court, says the sites helped support terrorist groups and provide support and resources.
"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 suit reads, while also claiming that the social media giants refused to monitor or block ISIS’s use of the sites.
Forty-nine people were killed when Omar Mateen went into the popular gay nightclub on June 12, 2016, and opened fire. More than 50 others were also injured in the attack.
Mateen pledged allegiance to ISIS in phone conversations with police.
A similar 2016 lawsuit was filed in Michigan by families of those killed in the shooting, saying Mateen became radicalized by items he found online, but a federal judge dismissed the case saying there was no legal merit to it.