Biden administration argues Google could be liable for user content

The Biden administration argued to the US Supreme Court on Wednesday that social media giants like Google could have responsibility for user content, which could potentially undermine a federal law shielding companies from liability.

Lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice made a case in a high profile lawsuit filed by the family of Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old American citizen killed in 2015 when Islamist militants opened fire on the Paris bistro where she was eating.

The family argued that Google was in part responsible for Gonzalez' death because YouTube, owned by the tech giant, recommended videos by the Islamic State group to some users through its algorithms. Google and YouTube are part of Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O The case reached the Supreme Court after San Francisco-based 9th U.S. The Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Google, saying they were protected from such claims because of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.

Section 230 holds that social media companies can not be the publisher or speaker of any information provided by other users.

The law has been criticised across the political spectrum. Social media companies are given a pass by the Democrats for spreading hate speech and misinformation.

The Biden administration, in its filing to the Supreme Court, did not argue that Google should be liable in the case of Gonzalez, and expressed strong support for most of Section 230's protections of social media companies.

The DOJ lawyers said that algorithms used by YouTube and other providers should be subject to a different kind of scrutiny. They asked the Supreme Court to return the case to the 9th Circuit for further review.

Attorneys for Google could not be reached for comment on Wednesday night.