Tamara Fields is the widow of Lloyd Carl Fields Jr..
By Sreekanth A Nair
A Florida woman has sued Twitter for allowing the social media platform to be used by Islamic State (ISIS) militant group to spread its messages all over the world.
Tamara Fields, the wife of Lloyd Carl Fields Jr. who was killed in a shooting in a Jordanian Police Training Academy on November 9 last year, argues that Twitter knowingly allows the terrorist group to propagate its message, raise money and attract recruits.
“For years, Twitter has knowingly permitted the terrorist group ISIS to use its social network as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds and attracting new recruits,” the lawsuit filed on Wednesday in the federal court in Oakland, California, states.
The suit added that “without Twitter, the explosive growth of ISIS over the last few years into the most feared terrorist group in the world would not have been possible.”
Expressing sympathy for the family, Twitter termed the lawsuit meritless. San-Francisco based company also denied the argument that it has not taken action to prevent the use of the social media platform by terrorists.
“While we believe the lawsuit is without merit, we are deeply saddened to hear of this family’s terrible loss,” Twitter said in a statement.
“Violent threats and the promotion of terrorism deserve no place on Twitter and, like other social networks, our rules make that clear,” it added.
“We have teams around the world actively investigating reports of rule violations, identifying violating conduct, partnering with organizations countering extremist content online and working with law enforcement entities when appropriate,” Twitter added in its statement.
Tamara has argued in her suit that ISIS maintains around 70000 Twitter accounts and as of 2014 posts 90 tweets per minute.
Her husband Lloyd Carl Fields Jr. was a government contractor who was in Jordan under a US State Department program to train Jordanian police when he was shot dead.