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Page Number: 30.0

24 

TWITTER, INC. v. TAAMNEH 

Opinion of the Court 

misconduct and more on an alleged failure to stop ISIS from
using these platforms.  But, as noted above, both tort and 
criminal law have long been leery of imposing aiding-and-
abetting  liability  for  mere  passive  nonfeasance.    To  show 
that defendants’ failure to stop ISIS from using these plat-
forms is somehow culpable with respect to the Reina attack, 
a strong showing of assistance and scienter would thus be 
required.  Plaintiffs have not made that showing. 

First, the relationship between defendants and the Reina
attack  is  highly  attenuated.  As  noted  above,  defendants’ 
platforms are global in scale and allow hundreds of millions 
(or  billions)  of  people  to  upload  vast  quantities  of  infor-
mation on a daily basis.  Yet, there are no allegations that 
defendants treated ISIS any differently from anyone else. 
Rather, defendants’ relationship with ISIS and its support-
ers  appears  to  have  been  the  same  as  their  relationship
with  their  billion-plus  other  users:  arm’s  length,  passive, 
and largely indifferent.  Cf. Halberstam, 705 F. 2d, at 488. 
And their relationship with the Reina attack is even further 
removed, given the lack of allegations connecting the Reina 
attack with ISIS’ use of these platforms. 

Second, because of the distance between defendants’ acts 
(or  failures  to  act)  and  the  Reina  attack,  plaintiffs  would 
need some other very good reason to think that defendants 
were consciously trying to help or otherwise “participate in”
the Reina attack.  Nye & Nissen, 336 U. S., at 619 (internal 
quotation marks omitted).  But they have offered no such
reason, let alone a good one.  Again, plaintiffs point to no
act of encouraging, soliciting, or advising the commission of 
the  Reina  attack  that  would  normally  support  an  aiding-
and-abetting claim.  See 2 LaFave §13.2(a), at 457.  Rather, 
they essentially portray defendants as bystanders, watch-
ing  passively  as  ISIS  carried  out  its  nefarious  schemes. 
Such allegations do not state a claim for culpable assistance
or participation in the Reina attack.  See Halberstam, 705 
F. 2d, at 481, 483.