DOJ undermines Google in Supreme Court case over who’s responsible for social media posts
People walk past a billboard advertisement for YouTube on September 27, 2019 in Berlin, Germany.
Sean Gallup | Getty Images
The Department of Justice warned the Supreme Court against an overly broad interpretation of a law shielding social media companies from liability for what users post on their platforms, a position that undermines Google’s defense in a case that could reshape the role of content moderation on digital platforms.
In a brief filed Wednesday led by DOJ Acting Solicitor General Brian Fletcher, the agency said the Supreme Court should vacate an appeals court ruling that found Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protected Google from being liable under U.S. antiterrorism law.
Section 230 allows for online platforms to engage in good-faith content moderation while shielding them from being held responsible for their users’ posts. Tech platforms argue it’s a critical protection, especially for smaller platforms that could otherwise face costly legal battles since the nature of social media platforms makes it difficult to quickly catch every harmful post.
But the law has been a hot-button issue in Congress as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle argue the liability shield should be drastically limited. But while many Republicans believe the content moderation allowances of the law should be trimmed down to reduce what they allege is censorship of conservative voices, many Democrats instead take issue with how the law can protect platforms that host misinformation and hate speech.
The Supreme Court case known as Gonzalez v. Google was brought by family members of American citizen Nohemi Gonzalez, who was killed in a 2015 terrorist attack for which ISIS claimed responsibility. The suit alleges Google’s YouTube did not adequately stop ISIS from distributing content on the video-sharing site to aid its propaganda and recruitment efforts.
The plaintiffs pursued charges against Google under the Antiterrorism Act of 1990, which allows U.S. nationals injured by terrorism to seek damages. The law was updated in 2016 to add secondary civil liability to “any person who aids and abets, by knowingly providing substantial assistance” to “an act of international terrorism.”
Gonzalez’s family claims YouTube did not do enough to prevent ISIS from using its platform to spread its message. They allege that even though YouTube has policies against terrorist content, it failed to adequately monitor the platform or block ISIS from using it.
Both the district and appeals courts agreed that Section 230 protects Google from liability for hosting the content.
Though it did not take a position on whether Google should ultimately be found liable, the DOJ recommended the appeals court ruling be vacated and returned to the lower court for further review. The agency argued that while Section 230 would bar the plaintiffs’ claims based on YouTube’s alleged failure to block ISIS videos from its site, “the statute does not bar claims based on YouTube’s alleged targeted recommendations of ISIS content.”
The DOJ argued the appeals court was correct to find Section 230 shielded YouTube from liability for allowing ISIS-affiliated users to post videos since it did not act as a publisher by editing or creating the videos. But, it said, the claims about “YouTube’s use of algorithms and related features to recommend ISIS content require a different analysis.” The DOJ said the appeals court did not adequately consider whether the plaintiffs’ claims could merit liability under that theory and as a result, the Supreme Court should return the case to the appeals court so it can do so.
“Through the years, YouTube has invested in technology, teams, and policies to identify and remove extremist content,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement. “We regularly work with law enforcement, other platforms, and civil society to share intelligence and best practices. Undercutting Section 230 would make it harder, not easier, to combat harmful content — making the internet less safe and less helpful for all of us.”
Chamber of Progress, an industry group that counts Google as one of its corporate partners, warned the DOJ’s brief invites a dangerous precedent.
“The Solicitor General’s stance would hinder platforms’ ability to recommend facts over lies, help over harm, and empathy over hate,” Chamber of Progress CEO Adam Kovacevich said in a statement. “If the Supreme Court rules for Gonzalez, platforms wouldn’t be able to recommend help for those considering self-harm, reproductive health information for women considering abortions, and accurate election information for people who want to vote. This would unleash a flood of lawsuits from trolls and haters unhappy about the platforms’ efforts to create safe, healthy online communities.”
WATCH: The messy business of content moderation on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
Alphabet stock jumped 4% Thursday after the company reported third-quarter financial results that beat across the board and increased its capital expenditures for the year.
The Google parent company bumped its spending expectations on artificial intelligence infrastructure to $91-$93 billion from $85 billion the prior quarter, noting continued strong cloud demand.
CEO Sundar Pichai said the company had a $155 billion backlog for Google Cloud at the end of the quarter.
“Looking out to 2026, we expect a significant increase in CapEx,” Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi told investors on the earnings call Wednesday.
Deutsche Bank said in a note that there was “virtually no hair on the print,” and wrote that the setup coming into the report was not easy, with the stock up 43% since Alphabet issued second-quarter earnings.
PRO: Alphabet is soaring after its latest earnings report. What Wall Street analysts are saying
Alphabet reported third-quarter earnings of $3.10 adj. per share on revenue of $102.35 billion in revenue, its first quarter ever with revenue above the $100 billion benchmark.
Analysts polled by LSEG expected earnings of $2.33 per share with revenue of $99.89 billion.
The strong quarter and a boost in capital spending impressed analysts and solidified Alphabet’s position as an AI leader.
“We continue to see multiple fronts where Alphabet has climbed a steep wall of worry in the past 12 months around the AI theme and don’t see any reasons to suspect a pause or step back in terms of its operating proof points to change investor perception,” Goldman Sachs said in a note.
The Goldman Sachs raised its price target to $330 from $288.
Analysts were also watching for signs of how AI is affecting search, an area the company dominates.
Google’s search arm posted $56.56 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 15% over a year ago.
“The AI search transition has been viewed as the greatest risk to Google, but additional signs that AI search is more opportunity than threat will continue to flip the narrative,” JPMorgan analysts wrote in a note.
The analysts raised their price target on the company to $340 from $300.
CNBC’s Jennifer Elias contributed to this story.
Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg attends the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on online child sexual exploitation at the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, U.S., January 31, 2024.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
Meta Platforms‘ stock dropped more than 10% on Thursday as skepticism about the payoff from its aggressive artificial intelligence spending plans overshadowed strong results.
The social media giant lifted its 2025 capital expenditures guidance as it races against competitors to build out advanced AI tools. Meta now expects capex to range between $70 billion and $72 billion, versus prior guidance of $66 billion to $72 billion.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended the company’s ambitious spending plans during the earnings call Wednesday.
“It’s pretty early, but I think we’re seeing the returns in the core business,” he said. “That’s giving us a lot of confidence that we should be investing a lot more, and we want to make sure that we’re not underinvesting.”
Zuckerberg said the company is “aggressively” preemptively building up capacity to prepare for the arrival of superintelligence, where Meta will be “ideally positioned for a generational paradigm shift in many large opportunities.”
Like its peers, Meta has shelled out billions to beef up its AI offerings in an increasingly competitive landscape — and it isn’t the only one. On Wednesday, Alphabet boosted its capex forecast to $91 billion to $93 billion, and Microsoft said it expects heightened spending growth this fiscal year.
Earlier this year, Meta invested $14.3 billion in AI startup Scale AI and lured its CEO, Alexandr Wang, to lead its AI initiative called Superintelligence Labs with former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman.
Meta has also inked several new cloud deals to build out AI infrastructure.
For the third quarter, Meta reported adjusted earnings of $7.25 per share on $51.24 billion in revenue and topped Wall Street’s estimates.
Revenue grew 26% from a year ago and the company reported a $15.93 billion tax charge from the rollout of President Donald Trump‘s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
— CNBC’s Jonathan Vanian contributed reporting
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