Philly City Council Members Want To Sue Facebook And Twitter Over Flash Mob Snowball Fight
from the section-230 dept
And here we go again. Apparently there was recently a "flash mob" snowball fight in Philadephia that got a bit out of control, resulting in a "rampage" through a Macy's department store. Nobody was hurt, but 16 people were arrested. So how are Philly officials dealing with it? They're threatening to sue Twitter and Facebook. Seriously. Two city council members say that those companies deserve some of the blame and a lawsuit is an option:"While [the kids] certainly owe this city an apology and deserve to be punished under the fullest extent of the law, we believe that social media outlets should also bear some of the blame." The letter, written by council members Frank DiCicco and James F. Kenney, explains that this is the second such time a band of mischievous teens has formed via social media and went on to destroy property. "We believe that the lack of monitoring of these sites allows for mass, organized riots to occur."Hopefully someone explains to these two council members that both sites are certainly protected from liability under Section 230 of the CDA. But, more importantly, beyond just invoking those safe harbors, can someone explain to them how silly it is to blame a communication tool for how it's used? Do they want to sue the phone company when criminals use phones to plan their crimes? Do they threaten to sue the car companies when a car is used in a crime? Furthermore, if their complaint is that these sites failed to "monitor" what people were planning, then isn't the city council actually even more to blame? The content of Twitter is available to the public, and these days much of Facebook is as well (and info on such a flashmob would almost certainly be public). Then shouldn't Philadelphia officials be aware of what's being planned in their own city? Based on the reasoning of DiCicco and Kenney, perhaps they should be suing themselves for failing to monitor what kids in their city were planning on some very public forums.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: city council, flash mob, frank dicicco, james f. kenney, liability, philadelphia, section 230, snowball fight
Companies: facebook, twitter
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
wow
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: wow
Language - English ... each person is now required to speak in their own unique language that is to be understood by nobody else.
Brains ... the government education system has spent nearly a century trying to atrophy children's brains so that they can no longer use them. Obviously the government fails another program. People are now forbidden from thinking useful thoughts.
Computers ... each one of them used a computer. Ban the production of all computers, and impound all existing computers.
Telecom infrastructure ... the US's own telecom system was used against it in this unparalleled attack by clumps of frozen moisture. Shut down all communications between citizens.
Mother Nature ... she provided the ammo, that bitch.
Obviously language, our brains, computers, and the telecom system all shoulder equal responsibility in the tragic events that unsettled a Macy's for an afternoon. Our ancestors should be ashamed of themselves for developing language ... God should be tried for giving us brains ... nothing good has ever come from a computer ... and the telecom system only enables large-scale communication.
Fortunately, we're already taking care of Mother Nature. A couple more decades of pollution and she'll no longer be a nuisance.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ima Fish comment
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
not always so sunny in philly
oh, yeah, and it was my girlfriend's fault why i cheated on her too... figured if we were gonna go with specious reasoning i'd get that cleared up too.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: not always so sunny in philly
signed
-philly
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: not always so sunny in philly
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why not god
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Question
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Question
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Question
I would say "an army".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Snow!
Also - if I'm not mistaken the first ammendment affords us all the right to assemble (peacefully) so aside from the 'assualt' of snow using twitter or facebook or any other means to gather hardly seems like an offense of any sort.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I wonder if facebook or the net wasn't around
YOU BET PEOPLE its not the technology its the people
SUE THE PEOPLE for acting like asses
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Their family misses them
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Their family misses them
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Interesting that a government official would want to set that precedent.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Being a Philadelphian in exile I can remember the police and the city government going ape shit over a few things- both MOVE confrontations are a good example. The second one ended with around three city blocks burned to the ground and I could see the fire light 30 blacks away.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
*snort*
Was so funny I couldn't let it go!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Damnit! That’s what I was going to say....
But the point being, I'm surprised that this didn't happen in DC and Baltimore also, where the snow removal was such a problem...
But if anything or anyone deserves to be sued, its sub-atomic particles, people! Think about it! Everything used to organize and perpetrate this crime contains sub-atomic particles: the people, the snowballs, the computers, and the links between them. You could knock this whole thing out in one suit!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Monitoring
What? they don't have the time or tools or money or legal justification to do that? So let's sue a private company for not doing what the police can't do.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anyway, flash mobs are exactly protected under the US Constitution.
Some people partaking of their constitutionally protected right to assemble, ended up breaking existing laws. They were arrested, they'll be tried, and, if convicted, punished.
Politicians are *all* stupid, at least publicly. May as well give up reporting on it since we're all tired of reading about it. As the US political system goes down the tubes, taking the country with it...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
With a snowball fight? I don't see it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Huh?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Playing with words.
While [the kids] certainly owe this city an apology and deserve to be punished under the fullest extent of the law, we believe that social gatherings outlets should also bear some of the blame." The letter, written by council members Frank DiCicco and James F. Kenney, explains that this is the second such time a band of mischievous teens has formed via social gathering and went on to destroy property. "We believe that the lack of monitoring of these sites allows for mass, organized riots to occur.
There is a Obama, Bush, republican, democrat, government joke in there somewhere I know it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
China and Iran Would Agree
China, Iran and others totally agree with you, dude!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
they should sue the phone companies too
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Great
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
really usefull
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
http://www.smart-seo.co.uk/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
nice
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Hmmm
Anyway, flash mobs are exactly protected under the US Constitution.
Some people partaking of their constitutionally protected right to assemble, ended up breaking existing laws. They were arrested, they'll be tried, and, if convicted, punished.
Politicians are *all* stupid, at least publicly. May as well give up reporting on it since we're all tired of reading about it. As the US political system goes down the tubes, taking the country with it...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]